North America dominated the final days of the World Series of Poker Asia Pacific, after the American Scott Davies took the first prize of AU$850,136 in the Main Event, and the Canadian Mike Leah took the first prize of AU$600,000 in the High Roller.
The Australians may have dominated the preliminary events, but when the big trophies were on the line, up stepped the North American’s to give World Series of Poker (WSOP) postal service a headache, after Main Event & High Roller trophies are now winging their way to America and Canada respectively.
The AU$10,000 Main Event went the way of Scott Davies, after the American defeated the young British player Jack Salter in heads-up action. It was another agonizing defeat in the final stages of a world major, for Salter, coming on the back of his defeat to Antonio Buonanno, in the heads-up stage of the European Poker Tour Grand Final in Monte Carlo earlier this year.
Salter, who also picked up a side event victory at the Aussie Millions, at the start of the year, will be bitterly disappointed at not turning his final table chip lead into the title, but he must look at what has been a career defining year for the young man and be able to hold his head high.
Davies, who finished fourth in the $10,000 WSOP Heads-Up contest, in the summer, picked up his first major piece of silverware after a cooler of a final hand. Salter calling a three-bet with [Qc] [Tc] and then smacking a [Th] [Ts] [6h] flop in the face, only for Davies to wake up with a wired pair of sixes for the flopped full house.
Davies and Salter were one-two in chips when the final table began, and it was a relatively inexperienced final table – from a live perspective – with the headline name being the 2010 WSOP Player of the Year Frank Kassela. The former two-time WSOP bracelet winner would exit in fifth place.
WSOP-APAC Main Event Results
1st. Scott Davies – AU$850,136
2nd. Jack Salter – AU$516,960
3rd. Henry Wang – AU$343,805
4th. Kyle Montgomery – AU$231,287
5th. Frank Kassela – AU$164,089
6th. Ang Italiano – AU$118,769
Mike Leah Wins the AU$25,000 High Roller
Jack Salter was unable to run his final table chip lead to the finishing line, but the same cannot be said of the Canadian Mike Leah.
The IveyPoker pro had over 50% of the chips in play when the final table started, and he wielded them well – eventually eliminating the New Zealander David Yan in heads-up action to take the first major title of his career.
It’s the second top Canadian success in recent days after Andrew Chen picked up the High Roller award at the European Poker Tour in London. It’s also Leah’s second huge score in recent months after finishing second to Dan Colman in the $5,300 NLHE Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Main Event in Florida for over a million bucks.
Jonathan Duhamel, Sam Khouiss and Sam Higgs capped off superlative WSOP-APAC performances with fourth, fifth, and seventh place finishes respectively.
WSOP-APAC High Roller Results
1st. Mike Leah – AU$600,000
2nd. David Yan – AU$360,025
3rd. Jesse Sylvia – AU$216,811
4th. Jonathan Duhamel – AU$145,003
5th. Sam Khouiss – AU$110,078
6th. Brian Roberts – AU$85,027
7th. Sam Higgs – AU$65,035
8th. Andrew Hinrichsen – AU$50,021
