Unlike some sports teams, Mike “GoLeafsGoEh” Leah has as good of an away game as he does playing from home, with a proven track record of doing both well, winning over $1,225,000 on the live felts and almost million and half more online. Not to shabby, when you consider the Ontario player has only been taking the game seriously for about the past five years.
“I had a few co-workers that played casually in 2005 that introduced me to the game.” said Leah. “I fooled around a little here and there never really getting serious, then in early 2006 I sat’d into the Sunday Million on Poker Stars and played it for the 1st time… I ended up making the Final Table, winning over 20k and was hooked! Stars was the 1st site I played, then added Full Tilt later in 2006… I’ve also played a bit on Party, UB and Lock Poker over the last few years.”
His screen name is one that once you have seen for the first time, you won’t forget anytime soon, as you are most either reading as he gives your table a tough time, or in a report of another huge score. As far as why he chose it, Mike had this to say, “Yes, a Leafs fan born and raised….I started off with GoLeafsGo and of course that was already taken, so I threw the “Eh” in for some Canadian flavor, It’s funny thinking back because I don’t think I could come up with a better name now if I tried. ‘Sports/Leafs/Canada’ That’s me in a nutshell.”
Leah’s more recent and quite notable accomplishments include winning Event #24 in last November’s installment of Full Tilts Online Poker Series, claiming the title, coveted gold jersey and $97,797 USD. Also not far from legendary as far as performance goes,is that over the same month, “GoLeafsGoEh” made three final tables in the Canadian Championships Of Online Poker on PokerStars as well. He followed this up with another “title” win over January’s UBOC, turning $200 into $26,000. Then, as if his streak wasn’t hot enough, Leah came very close to bagging his second jersey over February of 2011, placing 2nd in another FTOPS event for his largest single online cash to date of over $111,000.
Playing around the world, Leah has amassed around fifty major live tournament cashes, spread across different variations and disciplines of the game. When we asked him about his favorites Mike answered; “I really enjoy the draw games; especially 2-7 NL single draw. There is no flop, no up-cards so the only information you get is what the other player gives you… Truest form of poker in my opinion…I am working at improving in every game that is offered at the WSOP; that is far and above my #1 goal, having a great WSOP in 2011.”
On the live circuit, Mike has already banked a very solid eight wins over major medium to high buy-in events tournament series. His largest single live win so far was in March of 2009, at the Borgata in Atlantic City and worth almost $320,000. In the same year,he also won two Venetian Deep Stack Extravaganza events back to back, for another combined $240,000+.Looking at his live and online results side by side, one has to wonder if the man could have time for anything but play poker, however according to Mike,”it’s an ever changing “work in progress” trying to find the right balance.” when asked about the topic Leah answered; “I left a great job in the summer of 2008 because I had to choose between that and poker, they were interfering too much with each other. Since then I have been trying to figure out the right balance. My plan for 2011 is pretty much the same as 2010: 1 trip/month approx 2 weeks, during that time on the road I play at least 12hrs/day between live tournaments, live cash and online. During the 2 weeks at home I don’t play much poker, unless there is a series like FTOPS/WCOOP going on… I only play Sunday’s online if there is not a series going. For the most part I set my live schedule based on what events I feel have the most value. I wish there were more local events to play… I was really hoping Canada would get a NAPT event or two… still hoping.* Niagara had that WPT event for 2 years that drew over 500 each year, still don’t understand why they took that off of the schedule. I played that both years, and have played the BCPC main event the last few years except for this last year due to the new NAPT event in LA. I hope more major tournaments come to Canada as they have all drawn very well and of course I would prefer to play closer to home.”
Any time a person breaks $1,000,000 in both live and online winnings, it goes without saying there might be a little to be learned from asking what makes that player tick. So what does motivate Leah when it comes to the game?
“I tend to focus solely on the major events live and online…WSOP and other live main events and then FTOPS, WCOOP, other online series and then Sunday’s online. If the prize pool isn’t big enough I tend not to care as much and would not play as well… the exception would be a WSOP, FTOPS or COOP event with a smaller prize pool, but the prestige of winning a bracelet, jersey etc… that really motivates me. There is nothing like the feeling of winning a live tournament, having all of the chips in front of you at the end, defeating all of the other players; I find I am much more emotionally involved in a live event. But winning an FTOPS event was something I had been striving for a long time and had come so close so many times; it meant a lot to win one.”
Mike has been climbing the FTOPS all time leader board fast, now near the top spot and continues to climb more than a few others. Does it mean any to Mike though? Leah commented, “They are important, with my background in sports and sales… It helps me to have things to shoot for, makes it a lot more fun for me and gives me that added motivation to try my best every event. For 2011, my goals for the year are Top 10 live player of the year, Top 100 online player of the year and a great WSOP (1st bracelet or at least a couple deep runs).”
Being so diverse and successful both online and off, we wondered if Mike prefers online play to live or vice versa and which produces the best players in his opinion. He offered theses thoughts; “To compete at the highest level in live events I think you need an understanding of both the live and online game, more and more the online game is feeding into live tournaments. The game is ever changing and it helps to know what your opponents are doing/thinking.”
As far as other tough Canadian Players and favorites we might want to talk to and keep an eye on in the future, Leah had A few names for us to look out for;
“There are so many great Canadian players that are making their mark on the poker scene I would hate to leave anyone out, but I guess I will throw out a few names. Casey Jarzabek, Owen Crowe, Pat Pezzin, Van Nguyen, Sorel Mizzi, Peter Jetten, Matt Marafioti, Samuel Chartier and there is a really strong group of players from Quebec highlighted at this year’s WSOP of course that are going to be a force in the years to come.”
Last but not least, if you ask Mike the one piece of advice he would give any player starting out or looking to improve he offers the following advise;
“Enjoy yourself and remember to take time for the other things in your life that you enjoy. Happy poker players are going to be more successful in the long run. On a more poker’ish note; learn the way you have learned best in other things in your life (School, sports). Do you learn best by reading, by experience, by having a personal coach/tutor… It will most likely be the same for poker.”
If that still isn’t enough to “make bank” like Mike, coaching enquiries for interested players can contact him here: mike@705poker.com
* Comment regarding NAPT stops came before “Black Friday”, however like Mike…we can still hope as well.
