Chin Wei Lim Wins 1st WSOP Bracelet and €2,172,104 in WSOPE Event #12: €100,000 Diamond High Roller
The final day of Event #12: €100,000 Diamond High Roller No-Limit Hold’Em came to a quicker conclusion than anyone expected, even Chin Wei Lim who ended up winning thought he’d be there for a long time. Lim claims his first gold WSOP bracelet and €2,172,104 by defeating Jean-Noel Thorel heads-up who cashed for €1,342,459. The second-biggest buy-in event of the World Series of Poker Europe attracted 34 unique players for a total of 72 entries by the end of the registration period here at the King's Resort.
This is Lim’s biggest win ever after finishing second in the €250,000 Super High Roller behind James Chen for €1,757,857. When the PokerNews live reporting team spoke to him just after the winner photos were taken, he said: “To be honest, it feels pretty weird. I am just used to losing, and losing, and losing. And then, I’m just pretty lucky on this trip. I can’t complain. The field was hard in the €250,000 and to be able to finish second, I really can’t complain, even though I didn’t win it, it gave me a good confidence boost.”
“Today everything went my way, I was running good I think, a lot of these guys are better than me. It was smooth sailing, no tough spots. I came into the day fourth in chips and we were all pretty deep. I thought it would be a long day but apparently, we only played for six hours. So that was quite surprising.”
Lim has become a regular fixture in the High Roller fields all over the world and is part of the Triton Poker group, sporting one of their hoodies today at the final table. The close-knit group is always supporting each other: “We talk a lot about hands with each other, me, Danny (Tang), and (Michael) Soyza. I ask them a lot for advice, they helped my game a lot. I have to thank them and my backer, Ivan Leow too of course!”
This is the second bracelet for Malaysia as Junzhung Loo had won the first in 2014 during the World Series of Poker Asia-Pacific in the A$2,200 No-Limit Hold’Em event and Lim was still star-struck: “I still can’t believe it,” while Danny Tang was taking photos of Lim during the interview.
“Breakout player of the year!” Tang commented and Lim waved the compliment away. “I’m serious!” Tang himself won the €50,000 No-Limit Hold’em in Las Vegas this summer for his first bracelet. “Team Asia is taking over!”
Event #12: €100,000 Diamond High Roller Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize (EUR) | Prize (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chin Wei Lim | Malaysia | €2,172,104 | $ 2,395,244 |
| 2 | Jean-Noel Thorel | France | €1,342,459 | $ 1,480,370 |
| 3 | Anatoly Filatov | Russian Federation | €907,301 | $ 1,000,508 |
| 4 | Christoph Vogelsang | Germany | €633,336 | $698,399 |
| 5 | Matthias Eibinger | Austria | €457,107 | $504,066 |
| 6 | Ole Schemion | Germany | €341,510 | $376,593 |
| 7 | Danny Tang | Hong Kong | €264,440 | $291,606 |
| 8 | Phil Ivey | United States | €212,504 | $234,335 |
Before the first break
Ten-time bracelet winner, Phil Ivey was eliminated in the first hand of the day when he shoved his ace-five into the sixes of Christoph Vogelsang. A mere 30 minutes later, Tang would be leaving the final table when he shoved with ace-king after Matthias Eibinger had raised with pocket jacks. Eibinger called and held throughout the board. Ten minutes later, Ole Schemion was all-in with ace-nine and Anatoly Filatov looked him up with kings. No help came on the board as the German was sent to the rail in sixth place.
Lim doubled up through Vogelsang when he was short and held pocket sixes. Vogelsang had turned two pair while Lim had hit a set on the flop to get him into second place in the chip counts before the first break of the day.
Thorel and Lim Domination
Thorel decided to run riot after getting some headspace in the first break. With a combination of bluffs, random bets and raises, getting the right hands, hitting the board at the right times, the French high roller regular kept adding chips to his stack to become the clear chip leader.
The only person to come close to Thorel was Lim after he eliminated Eibinger when he put the pressure on him from the small blind. Eibinger called for his last chips and the board did not help in any way. By the time the second break came, Vogelsang was down to around twelve big blinds. They all went in shortly after the intermission with ace-three. Lim called with ace-jack and held on to the lead throughout the board to bring the field down to three.
Day 2 chip leader, Filatov had been bleeding chips all day, not really being able to shake things up. In the end, he shoved with ace-trey. Thorel called with king-ten and while they both flopped a pair, Thorel remained ahead during the turn and river to send the Russian away in third place.
Heads-up Commotion
Heads-up play only lasted four hands, while they started with similar stacks, Lim quickly built a lead in the very first hand to then end the tournament in a sort of anti-climactic way:
“I raised the button, he defends. The flop was eight-four-deuce, two clubs. I had eight-four off with the four of clubs. I bet 60% of the pot, he calls. The turn was the trey of clubs, completes the flush. I bet half pot, he calls. The river was the four of spades, he checked, and then I just bet half pot again. He goes all-in, but I heard him say something but didn’t really clearly hear anything. And then it was kind of a mess, we had to wait for the floor to come. I was sitting there with second-nuts and was hoping that it was going to be ruled an all-in. And then they ruled it as all-in and it was over!”
Thorel’s eleventh heads-up match didn’t go to plan as he finishes as the runner-up once more while the mainly Malaysian rail came up to congratulate Lim for this amazing result.