The brick wall that is Chin Wei Lim continues to prove impassable as the Malaysian star continued to shine at the European Poker Tour (EPT) in Prague.
Lim won the first €25,000 No-Limit Hold’em (NLHE) Single-Day High Roller. The game attracted 50-entrants (14 re-entrants) like broken suitcase wheels to cobblestones, and Lim took out the in-form Jorryt van Hoof, heads-up, to claim his second title of the year.
Let’s see how Lim did it.
Final Table Seat Draw
Seat 1: Scott Margereson – 120,000
Seat 2: Timothy Adams – 435,000
Seat 4: Yan Wang – 415,000
Seat 5: Matthias Eibinger – 675,000
Seat 6: Jorryt van Hoof – 1,250,000
Seat 7: Pavel Plesuv – 360,000
Seat 8: Jun Obara – 530,000
Seat 9: Chin Wei Lim – 990,000
Nine seats and one of them would feel like the loneliest place in the world with only eight getting paid. It turned out to be the #1 seat. With blinds at 20k/40k/40k, the action folded to the short-stacked, Scott Margereson, and he piled his final three big blinds in from the button holding AhTs. Timothy Adams looked down to see pocket fives from the small blind and moved all-in. The big blind folded. The pocket fives won the race. Margereson won nothing.
Yang Wang was the first to leave with a return on his investment. €63,020 ended up in Wang’s bank account after moving all-in for 340,000 from the button with blinds at 20k/40k/40k. Matthias Eibinger moved all-in from the small blind for 580,000, and the pair went at it like woodcutter and wood once Jorryt van Hoof folded the big blind – Eibinger’s Ah7c beating Kh7h over the five-card sprint.
Pavel Plesuv fell next.
With blinds at 25k/50k/50k, Plesuv opened to 125,000 from the hijack seat, and then moved all-in for 220,000 more, after Jun Obara had three-bet from position. Plesuv was ahead with pocket sixes facing As7s, but Obara flopped the world on KsQs7c, and the Romanian’s tournament ended when the Ah hit the turn.
Adams then doubled through Chin Wei Lim when AcTc beat Ts8c, and Eibinger doubled through Obara when pocket sevens beat AdQh. Then van Hoof doubled twice, once through Eibinger when KcJh beat the dominating AdJc, and then through Obara when Kh3h beat Jc4d in one of those blind on blind tussles you hear so much about.
Obara then doubled through Adams when KsQh beat Qs3h before Lim dealt with him like a father dealing with a couple of eggs after his daughter responds “scrambled eggs,” to the question, “what do you want for breakfast?” Obara moved all-in holding Ac6c, and Lim found a pair of queens for the call and win. \
Three-handed play broke through the mist after Eibinger removed Adams from the equation. Adams went for it holding 9d7h, and Eibinger took him out with QsJc. But the Austrian couldn’t turn that elimination into momentum. Lim threw a stick over the rail, moving all-in holding Ah8s, and the players last saw Eibinger bolting over the rail to fetch it holding Kc8c.
Heads-Up Tale of the Tape
Chin Wei Lim – 2,820,000
Jorryt van Hoof – 2,180,000
It was always going to be a tight one with neither player having much experience in live tournament poker. Lim had only won one of his five heads-up encounters, and van Hoof had a two for two record.
Lim’s first win came, this year, at the World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE), taking down the €100,000 NLHE Diamond High Roller for €2.17m. He also finished second in the €250,000 NLHE Super High Roller at the same series for €1.757m. Lim also finished second to Mikhail Rudoy in a €25,000 at EPT Barcelona in August.
Van Hoof also entered the arena with a win in tow after taking down the €10k High Roller at the Master Classic of Poker in Amsterdam at the end of November. It was his sixth final table of the year. Lim was appearing at a final table for the tenth time this season.
Van Hoof began the brightest, only for Lim to lurch ahead. Then Van Hoof doubled up when Ks2d flopped two pairs against Jh7d, only for Lim to send him to the sewage system shortly after when AdJh beat pocket nines in your standard ‘sunglasses off’ final flip.
Final Table Results
- Chin Wei Lim – €378,160
- Jorryt van Hoof – €273,120
- Matthias Eibinger – €174,070
- Timothy Adams – €132,055
- Jun Obara – €102,040
- Pavel Plesuv – €78,035
- Yang Wang – €63,020