APPT 9 Manila: Aaron Lim wins Main Event for the 2nd time; Romit Advani finishes 10th

Aaron Lim- APPT 9 ManilaThe Manila outing of Asia Pacific Poker Tour Season 9 finished successfully at the City of Dreams casino in the capital of Philippines. The poker festival totaled 2,021 players and ₱52,832,035 in prize money over 14 Official Asia Player of the Year events. The Australian pro, Aaron Lim made won the Main Event title for the record 2nd time in the history of APPT. Lim outplayed a field of 585 players in the Main Event to take home ₱6,016,250 and the APPT Manila title. Romit Advani led the Indian fight for the title to Day 3 but unfortunately fell in the 10th place. Romit took home ₱424,000 for that run while Srinivas Polishetty (63rd/ ₱94,800) and Adda52 Team Spades pro Amit Jain (66th/ ₱89,800) bagged more for Team India.

₱50,000 Main Event

romit-advani-appt-manilaThe Main Event of APPT 9 Manila saw a record attendance of 585 players which is more than double the field size in 2014. In total, 72 players cashed for a share of the ₱25,535,250 (USD $558,000) in prize money. Saturday, the last day of action began with 23 runners including India’s Romit Advani. It didn’t take much time to reach the final table and Romit became the unlucky FT bubble finishing 10th.

After major eliminations in form of Jessie Leonarez (3rd), Red Dragon winner Terry Fan (4th), overnight chip leader Iona Finkenrath (7th), and high stakes player Winfred Yu (8th), Lim was once again on the verge of winning the APPT ME title. He already had the APPT Seoul title which he won in 2013.

In the last hand played between Lim and Douglas Olsson, the board read Q♠-J♣-6♥-8♥ when Olsson announced all-in. Lim called and flipped his rockets A♣A♦. Q♣ on river didn’t help Olsson’s J♥9♥ giving Lim his 2nd APPT title. The final table results:

Position Player (Country) Prize (in PHP)
1 Aaron Lim (Australia) 6,016,250
2 Douglas Olsson (Sweden) 3,367,500
3 Jessie Leonarez (Philippines) 2,083,000
4 Terry Fan (Chinese Taipei) 1,588,900
5 Thomas Lee (Canada) 1,097,600
6 Hayato Kitajima (Japan) 873,000
7 Iona Finkenrath (Germany) 710,900
8 Winfred Yu (Canada) 598,700
9 Ying Lin Chua (Malaysia) 498,900

Out of 6 Indian players qualifying for Day 2, Amit Jain and Srinivas Polishetty finished in the top 72 bagging cash prize on Day 2. Srinivas who started with 99,200 chips hit the rails in 63rd place for ₱94,800 while Amit Jain placed 66th for ₱89,800.

Side Events from Aug 07-09

5 side events were played in last 3 days of APPT 9 Manila including PHP200,000 High Roller and PHP15,000 KO Bounty.

Jun Funabashi of Japan won the Event 10: ₱10,000 NLH Turbo event taking home ₱340,690 in top prize.

Sungjun No of Korea won the Event 11: ₱5,000 NLH Shootout for ₱111,700. One of the female grinders of India, Anju Abrol placed 3rd in this event bagging ₱45,400.

Kwan Kit Kwok (Hong Kong) bested a field of 179 players to win the Event 12: ₱25K Megastack Freezeout for ₱871,175. Team Thrill pro Dhaval Mudgal made yet another money finish in this event bagging ₱97,700 in the 9th place. Another Indian player, Nikhil Maheswari won ₱39,100 finishing 19th in this event.

Henrik Tolllefsen of Norway triumphed the 33-player field in the Event 13: ₱200,000 High Roller taking home a huge sum of ₱2,615,000 in the top prize.

Philippines local, Nicandro Filart won the last event of APPT 9 Manila – Event 14: ₱15K KO Bounty earning ₱492,225.