The three-day Asia Pacific Poker Tour Season 9 Manila PHP50,000 Main Event held at the City of Dreams was completed late last night. Poker player Aaron Lim topped a field of 585 entries to capture the title and the amount of PHP6,016,250 in first-place prize. The winner also received a seat into the 2015 Asia Championship of Poker, worth HK$100,000.
The final day of the APPT Season 9 Manila Main Event saw 23 players returning, all determined to emerge victorious and collect the first-place prize. Day 3 started with German Iona Finkenrath as the chip leader with a total of 1,084,000 chips.
The official nine-handed final table was set in Level 24. And Ying Lin Chua was the first to leave it after he could not stand a chance against Thomas Lee. The player bagged up PHP498,900 for his ninth-place finish.
It took one level before another player left the table. Winfred Yu was busted in 8th place to collect PHP598,700 for his efforts. Iona Finkenrath, who as already mentioned started the day as the chip leader, was eliminated in 7th place by Douglas Olsson. The player added PHP710,900 to his poker bankroll.
The next elimination came just one hand later. Hayato Kitajima could not hold up against Jessie Leonarez and had to content himself with a sixth-place finish and the amount of PHP873,000 of the prize pool.
At the time Level 27 began, Terry Fan was the chip leader with 2,905,000 in chips. He was followed by Jessie Leonarez with 2,610,000 and Thomas Lee with 2,545,000.
The next elimination came in Level 28. It was Canadian Thomas Lee who left the final table, collecting PHP1,097,600 in prize money. Terry Fan was the next to go. He was eliminated in Level 29 by Douglas Olsson. His 4th place in the tournament secured him with PHP1,588,900.
Jessie Leonarez was then busted in 3rd place by Aaron Lim himself. The player took home PHP2,083,000. Thus, Lim had to face Olsson for one last heads-up match. It began with Lim as the chip leader with 7,200,000 in chips against his opponent’s 4,500,000.
The heads-up match lasted a little more than an hour. On what turned out to be the last hand in play, Lim bet 240,000 and Olsson called. The flop ran out [Qs][Jc][6h]. Olsson checked and Lim bet 260,000. Olsson called and the turn showed [8h].
Olsson checked but when his opponent bet 480,000, he moved all in. Lim tabled [Ac][Ad] against Olsson’s [Jh][9h]. The river ran out [Qc] and it was all over for the Swede. His runner-up finish in the tournament secured him with the amount of PHP3,367,500.
And as mentioned above, the champion added a first-place prize of PHP6,016,250 to his poker bankroll. Up to date, Lim’s live tournament earnings amount to $1,955,449. It is also interesting to note that after last night’s triumph, the player has become the first two-times APPT champion. He won his first title in 2013 when he topped the field of the APPT Season 7 Seoul KRW3,000,000 Main Event.
