Josh Hale Wins World Poker Tour Legends Of Poker Main Event At The Bike

Josh Hale topped a star-studded final table to win the 2012 World Poker Tour Legends of Poker main event at the Bicycle Casino, outlasting Jeff Madsen, Greg Mueller, Ali Eslami and Max Steinberg to earn the $500,000 first-place prize, 1,260 Card Player Player of the Year points and his first ever major tournament title.

This $3,500 buy-in WPT main event drew 622 entrants to build a total prizepool of $2,111,690. After four long days of play, only six remained to battle for this prestigious title.

Hale entered the final table with a sizable chiplead, but it was Max Steinberg, the shortest stack at the start of the night, who ended up eliminating four of the six finalists. As a result, Steinberg took a roughly 3-to-1 chip advantage in to heads-up play.

Hale turned things around on the twelfth hand of heads-up play, getting all-in with a flush draw against Steinberg’s two pair and making the queen-high flush on the river.

The final hand of the tournament saw Steinberg move all-in with AK and get called by Hale’s JJ. The board ran out 9885J, with Hale’s full house ensuring him the pot and the title.

For his runner-up finish, Steinberg earned $293,490 and 1,050 POY points. Earlier this year Steinberg won his first World Series of Poker gold bracelet, topping a field of 2,795 in a $1,000 no-limit hold’em event for $440,238. As a result of these two massive scores, Steinberg has moved into 18th place in the overall Player of the Year standings.

Fifth-place finisher Greg Mueller also climbed the POY rankings to 42nd place as a result of making his third final table of the year.

Here is a look at the payouts and POY points awarded at this final table:

Winner photo courtesy of WPT and BJ Nemeth

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