Event #14 of the sixth UB.com Online Championship(UBOC) was a $215 No Limit Hold’em Short Stack Triple Chance tournament. A field of 261 players turned out and, when the final cards were dealt, Canadian and longtime PocketFives.com member Mike goleafsgoeh Leah (pictured) came away with the coveted UBOC watch along with $26,000 in cash. The tournament failed to reach its guarantee, but the top 27 players landed in the money.

The tournament only awarded starting stacks of 300 chips, leaving players with just a few big blinds rather quickly. Leah gave us his strategy for the swift format: “The blinds started at 5/10, so there was some play to start with. My goal was to try to build a decent stack in the first half-hour knowing that people would be gambling a lot. I would obviously prefer not to have to rebuy, but it looked like there was going to be a big overlay, so I had decided it was definitely worth rebuying twice if I needed to.”

Leah busted his stack and bought back in, only to become the chip leader following the rebuy period. On whether his optimal strategy was to play aggressively or wait for others to make mistakes, Leah revealed, “I am not going to pass up a marginally good spot if one comes up, but I tend to try to take advantage of others’ mistakes.”

On the general allure of a short-stacked event, Leah explained, “I think there is almost as much skill in this type of short-stacked event; it’s just a different skill set. I have had a lot of success in shallow Turbo events and feel I have a good approach to them. The allure would be to win a lot of money in a short amount of time.” Earlier in January, Leah had final tabled the Full Tilt Poker $750,000 Guarantee for $100,000. Last November, he took down a Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS) jersey for $92,000.

Third place in the UBOC event went to Jon PearlJammer Turner (pictured). Leah gave us a scouting report on the acclaimed poker author and longtime member of the community: “I feel like his game is progressing with the best. Some of the guys who have been around for a while stopped learning and trying to improve. I do not feel he’s in that group.” Turner’s UBOC final table appearance was worth $11,000.

Leah has been on a tear as of late. Aside from his stellar online scores, Leah also cashed in the PokerStars North American Poker Tour (NAPT) Los Angeles stop in November for $18,000. “I learn best from my own mistakes and don’t learn well from others,” Leah reflected. “I feel like I have been playing well. Even yesterday on a big losing day, I had some great stacks and runs and then just lost some big flips late and didn’t finish well. I think there has to be a combination. It’s hard to get there if you’re not playing well, but even when you’re at your best, things have to fall right to get you to the final few tables. Once I get there, I feel I’m going to get to the end every time.”

Starting on Super Bowl Sunday on Full Tilt is FTOPS XIX, which Leah said he’ll be a regular at for its two-week run. Recently, he has been focused on Double Guarantees Week on the world’s second largest online poker site. We asked him for his take on Full Tilt’s multi-entry tournaments, which were a staple of the promotional week: “I think the multi-entry idea is awesome for everyone. It makes for much bigger prize pools, which lead to bigger prizes and allow every player to play their desired number of screens in the best events. It has been amazing.”

Leah added that, in light of promotions like Double Guarantees Week, he’s looking to expand his maximum number of tables, which right now stands at four: “I find that each table I add, my level of play goes down, so it’s something I want to improve on. But, I also need to know where I play my best.”

Visit UB.comfor more information on UBOC 6 and be sure to check out our final table results.