They joke that Regina is the city that rhymes with fun, and Mike Leah certainly had himself an enjoyable week at Casino Regina’s Station Poker Classic.
The Toronto-area crusher added to his legacy with a series to remember, winning two of the three largest events, then coming a bad beat away from winning all three.
The WSOP bracelet winner and WPT champion went back-to-back in the Saskatchewan series’ $1,000 and $1,300 buy-in events, topping fields of 212 and 270 entries to win a combined $132,223. He then finished second in the series-ending $1,800 event, adding another $64,482 for his runner-up finish to Teco Bird, who took home $102,075 for the win.
Leah’s prairie trifecta was denied only by a river three-outer as he got his ace-jack in against Bird’s ace-three, which found a three on the river to leave Leah one spot shy of a truly historic finish.
Mike Leah's Station Poker Classic results:
- $1,000 NLH / 212 entries / 1st – $50,044
- $1,300 NLH / 270 entries / 1st – $82,179
- $1,800 NLH / 243 entries / 2nd – $64,482
The $196,705 total (almost $144,000 USD) boosted Leah’s career live tournament earnings to $9,328,152 USD according to the Hendon Mob. That total sits 12th all-time among Canadians, just behind Ari Engel (10th – $9,642,669 USD) and Peter Jetten (11th – $9,348,639 USD).
Daniel Negreanu leads all Canadians with $57,688,697 USD all-time.
Encore une fois
This isn’t the first time that Leah’s taken down a pair of events in quick succession, as at the 2023 WPT World Championship, the Canadian's mixed game prowess led him to wins of $77,841 USD and $99,916 USD in the $2,200 8-Game Mix and $1,100 Pot-Limit Omaha events within five days of each other.
It’s also the latest iteration of Leah's repeat success at a venue. In 2014, 2016, and 2017, he won the Fallsview Poker Classic $1,000 event in Niagara Falls, earning a combined $573,334. After his repeated victories, the tournament became affectionately known in his home province of Ontario as the ‘Mike Leah Invitational’.
Leah would also win the WPT Main Event there in 2018 for $451,821, though not without some controversy over a heads-up deal with runner-up Ryan Yu, which Leah addressed on social media.
Oh, and a Circuit ring too!
Leah’s recent heater hasn’t been limited to the live felt either, as before his run in Regina, he also won a WSOP Super Circuit online event on GGPoker.ca for $35,974, topping 1,791 entries in the Ontario site’s $210 Mystery Millions tournament on March 10th.
The win earned Leah his 7th WSOP Circuit ring, putting him among just 50 players all-time to have reached that total, according to the WSOP’s website.
Next up for Leah is expected to be the WSOP Circuit series at Playground in Montreal from March 23 to April 7, where he’ll be on the hunt for ring number eight, and a potentially massive score, with a $2,500,000 guarantee on their Main Event.
All prizes in CAD unless otherwise noted.
Additional image courtesy of Regina Casino.
