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Brett Lim Wins Seniors Championship for Maiden WSOP Victory in Vegas
The $1,000-entry No Limit Hold’em Seniors Championship went the way of Brett Lim this weekend as he ended a long wait for a World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet in Las Vegas. Beating Elan Lepovic heads-up, Lim won a career-high score of $653,839 after players such as Ron Fetsch, Jose Boloqui made the final table.
Brett Lim was hanging on for a min-cash in the $1,000-entry Seniors Championship two days ago. Today he posed for photos as the tournament’s latest winner, $653,000 richer and the proud newest owner of a WSOP gold bracelet in Las Vegas. After a stunning victory for the comeback king, Lim promised it was life-changing money for him and his family.
WSOP Event #48 $1,000 NLHE Seniors Championship:
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
| 1st | Brett Lim | United States | $653,839 |
| 2nd | Elan Lepovic | United States | $435,572 |
| 3rd | Dennis Carlson | United States | $326,508 |
| 4th | Jose Boloqui | Argentina | $246,464 |
| 5th | Lawrence Rabie | Canada | $187,351 |
| 6th | Jason Reels | United States | $143,425 |
| 7th | Manish Madan | United States | $110,581 |
| 8th | Ron Fetsch | United States | $85,872 |
| 9th | Peter Fellows | United States | $67,166 |
Scraping into the Money
Brett Lim’s win in the $1,000-entry NLHE Seniors Championship shocked everyone after he came back from nowhere to win the $653,839 top prize in Las Vegas. It shocked no-one more than himself, as he explained after his remarkable win.
“You always dream that something like this is going to happen, but 48 hours ago this was the furthest thing from my mind,” he said. “I barely min-cashed and was happy with some money jumps. Up until 20 minutes ago, I thought I had lost the heads-up match. A lot of things were going pretty grim, and then two key hands just came by, 'boom, boom'. I didn’t think I was going to win, to tell you the truth, but luck finds you in strange ways, and it found me this time.”
The comeback started two days ago but by the time the final nine were reached, Lim had a slim lead. Early exits for Peter Fellows (9th for $67,166) and the former overnight chip leader Ron Fetsch (8th for $85,872). Soon, the final day saw Manish Madan exit in seventh place, winning $110,581 after he got four big blinds into the middle with ace-seven on a K-9-2 flop. Jason Reels held king-seven and called, and after a five on the turn and queen on the river, Madan went to the rail.
It took a long time for anyone else to be in danger of elimination and when they did, it was Reels himself who departed, winning $143,425 in sixth place. All-in with the inferior queen-ten, he lost to Brett Lim’s ace-ten when a nine-high board landed. Soon, Lawrence Rabie, who had folded king-queen in that hand to ladder another place, joined Reels on the rail. Committing his stack with pocket fours, Rabie lost out to Lepovic’ ace-six as a board of T-3-2-6-2 gave the latter two pair and sent Rabie home with $187,351.
Lepovic Falls Just Short
All-in with ace-ten, Jose Boloqui was at risk when he pushed all his chips over the line. Up against Lepovic with ace-king, Boloqui’s hand never caught up, with an ace on the flop, but no other cards to help the at-risk Argentinian, who cashed for $246,464 in fourth place.
Out in third place was Dennis Carlson, who won $326,508. All-in with king-seven on a flop of 9-5-2, Carlson’s bluff was ill-timed, as Lepovic had an easy call with pocket fives that had made a set on the flop. An ace on the turn and seven on the river condemned Carlson to defeat and gave Lepovic a slim lead going into the heads-up battle.
Lepovic grew his lead to a 2:1 advantage before Lim doubled up with pocket kings through Lepovic’ ace-jack. That flipped the script, and it didn’t take Lim long at all to seal the deal, using ace-jack to his own efforts this time, winning against the ace-four belonging to Lepovic, as a board of K-5-2-T-T played out to confirm the winner, with Lim taking home $653,839 and Lepovic winning $435,572.
The Champion Speaks After Victory
After victory, the 58-year-old Lim revealed that while his biggest cash beforehand was under $5,000 he actually began playing back in the 1990s. “Back then all we played was Limit Hold’em. I didn’t really start playing No Limit until seven years ago. You didn’t really have to be that good to win, but now there are a lot of young people who try to solve the game.”
Lim said that his game suited the Seniors Championship
“It’s the kind of tournament where you don’t have to bluff too much, because people’s playing styles are quite similar, about 80% of them. But I bluffed a lot in this tournament. I could tell that people’s impressions of me were contrary to what they expected. That helped.”
Despite utilizing this skill, Lim said that he did find some players challenging to take on.
“There were some top-notch pros who just turned 50, and their aggressive styles can be a problem,” he said. “I ran into a couple of them, but somehow, I flipped the switch. Other than that, 7,500 players, it’s a tough field no matter how good you are. I always believe that whoever wins the poker tournament probably wasn’t the best player.”
Lim’s modesty was evident, but he said that he would enjoy the winnings by going home to celebrate with his family before taking them on a ‘long-scheduled cruise. “We’re leaving and coming back in about a week, and the World Series is still going on, so maybe I’ll play the Main Event for the first time!”
After his domination of the latter stages of this event, no-one will want to face Lim deep in the tournament.
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