Josh Hale Wins WPT Legends of Poker

After five long days of play, Josh Hale has won the World Poker Tour 2012 Legends of Poker tournament. The tournament took place at the Bicycle Casino in Los Angeles, California.

Hale started day 5 with a commanding lead, holding more than 7 million chips, double the stack of his closest rival, Greg Mueller. Hale performed well for most of the day, only briefly losing the chip lead. Mueller had a less impressive day, however, and was eliminated in fifth place.

The top three players, Hale, Max Steinberg, and Raouf Malek, enjoyed a long battle for control of all the chips. Eventually, Malek fell victim to Steinberg when his king-high straight wasn’t enough to best Steinberg’s ace in the hole.

Hale’s victory came after 145 hands of play. He started heads-up play against Steinberg with what could have been considered a sizeable disadvantage, holding 4.5million in chips to Steinberg’s 14million. However, Hale managed to double up quite quickly, and then increased his stack steadily after that, until he finally took all of Steinberg’s chips.

Hale walked away with $500,000 in prize money, while Steinberg took home $293,490, and third placed Raouf Malek took away a prize of $192,400.

In addition to the prize money, Hale has earned himself a seat at the WPT World Championship 2013.

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