Mike Leah Puts Together His Best Year On Tournament Circuit

Mike Leah has been a winner his entire life. Born in Toronto, Canada in 1974, Leah spent his early years as a fierce sports competitor, ultimately winning a wrestling national championship for his age and weight class while in high school.

With visions of attending college and competing for a spot in the Olympics, Leah instead got sidetracked with a summer job. He approached his sales job with the same winning mentality and made so much money, that he stuck with it and quickly worked his way up the ranks at the company.

Then, in 2005, a coworker introduced Leah to poker. He was instantly hooked and, before long, he was making big sums of money playing online poker under the name “GoLeafsGoEh.” In 2006, he made his way to Las Vegas and wound up chopping two tournaments at the Bellagio for a total of around $100,000.

Leah returned to his job, but continued grinding online. In 2008, after putting together a formidable bankroll to play bigger buy-in tournaments, Leah took a huge gamble and quit his nine-to-five job to play poker professionally.

His first full year on the circuit was his breakthrough year. Leah wound up finishing 11th in the 2009 Card Player Player of the Year race, making nine final tables, winning three titles, and cashing for just under $700,000.

In 2010 and 2011, Leah went back to winning huge money online, earning numerous Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS) titles and taking third place in the World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) main event for $560,000. To date, Leah has banked more than $2.5 million in online tournament earnings.

After a quiet 2012 campaign, Leah bounced back strong in 2013, making three World Series of Poker final tables, but the bracelet eluded him. He began 2014 strong, winning a $5,000 preliminary event at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure for $119,770. A month later, he took down a $1,000 event at the Fallsview Poker Classic for another $107,084.

Leah kept up the streak by winning two WSOP Circuit rings on the same day at the Winnin’ O’ The Green series in Los Angeles. After another WSOP final table appearance in the summer, he finished runner-up at the Venetian Deepstack Extravaganza III $1,000 event for $189,474.

Then, in September, Leah ran into the only player in the world running better than him when he finished as the runner-up to Dan Colman at the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open main event for $1,047,638, the largest score of Leah’s career. Most recently, Leah traveled to the WSOP Asia-Pacific series and won the AUD$25,000 buy-in high roller event for $527,500, along with his first career bracelet.

In total, Leah has cashed 19 times in 2014, made seven final tables, won four titles, and earned more than $2 million. As a result, he currently sits in second place overall in the Card Player Player of the Year race and now has more than $3.8 million in career live tournament earnings.

Card Player caught up with Leah following his run in Australia to discuss his monstrous year on the tournament circuit.

Julio Rodriguez: You had a breakout year in 2009, then focused on online tournaments and went through a bit of a slump before going on your most recent run. What is the difference in your play between then and now?

Mike Leah: The difference for me this year has been the fact that I’m putting together good performances in individual tournaments. I try not to let anything bad carry over from one tournament to the next. If I make a mistake, I’ve been pretty good about putting it behind me and not letting it affect the next opportunity.

For instance, at the Hard Rock, I think I played one of the best tournaments of my career. Obviously heads-up didn’t go the way I would’ve liked, but I was extremely happy with my play overall. Then I went to Borgata and played horribly and my WCOOP didn’t go so well either. But I didn’t want to take any of that negativity with me to Australia. After jumping into the high roller event, I was happy that I put together the best start-to-finish performance of my career.

I’ve had a lot of those types of wins this year, where I’m able to just put something together for one tournament at a time. This isn’t a situation where I’m just running really hot for a stretch of time. A lot of it has to do with my confidence, because, even if a tournament doesn’t go my way, I’m not suddenly doubting myself.

JR: Can you talk about your confidence and how it is affecting your game?

ML: Confidence is vastly underrated in poker. Once you get a big score in a big tournament under your belt, the next time you are in that situation, you can play your best and not worry about the specific outcome. As I got deeper in the high roller event in Australia, I had no problem pulling the trigger because I was confident. I’d already been in that situation before and my bankroll was healthy enough that the pay jumps didn’t really affect my decisions.

Then again, you need to be aware of the pay jumps and how they affect the other players. There’s a balance you have to find. In Australia, I had a huge chip lead going into the final table and, of course, I wanted to use those chips to put pressure on everyone, but I also needed to know just how much real cash value those chips had and avoid any reckless plays that would knock me out of a top-two position. You never want to give away equity.

JR: You mentioned that you didn’t feel you played very well between the Hard Rock and Australia. How long of a downswing would you have to endure before you began to lose confidence?

ML: At this point in my career, I know that I’m one of the best players when I put my mind to it, so it would be extremely difficult for any prolonged dry spell to affect that confidence. It’s just a matter of being honest with myself about my play and making the necessary adjustments when I’m not playing my best. A lot of players are in denial about how they are playing. They blame bad luck instead of really taking the time to evaluate what’s going on. That’s when you start to lose confidence.

JR: You’ve come close to winning a WSOP bracelet several times. How did it feel to finally put one around your wrist?

ML: It was the number one goal in my life, so obviously it feels great to knock that off my list, but now my number one goal in life is to win bracelet number two. I no longer feel that emptiness of not having a bracelet, but now I can’t wait for the summer so I can do it all over again. I’m still incredibly motivated to win as many as possible.

I definitely want to start climbing the ladder. I think an average of one bracelet per year is possible. Obviously there are going to be years where I don’t win a bracelet, but I think I’ll be able to make up for them by winning multiple events in other years. I guess ten is a reasonable goal for now, but it all starts with number two.

JR: It sounds like you care more about the title than the money.

ML: I don’t think it will ever just be about the money for me. I’m too much of a goal-oriented person. It was the same way for me growing up with sports and then later in sales. For me, the money is a byproduct of success. I know that if I accomplish my goals then the money will come with it. That’s probably why I don’t really grind cash games unless I’m on the road. I want the adrenaline rush and the excitement and the glory that comes with winning a tournament.

JR: The last time you were interviewed for Card Player, you talked about your love of mixed games. Are you playing more mixed cash games these days or are you staying focused on tournaments?

ML: No-limit cash games just bore me. I’m not interested in playing those, but if I can find a good high-stakes mixed game when I’m on the road anyway, I’ll probably play. It’s a nice change of pace because I play so many hold’em tournaments. The rake and travel expenses can really pile up when you are playing on the tournament circuit and it’s hard to recoup all of that with only a handful of tournaments available, so the cash games really help to make the long trips worthwhile. When I’m back at home, however, unless there’s a big online series going on, I try and treat my time there like a vacation and don’t really grind.

JR: Now that you have a high roller title under your belt, do you plan on playing many more?

ML: I’ve played the $50,000 Poker Players Championship twice, but this was the first high roller no-limit hold’em tournament I’ve played. I guess you could say that I’m undefeated in high rollers. I do want to play more though. Obviously my bankroll is at the point where I can handle the bigger buy-ins, and it was nice to see that I could hold my own against that level of competition.

JR: You are one of the hottest players on the tournament circuit, you put in a ton of volume both live and online, and perhaps most importantly, you’re Canadian. Are you surprised that you are currently a free agent and haven’t yet secured an online poker sponsorship?

ML: It would certainly be a nice bonus if a company out there wanted to put my name on their product. I need to wear clothes when I play tournaments anyway, so if someone wants to pay me to wear their clothes, I’d definitely consider it, as long as it was a company that I felt good about. Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be too much of a market out there for sponsorships unless you final table the WSOP main event. I guess that’s just what I’ll have to do. ♠

Mike Leah’s Best Tournament Results

Year Event Place Winnings
2009 L.A. Poker Classic $5,000 no-limit hold’em 2nd Place $152,600
2009 Borgata Deep Stack $1,500 no-limit hold’em 1st Place $319,536
2009 Venetian Deep Stack $1,000 no-limit hold’em 1st Place $119,956
2010 FTOPS XV $2,500 no-limit Hold’em 5th Place $110,000
2011 Full Tilt Sunday $750k $200 no-limit hold’em 2nd Place $100,500
2011 FTOPS XIX $200 no-limit Hold’em 2nd Place $111,279
2011 WCOOP main event $5,000 no-limit hold’em 3rd Place $560,000
2013 WSOP $1,500 stud eight-or-better 3rd Place $108,412
2014 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure $5,000 no-limit hold’em 1st Place $119,770
2014 Fallsview Poker Classic $1,000 no-limit hold’em 1st Place $107,084
2014 Venetian Deepstack $1,000 no-limit hold’em 2nd Place $189,474
2014 Hard Rock Poker Open $5,000 no-limit hold’em 2nd Place $1,047,638
2014 WSOP APAC $25,000 no-limit hold’em 1st Place $527,500