Canadian Mike Leah (40) has scored his second largest career win and his first gold bracelet victory by taking down the A$25,000 World Series of Poker Asia-Pacific High Roller competition in Australia.
When the final table formed this week Leah was the chip leader, and he rarely relinquished control of the game despite a talented opposition that included Brian Roberts, Sam Khouiss, Jonathan Duhamel, Jesse Sylvia, and David Yan.
When Jesse Sylvia exited in third, Leah had only to finish off New Zealander David Yan, and he set about leveraging his huge chip lead to do just that. Yan was no pushover, however and fought back aggressively, using a valuable double up to get back in the game, but only delaying the inevitable as Leah hammered him back down again to eventually claim the honours.
Leah scored his first WSOP gold bracelet and A$600,000, leaving the runner up prize of $360,025 to a worthy opponent.
Other final table payouts looked like this:
3rd: Jesse Sylvia – $216,811
4th: Jonathan Duhamel – $145,003
5th: Sam Khouiss – $110,078
6th: Brian Roberts $85,027