Day 2 of the APPT Seoul Sees Aaron Lim Lead

The Asia Pacific Poker Tour ran wild with plenty of suck outs saving some and disappointing others as the field was cut down to 21 as the bubble burst and the remaining survivors ran deeper.

Aaron Lim took the top spot after dominating most of the days play with what was a brilliant start for him when he pulled out Ac-10d on a 6h-8d-10h flop. It all started with Hoi Tung lp daring to enter the pot with the would be Day 2 chip leader. After the flop Lim checked maybe contemplating his opponent could be on a flush draw with two dangerous hearts on the board and there was also the possibility of the straight if lp happened to be holding 7-9.

Lp was in no mood for the weak checking of Lim and bet 10,500, but Lim must have smelt a fish as he had top pair with the best possible kicker to back him up, so re-raised the pot to 25,500. Lp’s response was a 72,000 three bet. Lim was surely reading his opponent’s aggressive play as trying to defend a pair rather than chase, but there was also still some risk lp could have been on a flush and straight draw, but with Lim virtually pot committed at this point and called.

After Lp turned over Jd-10c he was in fact boasting top pair, but with the weaker kicker thanks to the Jack, but he did have outs for the nine that could have turned him a gut shot straight, so the danger wasn’t over for Lim just yet. The turn came as a 6c and then the river no help for lp showing Kh. Lim appears to have made a good read, but there was still some danger along and from the outside it looked like lp was at the very last representing a set.

Later in the day the bubble was next up to crack and took an extended amount of time with nervous clinks of the chips and head shaking folds as the play slowed down in anticipation of at least making the money and getting some redemption on the buy-in. At this point there were eight players short stacked, and expected to go, but they all managed to double their chips before finally Aaron Lim stepped up to take out Ryan Kim as any chip leader should.

Lim made it 10,000 betting from the cut off position and Kim called seemingly unfazed by the chip leaders strength and more than likely predicting bullying tactics at this stage. The flop was nothing impressive with 9c-2d-2h rainbow although Lim seemed to like it firing away 8,000 chips just under half the pot with Kim sticking around. The flop was also none too impressive with a 6s. Kim checked again with Lim this time firing away with 17,000 for Kim to call. Kim did call to see the river and checked as soon as the 6d was out there.

Things were unpredictable at this moment and no one knew what either player was thinking with Kim looking more like he was on a slow play as the short stack milking the chip leader for as many chips as he could carve out. Lim then stacked up 100,000 in the middle, which eventually Kim called only to see his hand, As-7c, wasted. Kim had two pair twos and sixes Ace high while Lim was wired with threes giving him the better two pair hand of sixes and threes nine high.

Top 10 Chip leaders

1st Aaron Lim – 741,000

2nd Masahiro Osada – 540,000

3rd Naoya Kihara – 528,000

4th Chane Kampanatsanyakakorn – 380,000

5th Sung Soo Chon – 328,000

6th Paul John Elliot – 309,000

7th Sixiao “Juicy” Li – 237,000

8th Nicky Tao Jin – 187,000

9th – Casey Kastle – 165,000

10th – Jason Lee – 147,000