| Kim Lim is Back in Trim!
Kim Cheu Lim, still taking a break from his recent heavy side game losses, showed that, in tournaments at least, he’s in top form. Tonight he played a strong, steady game to overcome a huge starting lead held at the final table by Mohammad Mohammad and went on to score his second win at Legends 2004. His victory in the 17th event, $300 7-card stud, comes after his win in event five, $300 limit hold’em. He also moved into second place in the all-around points race, 12 behind Kenneth Wagner.
The final table started with $200 antes and a $300 low-card bring-in and limits of $1,000-$2,000, with 9:23 remaining. The checks were not evenly distributed. With $51,100, Mohammad had better than 43 percent of them, while four players–“Syracuse” Chris Tsiprailidis, Franco Brunetti, Brian Goddard and Wilbert Cannon–could only muster a paltry $17,100 between them. Mohammad might have sat on his chips, played selectively and coasted home. Instead, he played far more hands than needed, blew them off and went out disappointingly in fifth place.
In early action, both Goddard and Brunetti went all in and got away. Limits then went to $1,500-$3,000, with $200 antes and a $400 low-card bring-in. At that point, Lim, who started the final table in second place with $19,500, had won three of the first six hands and was starting to surge ahead. On the next hand, race car driver and poker pro Brian Goddard raised all in with split 7s. Walter Smiley, a veteran local player, had two 9s and caught a third one to leave Goddard in eighth place. Brunetti, a real estate developer, was meanwhile showing a lot of resiliency. He went all in for the second time on the next hand, beating Smiley’s pocket 7s with a straight, then escaped against Mohammad with two pair, and again for a fourth time with two pair against Lim.
On hand 17, Bruce Lee went out in seventh place when Mohammad made three 7s. One hand later, Lim moved into a slight lead ahead of Mohammed, roughly $42,000 to $36,000, when he showed a flush on the river and Mohammad mucked his aces-up. Mohammad took another hit on the next hand when Syracuse Chris, with rolled-up 6s, made a full house. And two hands after that, he dropped down to about $14,000 when Lim beat him with a pair of queens.
Hand 22 was as dramatic as they come. Showing K-J-8-5, Brunetti checked, then check-raised when Tsiprailidis bet. Syracuse Chris then re-raised, pushing in all his chips and putting Brunetti all in for the fifth time. Brunetti confidently turned up (A-Q-10) for a completely hidden straight. Syracuse Chris, with a board of K-J-8-5, did him one better. He turned over the two remaining kings and a deuce for a completely hidden kings-full, and a stunned Brunetti finished sixth.
Limits now were $2,000-$4,000 with $300 antes and a $500 bring-in. Seven hands later, Syracuse Chris put Mohammad out of action. Mohammad raised all in with (9s-4s)As and couldn’t make a pair. On seventh street Tsiprailidis finished him by pairing his ace. “He didn’t have to play seven out of eight hands,” Tsiprailidis remarked, shaking his head. Two hands later, Smiley was all in on fifth street with pocket 10s. “I got there,” said Lim, making a winning straight on the river. Three-handed, Lim had now accumulated close to $60,000, while his two remaining opponents were in the $30,000 range.
With limits at $3,000-$6,000, $500 antes and a $1,000 bring-in, Cannon, who had just flown in from Atlantic City and was fighting jet lag, lost chips when an all-in Tsiprailidis hit another full house. Lim then finished him when Cannon made two pair on fourth street and Lim hit another straight on the river. The heads-up match lasted only two hands. A low-chipped Tsiprailidis was forced to play rags while Lim yet again hit a winning straight on the last card. –Max Shapiro
BIOGRAPHY
Professional player Kim Lim’s tournament streak started when he won a $500 no-limit hold’em event last month at the Hustler Casino’s Grand Slam of Poker. He said then that he was taking a break from his high-limit side game action after dropping $200,000 in two months. He’s had prior big cash-outs from the Bike and Commerce, but his livelihood depends mostly on side games, $400-$800 hold’em and $200-$400 stud. “I’m playing tournaments for fun,” he insisted. He’s still not got back into the groove in cash games though. He recently, for example, had a couple of $125,000 losses in Chinese Poker.
Tonight, he said, his early strategy at the final table was to try to stay out of Mohammad’s way, because even though his opponent was not playing an optimal game, he had been running hot. So while he might test the waters with a starting pair, Lim said, if he didn’t improve immediately, he would fold.
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