Mike Leah Wins First Gold Bracelet in WSOP Asia-Pacific High Roller for $600,000
Only one event was in action on the second-to-last day of the 2014 World Series of Poker Asia-Pacific festival, and that was the AU$25,000 High Roller. Day 3 saw six players returning to battle it out for the coveted gold bracelet and the AU$600,000 top prize.
When the dust had settled, it was Mike Leah left standing. The 40-year-old Canadian professional poker play had come into Day 3 with a massive chip lead, and he would walk away with his first-ever WSOP gold bracelet.
AU$25,000 High Roller Payouts
| Place | Player | Country | Prize (AU) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mike Leah | Canada | $600,000 |
| 2 | [Removed:17] | New Zealand | $360,025 |
| 3 | Jesse Sylvia | USA | $216,811 |
| 4 | Jonathan Duhamel | Canada | $145,003 |
| 5 | Sam Khouiss | Australia | $110,078 |
| 6 | Brian Roberts | USA | $85,027 |
| 7 | Sam Higgs | Australia | $65,035 |
| 8 | Andrew Hinrichsen | Australia | $50,021 |
Leah had nearly struck gold a few times, but his attempts at mining that piece of WSOP hardware had fallen short until now. Previously, Leah's closest calls were a third-, fifth-, and two seventh-place finishes in WSOP gold bracelet events.
While Leah may have begun Day 3 with a very dominating position over the rest of the field, the competition was tough in Brian Roberts, Sam Khouiss, Jonathan Duhamel, Jesse Sylvia, and [Removed:17].
Roberts fell first in sixth place, and then Khouiss and Duhamel were eliminated on the same hand by Sylvia. Despite scoring the double knockout, Sylvia was next to go in third place to set up the heads-up duel between Leah and Yan. This was the first time Leah had made it to heads-up play in his many WSOP events, and he wasn't about to let this chance slip through the cracks.
Leah applied the pressure early, grinding Yan down to under 700,000 in chips with 5,100,000 chips in play. Yan did find a double to get back to seven figures, but Leah didn't flinch and was right back taking charge shortly thereafter. Leah worked Yan back down to under 700,000 once more before the final hand saw his K♠7♦ hold up against Yan's K♦4♠.
For the victory, Leah earned his first WSOP gold bracelet and AU$600,000 in prize money. This proved to be the second largest score of his live tournament career following his runner-up finish to Daniel Colman in August for $1,047,638. All told, Leah now has well over $2,000,000 in live winnings this year, in what is his best year ever.
With that, there's only one more event to go from the 2014 WSOP Asia-Pacific. Saturday will see the 10th and final bracelet event of the festival awarded as the final six players return in the AU$10,000 Main Event to play to a champion beginning at 3:30 p.m. local time. PokerNews will be back here then, and we look forward to having you right here with us.
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