Mike Leah Wins $25K Fantasy League

The 2017 World Series of Poker is in the books, the tables are packed up and players scattered back across the globe in retreat for some time away from the grind. Scott Blumstein is the new World Champ, Chris Ferguson is most-likely WSOP Player of the Year and Mike Leah cleaned up in the $25K Fantasy League.

Leah won the league with 889 total points, his MVP was Ben Yu with 287 individual points which was better than 32% of the team’s score at only 6% of the budget. “I had Obst, Ismael and Ben on my guys to target list going into the draft,” Leah said. “So I expected great summers out of all three.”

“But, of course, getting Ben at such a low price and having him perform as well as he did makes him the MVP,” Leah added. Yu won his second career WSOP bracelet in the $10,000 Deuce to Seven Triple Draw Championship and the final tabled the Limit Hold’em Championship a few days later.

Ben Yu had a career year at the 2017 WSOP. (Photo: PokerPhotoArchive.com)
It’s safe to project the Yu’s price will be much higher than $12 next year. “It’s a little hard to guess what a player will go for the following year,” Leah said. “It only takes two teams that really want a player to inflate the price – I’d guess in the $50-$70 range.”

Leah’s other big scorer was James Obst with 230 points after winning his first bracelet in the Razz Championship, finishing runner-up in the $2,500 Mixed Triple Draw Lowball event and two other virtual final table bubbles.

Leah’s win wasn’t a lock until the end of the Series after Connor Drinan made a deep run in the Main Event – 56th place for 75 fantasy points. “We still had to fade Pescatori in the Main and Ferguson in the Little One for One Drop,” Leah said.

“We were sweating it pretty hard,” he added. “It was a nice insurance policy to have Connor still in.”

While most of Team Leah was productive – he did have one player that bricked the Series for him. The eight-time bracelet winner Erik Seidel. Readers deserve to know if Leah tried “coaching up” Seidel during the Series.

Erik Seidel didn’t cash in the WSOP this year. (Photo: PokerPhotoArchive.com)
“I did have a couple quick conversations with Erik – he said he wasn’t a good pick because he wouldn’t be playing much,” Leah said with a laugh. Seidel took two-week family vacation in the middle of the Series. Seidel didn’t cash in the WSOP for the first time since 1991 – a 27 year span.

“He said he’d try hard and I told him we only need him to win one ,” Leah said. “I’m glad that nomination didn’t come back to haunt me.”

Fantasy Poker is fun! ??
Thanks @RealKidPoker @25kfantasy
We’ll call this “RakeBack” from my summer expenditures ?? pic.twitter.com/ZHvunQ0ZoO

— Mike Leah (@GoLeafsGoEh) July 17, 2017