Event #4: A$5,000 No-Limit Hold'em 6-Handed

Time is frozen.

There are 8 minutes and 47 seconds left in Level 19 and it'll stay that way until 12:30pm tomorrow.

We've burst the unofficial final table bubble and are down to our last seven players. 

Leading this heptagonal final table is Aaron Lim with a smooth 600,000. Lim won a large portion of his chips when he rivered two-pair and took a 350,000 pot off of Andy Lee.

Brendon Rubie will start second in chips with 577,000 and the rest of the table will start with:

Seat 1: Jason Gray – 159,000

Seat 2: Billy Seri – 145,000

Seat 3: Brendon Rubie – 577,000

Seat 4: Sam Higgs – 168,000

Seat 5: Andy Lee – 412,000

Seat 6: Aaron Lim – 600,000

Seat 7: Jan Suchanek – 463,000

Seri and Higgs were short-stacked through a large part of two-table play, but managed to hang on. 

"We're survivors," Higgs joked with Seri when they were bagging up their chips. 

Both players managed to survive a few all-ins and get just enough chips to make it to Day 3. 

The day finally ended when Lee knocked out Binh Nguyen with kings against Nguyen's nines. It took a while to get our 8th place finisher but Nguyen finally fell in Level 19. 

The final seven will now rest up after a difficult day. Fifty-two players started Day 2 including several pros. Jean-Robert Bellande, J.C. Tran, Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier, Angel Guillen and Russell Thomas all started the day but fell short of the money.

Only the final three tables of the $5K 6-max saw a return on their investment, with the final 18 being guaranteed AU$10,354.

These final seven will get a bit more, they're guaranteed AU$27,722 while our eventual champion will take home AU$233,800 and a shiny WSOP APAC bracelet. 

Join us tomorrow when we unfreeze the clock and play down to our fourth bracelet winner of the inaugural WSOP APAC.

While the $5k 6-max ends tomorrow, the $10K WSOP APAC Main Event begins. 

Tune in tomorrow as we bring you more WSOP action from Melbourne. 

The strategy of fold, fold, fold, double, seems to be working so far for Billy Seri. He’s finding the big cards just when he needs them most, and even better for him is that he’s getting action.

From under the gun, Seri moved all in for 79,000. Sam Higgs thought for a moment before folding, as did Jan Suchanek, but Jason Gray decided to make the call in the big blind with    Gray was hoping for a race but he was crushed by Seri’s   

The board of       was close to the fours but Seri’s queens held.  He doubled to around 180,000 with Gray down to 190,000.

Action folded to Aaron Lim in the small blind. He decided to limp in and Brendon Rubie checked his option in the big blind to take a flop of    

Lim led out for 7,000 and Rubie called as the   double-paired the board on the turn. Lim let rip with a second bullet worth 18,000 and again Rubie made the call.

The river was the   and Lim slowed down and tapped the table. Rubie checked behind.  Lim was reluctant to show, flashing the   trying to get a reaction from Rubie who was motionless until he saw two cards. Lim flashed a seven to go with it for nine-high as Rubie’s    was good to collect the pot. 

One of the two remaining tables in particular has produced a fascinating line up with three of Australia’s most talented up and coming players.  Brendon Rubie is already an established force, but watch out for Aaron Lim and Andy Lee in future.  Both have already won major titles, at home and abroad, and are ready to break out onto the world poker stage here at the WSOP APAC.

The three players, as well as American Binh Nguyen, have created a great dynamic, and Lim was able to recently cash in on that.

Lim three-bet to 31,000 on the button following the open from Andy Lee.  It wasn’t the first time Lim had three-bet in position, and Lee decided to call to see a     flop. Lee changed things up by leading for 28,000 with Lim making the call.

Both players checked the   turn and the   appeared on the river. Lee led out with a bet of 40,000 and Lim thought for a few moments before raising it up to 106,000. Lee made the call but mucked when Lim tabled    for two pair.  Lim is now up to 520,000 and into the tournament lead with Lee back to 375,000.

Players are on another 15-minute break.

Before the break, the floor announced that we won't be playing down to six players. Instead, we'll lose one more player and then break for the rest of the night. 

The final seven players will return for the unnofficial final table tomorrow at 12:30pm (AEST) and play down to a winner.

Billy Seri had picked up aces just a few minutes earlier so he was pretty chuffed to look down and find    once again. He opened to 15,000 from the cutoff before a rather boisterous Jan Suchanek popped it to 45,000.

Seri quickly responded by moving all in for a total of 90,000 and Suchanek was committed to calling with his   

The flop of     brought hope for Suchanek with a straight draw, and his hopes increased even further when the   the turn.  Suchanek now had any ten or heart to snatch the pot but the river was the  

Seri clapped his hands with delight as his patience was rewarded with a double up to around 190,000 with Suchanek slipping to 290,000. 

Andy Lee is proving to be a beast in this 6-max event.

On the first hand, Lee raised to 8,500 pre flop and David Yan called on the big blind.

The flop came down:

Lee bet 9,000 and Yan called quickly.

The turn brought a   eliciting a 17,000 chip bet from Lee. Yan again called quickly.

The river was the   and Lee put together a final bet of 32,000. Lee insta-called.

Lee turned over    and Yan insta-mucked.

Reeling from the hand, Yan proceeded to get into a raising war with Lee two hands later, pushing his 160,000 stack into the middle and getting a quick call from Lee.

Lee flipped the    crushing Yan’s   

The board ran out:

Giving Yan two-pair on the flop, Lee a re-suck-out on the turn, and Yan an inferior full house on the river. That’s his tournament over and a $19,940 pay day.

Andy Lee on the other hand is powering towards the final table with a stack of over 600,000. 

Lim went down and up.

The first hand was an emphatic display of the preflop madness that's been running the six-max. Brendon Rubie raised to 8,000 from UTG and David Yan re-raised to 20,500 from the button. Andy Lee folded from the small blind and Aarom Lim four-bet to 43,500. 

Rubie folded and Yan put in a five-bet to 72,500. 

Lim tanked for a few minutes and eventually folded.

Then Lim got a few of those chips back from Rubie.

Lim raised to 8,000 from the button and Rubie re-raised to 20,500 from the small blind. Lim called and the flop came     Rubie bet 18,000 and Lim called, bringing the   on the turn. 

Rubie checked-called Lim's 40,500 bet, bringing a   on the river.

Rubie checked again and this time Lim bet a bit stronger. Lim moved all-in and Rubie took a few minutes to fold.

Lim is now at about 310,000 while Rubie was left with 315,000. 

In one hand, Aaron Lim lost almost 40,000 to Brendon Rubie. He called Rubie’s preflop raise of 8000 and both players checked the flop of     On the turn   Lim check-called 9000 and then did the same on the   for a much bigger bet of 21,500, and mucked when Rubie turned over    

The next hand, however, saw Lim bounce back with collecting the prized scalp of Dominik Nitsche. When action was folded to him in the small blind, Lim made a min raise to 8000, which induced an all in shove from Nitsche in the big blind for 87,500.

Lim didn’t sweat the call too much, knowing his opponent might be pushing with a wide range in this spot. The call came and Lim’s    was in front of Nitsche’s    

The dealer delivered       to give Lim a Broadway straight and send his stack up to 265,000 as Nitsche bowed out in 10^th with a $19,940 payday.

Players are on a 15-minute break.

You can take a 15-minute break too, but come back, there's more $5,000 six-max action.