Mike Leah celebrates his biggest win yet at the World Poker Tour (WPT) Fallsview Poker Classic with a World Poker Tour title and C$451,821 in prize money. The Canadian pro has been bagging side event titles at the WPT Fallsview Poker Classic since 2014.
He has won the C$1,100 WPT Side Event in 2014, 2016, and 2017 but never the coveted WPT Main Event title.
This year, as he flopped his turf-game he vowed he would win the Main Event and he finally succeeded.
Before winning the C$5,000 WPT Fallsview Poker Classic no-limit hold’em Main Event, Leah had only managed to reach the final table once and got so close to winning the title at the WPT L.A Poker Classic in Los Angeles 2015. He ended up losing to Anthony Zinno and finished in second place taking home $701,350.
Since then, Leah has been going around winning small events on a regular basis but hasn’t had any major victories. However his on-going success at small poker events has helped build his confidence and improve his overall poker strategy. This was also great preparation for the world-setting field at the WPT Fallsview Poker Classic Main Event. He entered the Main Event on the third and final day of play, with 20 players remaining strong after a total of 517 registrations took place.
The heads-up match between Leah and runner-up Ryan Yu was pretty intense, with Yu on the lead at 10.8 million in chips versus Leah’s 4.715 million. The game was won on the eighth hand of the heads-up, leaving Yu with C$301,217 in the books. Canadians led the WPT Final Table with four out of the six playing on their home court. In third place was Canadian Tim Rutherford who won C$222,315.
In a statement, Leah speaking about his WPT Main Event win said
It hasn’t sunk in yet. Winning a WPT has been near the top of my goal list for a long time, especially getting so close almost exactly three years ago when I lost to Anthony Zinno heads up at LAPC, so I’ve been pretty hungry to get back here again since that. To do it here, where I’ve had so much success winning three tournaments already, is pretty cool. So close to home, in my home country, it’s a pretty special tournament to win
