In what turned out to be an extremely rapid final table, Canada’s Mike Leah rode a chip lead that he took two days to create in dominating the final six players en route to winning his first bracelet in the $25,000 High Rollers event at the 2014 World Series of Poker Asia/Pacific (WSOP-APAC).
Coming to the final table with more than half the chips in play, Leah was still challenged with the players assembled against him. One player in particular, David Yan, had been running right behind him for much of the latter half of the High Roller; with 1.278 million chips to Leah’s 2.576 million, he was the most likely challenger if someone was going to stop Leah from taking the title. The remainder of the field – Jesse Sylvia (580K), Jonathan Duhamel (358K), Brian Roberts (207K) and Sam Khouiss (106K) – were going to need a great deal of help just to get into contention in the event.
Yan made a run at closing the gap with Leah in making the first elimination of the day only five hands into the day’s festivities. Out of the cutoff, Yan pumped the pot up to 50K and, when it reached him in the small blind, Roberts made a stand in pushing all in. After Sylvia folded, Yan immediately made the call and tabled Q♥ J♥ to go to battle with Roberts’ A♦ J♦. Stunningly, the flop nailed Yan, coming down Q♦ Q♠ 9♠, to give Yan a hammerlock in the matchup. Although a 5♦ would give Roberts some hopes for the flush draw, an innocent 4♠ didn’t help him in any way, sending Roberts to the door of the Crown Casino in sixth place.
On Hand 23, arguably the most dramatic moment of the final table took place. After Sylvia popped the pot to 71K, Khouiss moved all-in off the button. With a raise and a re-raise in front of him, an undaunted Duhamel moved all-in over the top of Khouiss from the small blind in an attempt to isolate. It didn’t slow down Sylvia, though, who immediately made the call and the players showed their hands:
Sylvia: Q-Q
Duhamel: 9-9
Khouiss: A-8
With the partisan Australian audience screaming for some help for their countryman Khouiss, the flop indeed brought that help in coming down A-7-2. Now in the lead as his rail went wild, Khouiss made the sweat through an eight on the turn that actually improved him to two pair. Now needing to only dodge Queens or nines to take a massive triple-up, Khouiss was instead stunned to see a Queen come on the river, reversing his fortune and giving the hand to Sylvia. After the chips were counted down, it was found that Sylvia had both men covered as Khouiss claimed fifth place and Duhamel fourth.
After that thunderbolt of a hand, Yan (920K) now found himself staring up at Sylvia (1.42 million) and Leah (2.76 million) and set about getting some chips for himself. He would four-bet the action pre-flop to 305K against both men and, after Leah deposited his cards in the muck, Sylvia made the call to see an 8-8-7 flop. Both men checked and, following an Ace on the turn, Sylvia would check-fold to a 185K bet from Yan, giving up his hard-earned chips in dropping behind Yan on the leaderboard.
Leah and Yan would take turns chopping away at Sylvia’s stack until, on Hand 46, Sylvia was to the point of all-in or fold. He took his shot on this hand and, after some thought, Leah would make a call, tabling only a K-3 for action. Sylvia’s pocket fives were in good shape and, after a 4-2-4 flop, he maintained the lead. A King on the turn would virtually seal the deal for Leah as he made a pair of Kings and, following a second King on the river, Sylvia was vanquished in third place.
Now with almost a 2:1 lead over Yan, Leah could taste the WSOP title that had previously eluded him. Over a 20 hand span, Leah whittled Yan’s stack and increased his lead to almost 3:1, setting up the eventual final hand on Hand 77.
Lean announced all-in pre-flop and Yan, sitting on only 600K in chips, debated for a bit before making the call. He tabled a K-4, believing Leah to be on a bluff, but Leah showed a better hand with a K-7 that had Yan drawing thin. A 9-5-10 flop hit no one and the trey on the turn kept the status quo intact. Once an Ace landed on the river, Mike Leah had reached an elusive goal in winning his first WSOP bracelet.
1. Mike Leah, $600,000
2. David Yan, $360,025
3. Jesse Sylvia, $216,811
4. Jonathan Duhamel, $145,003
5. Sam Khouiss, $110,078
6. Brian Roberts, $85,027
7. Sam Higgs, $65,035
8. Andrew Hinrichsen, $50,021