WSOP APAC
The Crown Casino in Melbourne, Australia, has issued it’s forth WSOP bracelet, and this time it goes to a local boy. Aaron Lim has beaten out the other 166 runners in the A$5,000 6-Max Event #4 for a payday of A$233,800, a bracelet, and the record as the first Aussie to win a WSOP Title on home soil.
Play started with 7 players sat at the unofficial final table, and with five of them being Australian, local hopes were high that an Australian would walk away with the title.
Jason Gray was the true final table bubble boy, and left in 7th place with A$27,722 for his troubles.
Soon it was down to 3 handed, with an Australian, a Malaysian and a New Zealander all vying to take the title back home.
Jan Suchanek exited in 3rd, after trying get an all in bluff past Andy Lee in hand 31 of the final table. Lee had started the hand by opening to 27,000, and Jan had three bet to 60k out of the big blind. Lee’s call brought the 5
K
J
flop, and Jan firing an 85k bet into the pot. Lee’s flat call brought the 6
, and an immediate all in move from Jan. Lee snap called, and tabled K8 which had Suchanek’s T4 drawing dead. The river brought an insignificant Q and Suchanek left with 3rd place and A$103,766
Heads up took longer than a lot on the rail were expecting, probably due to the 120 and 88 big blind stacks in front of the two players at the start of the heads up battle.
Andy Lee started off with the chip lead, but chips flew all over the place, and both players held a dominating position at one time or another. The big inflection point was when Lim’s flush (with a straight flush draw) held up against Lee’s Ace High flush draw, and gave Lim both a massive chip lead and the momentum.
It was all over 7 hands later when the players got it all in, with Lee’s AQ ahead of Lim’s K5. It looked like Lee was going to double up when the flop and turn came full of blanks, but the river brought the 5 to seal Lee’s fate, and award the title to the Aussie.
The Final table results ended up like this:
1st: Aaron Lim (A$233,800)
2nd: Andy Lee (A$144,530)
3rd: Jan Suchanek (A$103,766)
4th: Brendon Rubie (A$74,590)
5th: Sam Higgs (A$53,615)
6th: Billy Seri (A$38,545)
With just the A$10,000 Main Event to go, the Aussie poker community has probably let out a sigh of relief, as with so many local players getting close, it would have been a shame not to have a local champion from this first WSOP APAC.
We’ll be keeping an eye on the Main Event, and we’ll have an update later today with a run down of how it looks going into Day 2. Keep an eye on the Facebook and Twitter timelines to stay up to date.