Last evening, Mike Leah managed to win the 2016/17 WSOP Circuit $365 Buy-in Pot Limit Omaha (1 re-entry) event that took place at Harrah’s Cherokee in North Carolina. The player outlasted the other 246 entrants to get the biggest chunk of the overall prize of $74,100.
Having won more than $1,400,000 in the World Series of Poker (WSOP) tournaments alone, Mike Leah has definitely solid experience in various poker tournaments. Before joining the 2016/17 WSOP Circuit $365 Buy-in Pot Limit Omaha, Leah was well-known for winning his three Circuit rings, as well as a WSOP bracelet which he got by winning the $25,00 High Roller Event of the WSOP Asia-Pacific (APAC) in October 2014. On the other hand, the last of the three Circuit rings he had in his possession was won in Montreal, where the last Circuit event he attended was based.
This time, he entered WSOP with the intention to play the Global Casino Championship event that started on Wednesday, but still decided to travel to Harrah’s Cherokee a few days earlier and ended up entering several preliminary Circuit events.
Leah confessed that he had not been absolutely sure whether he would take part in this specific event, because he would have been missed the Global Casino Championship event in case he had made it to Day 2. Still, he commented that he had a great time at the Pot Limit Omaha event, which also was a great change from No Limit Hold’em tournaments.
As the poker player himself explained, the overall gameplay was at a fast pace, and especially the final table, until he needed to face heads-up his last standing opponent Terry Kim. Both players were very deep in the game, with them swapping the chip lead back and forth for about two hours.
At last, Mike Leah managed to “cooler” his opponent when the flop came, tabling the best possible hand at a time when Kim had two pair holding [9x][6x]. Terry Kim occupied the runner-up position with a prize of $11,217. The third position was occupied by David Johnson, who got home $8,104, while Jovanny Ruiz pocketed $5,964 for his fourth place. The fifth place was taken by Scott Cooper, while George Linkenback and Zachary Caldwell occupied the sixth and seventh place, respectively.
- Author
Harry Evans
