Michael Leib finished in 16th place in the $2,000 No Limit Hold’em Deepstack Event #6 last Tuesday to earn what was at the time the second-largest recorded cash of his poker career at $5,695. Leib did quite a bit better in Saturday’s $333 No Limit Hold’em Event #10, scoring a first-place finish to earn the tournament’s top prize of $81,645 and his first career World Series of Poker gold bracelet.
The Chicago, Illinois native earned the first four WSOP cashes of his career in last year’s WSOP Online 2020 series, recording his best finish when he came in 89th place in the $500 Senior’s Event. Leib’s Hendon Mob page featured only nine career results before Saturday’s win. The $333 buy-in event drew in 986 unique buy-ins and 531 re-entries to produce a total prize pool of $455,100.
Dan Shak eliminated Will Givens in 10th place on the final hand before the 12:55 AM PST break to send the remaining nine players on break with a final table to return to. Nine-handed play lasted for about 15 minutes until a blind vs. blind spot created the first casualty of the final table.
Action folded to ‘LuckyLuch11’ in the small blind who min-raised to 240,000. George Konstantoulakis called from the big blind and the two players saw a flop of 
. Both players checked the flop and the 
fell on the turn. ‘LuckyLuch11’ bet 220,000 and Konstantoulakis called. The 
completed the board and drew a check from ‘LuckyLuch11’. Konstantoulakis moved all-in for 1,453,184 and was eventually called after ‘LuckyLuch11’ used about half of their time bank to think. ‘LuckyLuch11’ had two pair with the 
and was good against Konstantoulakis’s 
river bluff.
Two players were eliminated on back-to-back hands just three minutes later. ‘MMenz08816’ moved all-in for their last 953,726 from early position with 
. ‘Vinnyj88’ three-bet shoved his 2,156,532 from the button with 
and Leib went all-in with his remaining 2,148,209 chips as well with 
. Dan Shak got out of the way in the big blind and the flop came 
to give Leib top pair and the nut-flush draw. The 
on the turn brought straight outs for both ‘MMenz08816’ and ‘Vinnyj88’ that the other player blocked with their pocket pair. Nothing changed when the 
fell on the river as ‘MMenz08816’ was eliminated in eighth place and ‘Vinnyj88’ was left with only 8,323 chips. Those remaining chips were anted up and lost on the next hand.
The whirlwind of eliminations continues five minutes later when ‘LuckyLuch11’ min-raised to 320,000 with and was met with an all-in shove of 767,779 chips from ‘Diaper_money’ on the button with 
. Both blinds folded and ‘LuckyLuch11’ to send the players to a flop of 
. ‘Diaper_money’ remained ahead with their ace-high when the 
came out on the turn, but the on the river gave ‘LuckyLuch11’ top pair and knocked ‘Diaper_money’ out in sixth place.
Five-handed play lasted for just one orbit. Michael Dyer went all-in for his last 1,729,496 chips in the cutoff with 
and Leib re-shoved from the small blind with 
. The big blind folded and the flop of 
brought in some backdoor straight potential for both players. Dyer added four clean straight outs when the 
fell on the turn. The on the river paired the board and kept Leib’s ace-king in the lead to end Dyer’s tournament in fifth.
Ten minutes actually managed to pass without an elimination before the next two came within two minutes of each other. Shak moved all-in from under the gun with 
for 3,170,856. Leib made the call from the big blind and was ahead holding 
. Leib remained comfortably in the lead after a flop of 
, though Shak turned a couple of extra outs when the dropped on the turn. The on the river completed the board and eliminated Shak in fourth place.
Richard Bruner shoved from the small blind for his last 1,141,528 with just moments later. ‘LuckyLuch11’ called in the big blind with 
. Both players flopped a pair on a 
board and both improved to two-pair with the on the turn. Bruner didn’t get the four that he needed and was knocked out in third place when the fell on the river.
‘LuckyLuch11’ and Leib entered heads up play with virtually identical stacks of right around 56 big blinds apiece. This set the stage for a final table battle that lasted for nearly 40 minutes. Both players will still fairly even in chips after 30 minutes of heads-up action before a cooler spot gave Leib a massive chip lead. Leib and ‘LuckyLuch11’ got the chips all-in on a 
board. ‘LuckyLuch11’ held 
for a turned two-pair while Leib had for a flopped set of threes. The 
on the river changed nothing and left Leib with all but 1,210,674 chips.
The final hand of the tournament came moments later when Leib raised to 560,000 on the button with and ‘LuckyLuch11’ called from the big blind with . The flop came to give Leib a pair and ‘LuckyLuch11’ an inside straight draw. Leib moved all-in and ‘LuckyLuch11’ called off their last 1,602,696. The 
on the turn and on the river completed Leib’s run to victory.
Final Table Payouts
- Michael ‘njnj17’ Leib – $81,645
- ‘LuckyLuch11’ – $50,562
- Richard ‘3ofspade’ Bruner – $35,907
- Dan ‘oiltrader513’ Shak – $25,850
- Michael ‘helionic’ Dyer – $18,887
- ‘Diaper_money’ – $13,926
- ‘Vinnyj88’ – $10,467
- ‘MMenz08816’ – $7,919
- George ‘gkon86’ Konstantoulakis – $6,098