Chin Wei Lim Wins €100K Diamond High Roller for First Bracelet
Table Of Contents
Chin Wei Lim thought he’d be playing for a long time in Event #12: €100,000 Diamond High Roller No-Limit Hold’Em. Luckily for him, things went his way, and the tournament came to a quicker conclusion than expected thanks to his dominant performance.
Lim claimed his first gold WSOP bracelet and €2,172,104 by defeating Jean-Noel Thorel, 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 just days ago, 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:
"Today everything went my way. I was running good I think — a lot of these guys are better than me"
“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.”
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 |
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," Lim said. "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!”
“Breakout player of the year!” Tang said as winner's photos were taken. “I’m serious. Team Asia is taking over!”
Before the first break
Ten-time bracelet winner Phil Ivey was one of the big stories coming into the day as the fan favorite advanced to the final table. However, he 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 push things after the break. With a combination of bluffs, random bets and raises, getting the right hands and 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.
By the time the second break came, Vogelsang was down to around 12 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, not really able to shake things up. In the end, he shoved with ace-three as well. Thorel called with king-ten, and he flopped a superior pair 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.
Thorel would check-call two streets with ace-high before opting to turn his hand into a bluff on the river, check-raising all in. Unbeknownst to him, he had run into a full house, but some confusion reigned after Thorel jammed as the tournament supervisor had to be called to ensure an all-in wager had occurred.
"I was sitting there with second nuts and was hoping that it was going to be ruled an all in"
"I heard him say something but didn’t really clearly hear anything," Lim said. "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.”
Lim heard the good news and ended things with a call to secure his bracelet and relegate Thorel to a second-place finish for the 11th time in his career, still seeking his first live win.
