Mike "Goleafsgoeh" Leah Wins WPT Fallsview Poker Classic
February 25, 2014 11:43 amTeam Ivey Pro Mike Leah has won the WPT Fallsview Poker Classic Event #1: $1,000 NL Hold’em, after besting a field of 649 players over three days on his way to lifting the title, and collecting the C$118,982 (US$108,465) first place prize.
In January, Leah had taken down the PCA $5,300 NL Turbo event for $119,770, and following his latest victory in Cananda the poker pro, who now boasts $1,993,751 in live tournament winnings and $2,459,106 playing online under the screen name “Goleafsgoeh”, commented:
“Feels amazing of course. I don’t know if I’m doing anything differently, but I have played two great tournaments. I had the chip lead in both almost from start to finish and I think I played the big stack as well as you could.”
The event was held at the Niagara Fallsview Casino Resort, and attracted an impressive-sized field to create a prize pool worth $573,886. By the end of Day 1 just 81 players remained in the competition, and by the end of Day 2 Leah had managed to make it all the way through to the final table second in chips.
Day 3 subsequently saw Mike Leah get off to a slow start before getting into his stride, and as the pro explains: “I didn’t win a hand for first three hours. Had a few failed three and four-bets and doubled up a few short stacks. There were a few bustouts and then I won a huge flip with pocket nines vs A-Q for my tournament life with about six players left. I then won another huge pot with pocket aces vs pocket nines to take the massive chip lead with four left.”
Leah eventually succeeded in winning the title by defeating Geoffrey McNeely heads-up to claim the title.
Final Table Payouts:
1st Mike Leah $108,465
2nd Geoffrey McNeely $76,040
3rd Thomas Manuge $48,895
4th Stephanie Goertz $36,211
5th Jeremy Rose $27,145
6th Christopher Gaddi $21,750
7th Johannes Mueller $18,134
8th Danny Freitas $14,461
9th Eli Cohen $10,846