Today the World Series of Poker Asia-Pacific Event #10: AU$25,000 High Roller, a tournament that attracted 68 players and created a prize pool of AU$1,632,000, will award one lucky player a gold bracelet and a AU$600,000 first-place prize. Just six players remain in contention of the penultimate bracelet of the series with Mike Leah and his stack of 2,576,000 leading the way.
With more than half the chips in play, Leah is the clear favorite to capture the title, but it won't be easy as the other five players at the table, all of whom are guaranteed a minimum payday of AU$85,027, are accomplished pros in their own right. David “MissOracle” Yan, who begins second in chips with less than half that of Leah, finished sixth at the 2013 Aussie Millions right here at the Crown Casino, so one could say he has home-field advantage — or at least experience — on his side.
Others returning today are 2012 WSOP Main Event runner-up Jesse Sylvia; 2 Months, 2 Million star Brian Roberts; 2010 WSOP Main Event winner Jonathan Duhamel; and local favorite Sam Khouiss. Both Duhamel and Khouiss are making their third final table of the WSOP Asia-Pacific.
Here's how the final table stacks up:
The High Roller Final Table
Seat
Player
Chips
1
Mike Leah
2,576,000
2
Brian Roberts
207,000
3
Jesse Sylvia
580,000
4
Sam Khouiss
106,000
5
Jonathan Duhamel
358,000
6
[Removed:17]
1,278,000
The final six players will return at 3:30 p.m. local time and play until a winner is crowned. Every hand of the final table will air on a 30-minute delay on ESPN2 beginning at 4 p.m. local time — 10 p.m. Vegas time Thursday night / 1 a.m. ET on Friday morning — so if you're near a TV tune in. If not, or if you're looking for complimentary coverage, then keep it tuned in right here as we bring you hand-for-hand coverage until a winner is determined.
Arriving to Day 3 with 358,000 in chips is another Canadian poker player by the name of Jonathan Duhamel. You may remember Duhamel from a certain World Series of Poker final table that he reached in 2010 — you know, the Main Event that he won for a massive $8,944,310. That was clearly Duhamel's big breakout onto the poker scene, but over the years he's proven to be no one-hit wonder.
Duhamel has earned $12,485,554 in his live tournament career, including 17 WSOP cashes since his big Main Event victory and a total of nine other six-figure scores.
Shortly after winning the 2010 WSOP Main Event, Duhamel took down the European Poker Tour Deauville €10,300 High Roller for €200,000. He also finished fourth in the NBC National Heads-Up Championship for $125,000 that same year. Then in 2010, Duhamel had a ridiculous January. He took fourth in the $100,000 Super High Roller for $313,600, fifth in the $5,200 No-Limit Hold'em 8-Max Turbo for $17,990, won the $5,250 No-Limit Hold'em 8-Max for $239,830, and then placed second in the $25,500 High Roller for $634,550 all at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure.
As for WSOP events, Duhamel cashed twice in the $50,000 Poker Players' Championship — he finished eighth in 2013 for $207,630, and 13th in 2014 for $99,388. Here in Melbourne, Australia, last year, Duhamel took fourth in the AU$1,100 No-Limit Hold'em Accumulator for AU$71,870.
Bringing up the rear at this final table will be Australian Sam Khouiss with 106,000 in chips. You may remember this 52-year-old poker player from a couple earlier results here at the 2014 World Series of Poker Asia-Pacific where he reached the final table in both.
In the first, the AU$1,650 8-Game Dealer's Choice, Khouiss finished second to Rory Young for AU$26,402. He then made the final table in the AU$5,000 8-Game Mixed and took sixth for AU$13,310. Last year, Khouiss took seventh in the WSOP's AU$2,200 Mixed for AU$7,200.
All told, Khouiss now boasts $125,478 in live tournament earnings, and this result is already the largest of his career by a good margin.
The always-colorful man is married with seven kids and was born in Lebanon. He now resides in Sydney, Australia, and is a poker player by trade looking for his first gold bracelet. Khouiss will enter Day 3 with under five big blinds, so he'll certainly have his work cut out for him.
Entering Day 2 of this event, Jesse Sylvia was second to last in chips with 38,400. He quickly ran that up to 300,000 before finishing the day with 580,000 — good enough for third place overall.
This final table marks the second World Series of Poker final table of Sylvia's career, and the first one was the biggest of them all as he reached the WSOP Main Event final table in 2012. It was there that the Massachusetts native entered with the chip lead before finishing second to Greg Merson for $5,295,149.
Prior to that life-changing result, Sylvia had just two WSOP cashes and a total of $58,478 in lifetime tournament earnings. Since then, he's earned at least another $165,000 and cashed in nine WSOP events. Being guaranteed no less than AU$85,027 in this one and sitting with a decent chip position, Sylvia has a good shot at winning a lot more.
Brian Roberts is most known for two things in the poker world. In 2009, he was one of the cast members for the reality TV show 2 Months $2 Million alongside Dani "Ansky" Stern, Jay "KRANTZ" Rosenkrantz, and Emil "whitelime" Patel. The goal of the show was to follow the quest of these four as they lived together in Las Vegas and collectively tried to earn $2,000,000. The show aired for 10 episodes, but the group fell short of their goal with $676,700 in winnings.
The second thing Roberts is most known for in poker would be his fourth-place finish in the 2011 World Series of Poker Europe Main Event in Cannes. For that result, Roberts scored €400,000, and that remains his largest live tournament payday to date. This summer, Roberts finished 26th in the WSOP Main Event in Las Vegas for $286,900. Those remain his only six-figure cashes from live tournament poker.
Roberts is 31 years old and making his 11th WSOP cash.
Mike Leah enters Day 3 in charge of the final six with over 50% of the chips in play and a dominating lead on the rest of the competitors.
The 40-year-old Canadian professional poker player brings $3,338,247 in live tournament earnings and $2,532,359 in online tournament earnings to the final table, but one thing that has eluded Leah over his career is a World Series of Poker gold bracelet.
Leah has made four WSOP final tables throughout his career, and his best result was a third-place finish in the 2013 $5,000 Seven-Card Stud Hi-Lo event for $108,412. Leah certainly hopes he can secure his first gold bracelet in this event, stating on his bio sheet that he hopes for this event to prove his greatest poker accomplishment.
As it sits right now, Leah's best poker result came not too long ago, when in August he finished second to Daniel Colman in the 2014 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Main Event for a very impressive $1,047,638. In the virtual world of our game, Leah finished third in the 2011 PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker Main Event to the tune of $663,816.
Hand #4: The button was on [Removed:17], and action folded to Mike Leah in the small blind. He moved all in against Brian Roberts' big blind, and Roberts folded.
Hand #5: Mike Leah had the button, and [Removed:17] started things off with a raise to 50,000 from the cutoff seat. Play folded over to Brian Roberts in the small blind, and he raised all in for 163,000. Jesse Sylvia took a few moments to think about his decision from the big blind, but he eventually folded. Yan quickly called with the , and Roberts had the .
The flop came down and smashed Yan with trips. The turn was the to give Roberts some hope with a flush draw, but the on the river wasn't what he was looking for. Roberts was eliminated in sixth place and earned AU$85,027 for his effort.
Hand #23: On the first hand of the new level, Sam Khouiss had the button. Play folded to Jesse Sylvia in the cutoff seat, and he raised to 71,000. Khouiss reraised all in for 213,000, and then Jonathan Duhamel moved all in from the small blind for a little over 400,000. After [Removed:17] folded fro the big blind, Sylvia snap-called and showed the .
Sylvia had his two opponents covered. Duhamel had the second most chips in the hand with the , and Khouiss had the .
"C'mon Sammy!" yelled Khouiss' supporters. "Ace of clubs!"
Just like the jack on the river earlier that saved Khouiss' tournament, the ace of clubs was delivered in the window on the flop. Khouiss took the lead with a pair of aces and held it after the landed on the turn.
Sylvia needed a queen to knock out his opponents, whereas Duhamel was looking for a nine to win the pot. Khouiss was just hoping to hold from here, but the poker gods had other things in mind.
The dealer burned one last time and then delivered the to the board, smacking Sylvia with a set of queens and the winning hand. Sylvia's rail, consisting of Russell Thomas, Connor Drinan, and Kitty Kuo, clapped and cheered for their man as he collected the pot to send Duhamel and Khouiss to the rail.
Because he had more chips than Khouiss, Duhamel took home fourth-place money. Khouiss officially finished in fifth place.
Hand #46: Jesse Sylvia moved all in from the button and [Removed:17] quickly folded the small blind. Mike Leah was in the big and thought for about 30 seconds before making the call.
Sylvia:
Leah:
The flop kept the 2012 World Series of Poker Main Event runner-up firmly in the lead, but then disaster struck when the dealer burned and turned the . Leah became a dominating favorite, and suddenly Sylvia needed one of the two remaining fives on the river to stay alive. The dealer burned one last time and put out the . The repeat king improved Leah to a full house and Sylvia took his leave in third place to a nice round of applause.
Hand #76: [Removed:17] folded and gave Mike Leah a walk.
Hand #77: In what would be the final hand of the tournament, Leah announced that he was all in from the button and Yan, who was sitting with around 600,000, called off.
Yan:
Leah:
It was a bad spot for Yan as he had some serious kicker issues. The flop gave him a backdoor flush draw, but the turn took it away. Yan needed a four and a four only on the river to extend his tournament life, but it wasn't in the cards as the blanked.
Yan will take home AU$360,025 for his runner-up finish while Leah captures the AU$600,000 first-place prize and his first WSOP gold bracelet.
![[user68268]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
, and Roberts had the 
.
and smashed Yan with trips. The turn was the 
to give Roberts some hope with a flush draw, but the 
on the river wasn't what he was looking for. Roberts was eliminated in sixth place and earned AU$85,027 for his effort.
.
, and Khouiss had the 
.
flop. Khouiss took the lead with a pair of aces and held it after the 
landed on the turn.
. Leah became a dominating favorite, and suddenly Sylvia needed one of the two remaining fives on the river to stay alive. The dealer burned one last time and put out the 
. The repeat king improved Leah to a full house and Sylvia took his leave in third place to a nice round of applause.
![[Removed:17] - 2nd Place](https://s.pnimg.net/Z4EbHPH4ZY666_Tm6CkPeg_qnuwDOx0aWAg5C4L0_08/pr:reporting-leading-desktop/aHR0cHM6Ly9wbmlt/Zy5uZXQvbHJlcC8x/ODY5Lzc1L3g4MTcy/Yjg0ZWMzLmpwZw.webp)
flop gave him a backdoor flush draw, but the 
turn took it away. Yan needed a four and a four only on the river to extend his tournament life, but it wasn't in the cards as the 
blanked.