Posts Tagged ‘Phil Ivey’

Phil Ivey is Back – Wins Aussie Millions $250k

Sunday, January 29th, 2012

Along with the rest of the Full Tilt Poker crew, Phil Ivey hasn’t exactly been one of the most popular figures in poker over the past eight or so months. And he probably won’t be popular again until former Full Tilt players get their money back. Even still, Ivey wasn’t letting any of this stop him from showing up to the 2012 Aussie Millions.

The man who people have been touting as the best all-around poker player in the world for years not only showed up, but he made a huge impression after winning the Aussie Millions $250k Super High Roller event along with $2 million AUD. And you’d have to argue that this is the biggest poker tournament win of his career.

Now this is saying a lot for a guy who’s won a WPT title and eight WSOP bracelets. But judging from both a financial and adversity perspective, this is the most impressive win by Ivey. As for the adversity, he’s still dealing with a lot of the pressure from the Full Tilt fallout after Black Friday. In regards to the financial side of things, his largest poker tournament cash prior to this was a 2008 LA Poker Classic title ($1.6 million); he also finished seventh place in the 2009 WSOP Main Event ($1.4 million).

Moving along, this win could be construed as somewhat legendary since the final three players involved Ivey, Gus Hansen and Patrik Antonius. The latter is who Ivey dueled heads-up to complete the huge victory. One more point worth making here is that Ivey moved into second place on the all-time poker tournament winnings list with the win ($15.9 million).

Now does all of this mean we’re supposed to hail Phil Ivey and pretend like he had absolutely no involvement at all in the Full Tilt Poker mess? Not exactly, but we can at least respect his unparalleled poker abilities. Furthermore, we should also recognize that he’s not the primary villain in the FTP scandal by any means.

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Phil Ivey in WSOP Main Event?

Saturday, July 2nd, 2011

Back in May, Phil Ivey made a very strong statement that he had no intention of playing in any WSOP events this year. This statement was made along with Ivey expressing his disappointment in Full Tilt Poker over their non-payment of player funds. And it preceded his big $150 million lawsuit against FTP, which was blasted by several pros like Tony G and Mike Matusow.

However, it appears as if Ivey may be changing his tune following the possible sale of Full Tilt Poker to European investors. The news came via Ivey’s friend Barry Greenstein, who talked about the plans in an interview with PokerNews. You can check out Greenstein’s interview right here.

Going back to Ivey, his original statement was that he didn’t want to play in the 2011 WSOP because he said it wasn’t fair if other players could participate – due to their money being locked up in FTP. But weeks later, we saw him opening up to Full Tilt by meeting with the company’s executives in Ireland. It was reported that the meeting involved Ivey and FTP settling over the money he had tied up in the site.

Following this news, the LA Times broke a huge story about FTP working on a deal with the mysterious European investors that are still unknown at this point. And bringing this all to the present, Ivey plans on playing the Main Event as long as the deal gets completed soon.

However, even though the LA Times reported that the deal was already done, we’re still waiting on it to be officially completed. Seeing as how the Main Event starts in a few days, that doesn’t give Ivey much time to finalize his decision on playing in the tournament.

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New High Stakes Online Poker Scene

Friday, April 22nd, 2011

With US high stakes online poker players out of commission for a while following the Full Tilt and PokerStars shutdown, it will be interesting to see who will step up in the absence of guys like Phil Ivey, Dan Cates, Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond and Tom “Durrrr” Dwan.

Obviously Gus Hansen doesn’t really have to do any stepping up because he’s already at the top in 2011. Hansen opened up the year with over $2 million in profits by early February, and he doesn’t seem to have lost any of that momentum either since he’s up $4 million as we head into late April. Case in point, Hansen is a shoe-in to carry the torch for the Full Tilt high stakes scene with everybody else out of the picture.

Along with Hansen, Patrik Antonius has still been active at Full Tilt with him and Hansen recently tangling in Omaha Hi/Lo; Antonius ended up winning over $350k during the session. Hopefully we’ll be seeing more of this action simply for the sake of keeping internet high stakes poker alive.

Another guy to keep an eye on is Jens “Ingenious89″ Kyllönen, who won almost $1 million the other day against several studs like Hansen and Andreas “Skjervoy” Torbergsen. Speaking of Torbergsen, he lost quite a bit of money ($1.1 million) on the same day that Kyllönen won a bunch; however, he will still be a force to be reckoned with as we head into the future of online high stakes poker.

One guy that we won’t be seeing for a while – at least in the US – is Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies, who vowed to not deposit at either Full Tilt or PokerStars again. But you should expect Sahamies to keep playing on European sites since the high stakes action is likely to pick up at rooms like Party Poker, the iPoker Network and Ongame Network.

 

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Phil Ivey Website under Construction

Thursday, March 24th, 2011

One of the strangest things in all of poker is that the best player doesn’t have his own website. However, all of this is about to change since Phil Ivey currently has a website under construction right now. And it’s about time since there are plenty of no-name online poker players who have their own site. So why doesn’t one of the most famous players have a site?

The website should be pretty popular because it’s supposed to offer strategy and training videos from Ivey, who up until now has never gotten into the poker strategy game. In the past, Ivey said that he didn’t want to offer any strategy books or videos because he doesn’t want people to know how he plays. And with $18 million in online cash game winnings and $13.8 million in live tournament winnings, it’s not like he needs the money from offering a strategy-based website…..or does he.

Ivey reportedly lost a lot of money last year when he and his wife got divorced, so he might be looking for an additional source of revenue. Sure he owns a small part of Full Tilt and continues to amass big poker winnings, but he also lives one of the most expensive lifestyles out of any pro. For one thing, Ivey is constantly flying around the world to different destinations in search of big cash games. Secondly, he makes massive sports bets on a regular basis such as the $1 million Super Bowl bet he once made.

In any case, a lot of people are excited about Ivey’s website because they’re interested in seeing what he has to offer. And if it’s even a fraction of what Ivey knows, players are sure to get their money’s worth.

 

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Negreanu Takes Ivey’s Spot As All Time Tournament Poker Winner

Thursday, January 20th, 2011

Phil Ivey has sat at the top of the all time biggest tournament poker earners for a while now, but thanks to a million dollar runner-up finish in a recent $100k American Poker Tour No-Limit Hold’em Super High Roller event in the Caribbean, Daniel Negreanu has stolen Ivey’s crown.

Negreanu has made only two larger cash wins in his poker career than this $1 million dollar cash out. He took home over $1.7 million in the Five-Diamond World Poker Classic II and $1.1 million in the Borgata Poker Open WPT. He’s come a long way, with a total of over $14.1 million in poker winnings during the course of his career. Pretty impressive, especially considering that the 36-year old Canadian has only been on the poker tournament scene since 1997. Many of his older counterparts have been around for much longer and haven’t made as much money as he has.

Although Negreanu has surpassed Ivey in tournament winnings, Ivey still beats Negreanu when you look at how much money he has made across all aspects of poker play and not just tournaments. That being said, Negreanu’s feat is still quite an accomplishment.

In addition to now being the all time biggest poker tournament winner, Negreanu also has earned three Player of the Year accolades from the World Series Of Poker, Card Player Magazine and the WPT and is a household name amongst poker fans around the globe.

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Is Phil Ivey Too Young For The Poker Hall Of Fame? Doyle Brunson Thinks So.

Tuesday, October 19th, 2010

Back in August the nominations for Poker Hall of Fame 2010 opened and the poker world has been on the edge of their seats waiting to find out which poker greats will make the cut this year. One of the prime candidates for admission into the Poker Hall of Fame, in the eyes of many poker fans, is Phil Ivey. However, despite Ivey’s success in the professional poker arena, Doyle Brunson thinks that the 34-year old poker player is too young to make it into the Poker Hall of Fame.

What qualifies Ivey for the Poker Hall of Fame? Well, for starters he won an L.A. Classic title in 2008, he’s got 8 WSOP bracelets under his belt, 9 WPT final tables, he is the top live tournament winner of all time, and that’s just a short list of his accomplishments. However, one of the requirements for players to gain entrance to the Poker Hall of Fame is that they must have “stood the test of time.” In Brunson’s opinion, Ivey is still too young to prove that he has stood the test of time.

Last year, 26-year old Tom “Durr” Dwan was nominated for the Poker Hall of Fame but was denied a spot because of his age. However, Ivey is substantially older than Dwan and has more years of experience in the game. Brunson also thinks that Daniel Negreanu, who is 36, is too young to become a hall of famer.

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Phil Ivey Blows Fans Away With Ninth WPT Final Table

Monday, July 19th, 2010

The World Series of Poker is the biggest thing on everyone’s minds in the poker world right now, but Phil Ivey is taking a little bit of the spotlight of the WSOP by setting records with his 9th World Poker Tour final table. Everyone knows that Phil Ivey is awesome, with eight WSOP bracelet wins and one WPT title. Now he is proving yet again that he is a King of the poker world.

In the end, Ivey didn’t win the event. He lost to Moritz Kranich and Justin Smith, but still managed to come in third place, taking home $363,650. Ivey did manage to rise to chip leader at one point during the game. However, he bust with a Queen-4 against Smith’s King-8 and was out.

Before last week’s event, Phil Ivey had cashed out in 12 World Poker Tour events, and of these he had been in the final table for eight. Ivey is not the only player to score nine final tables in the WPT, though it is a very rare occurrence. Daniel Negreanu and Scotty Nguyen have accomplished the same feat. Gus Hansen has achieved a seat in 10 WPT finals.

The final rankings in the event are as follows:

First Place – Moritz Kranch – $875,150
Second Place – Justin Smith – $594,755
Third Place – Phil Ivey – $363,650
Fourth Place – John Caridad – $237,902
Fifth Place – Robert Akery – $169,930
Sixth Place – Eric Afriat – $118,950

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Phil Ivey Wins 8th World Series Of Poker Bracelet

Friday, June 25th, 2010

It probably doesn’t come as a surprise to most poker enthusiasts that Phil Ivey is continuing to kick some serious butt in this year’s World Series of Poker. This week he took home his 8th WSOP bracelet in he $3,000 H.O.R.S.E. event. Ivey has been on a roll since his first WSOP bracelet win in 2000.

Ivey took home one bracelet in 2000, three bracelets in 2002, one in 2005 and two in 2009. This is his first bracelet win in 2010, but he still could stand to win more! His bracelet wins and events are as follows:

2000 – $195,000 in $2,500 Pot Limit Omaha Event
2002 – $118,440 in $2,500 7 Card Stud Hi/Lo Event
2002 – $107,540 in $2,000 S.H.O.E. Event
2002 – $132,000 in $1,500 7 Card Stud Event
2005 – $635,603 in $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha Event
2009 – $96,367 in $2,500 No-Limit 2-7 Draw Lowball Event
2009 – $220,538 in $2,500 Omaha Hi/Lo / 7 Card Stud Hi/Lo Event

The $3000 H.O.R.S.E. tournament is a tournament made up of multiple poker variations. Players compete in Texas Hold’em, Omaha Eights or Better, Omaha Hi, Razz, Seven Card Stud, and Seven Card Stud Eight or Better. Ivey bested poker greats in the event including Jeffrey Lisandro, Chad Brown, John Juanda and Bill Chen. The win puts him in a tie with Erik Seidel for 5th place in all-time WSOP bracelet wins.

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Poker Prop Bets Abound in 2010

Wednesday, May 12th, 2010

Prop bets have always been big in poker, with professional players making all sorts of ridiculous personal bets. Vegetarians have gone carnivore, players have golfed for a whopping $18,000 per hole, moved to Israel, gotten tattoos and more. The most recent prop bet in the world of professional poker is between players Phil Ivey and Howard Lederer.

Lederer has bet $5 million against Ivey winning WSOP bracelets in the 2010 and 2011 tournaments. Ivey has won a total of seven bracelets since the 2000 World Series of Poker, two of which he won last year. He also managed to make it to the Main Event final table in last year’s tournament. However, will he win two bracelets this year and the next? Apparently he’s willing to bet $5 million that he will!

On a crazier note, player Ted Forrest has a $2 million prop bet going with Mike Matusow. Matusow has bet Forrest that he can’t get his weight down to 139 pounds by July 15. He currently weights 188. If he manages to take of the 49 pounds, Forrest will get $2 million. If he doesn’t, he’ll pay Matusow $150,000. On a previous prop bet, Forrest ran a full marathon in Las Vegas summer heat for $7000 and went immediately to the hospital for severe foot injuries when he finished. Hopefully this new prop bet won’t land him in the hospital again! Matusow has also agreed to run through the Vegas Strip totally naked if three women take home bracelets in the WSOP.

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“The Nuts” of the Poker World: ESPN’s Top 10 Poker Stars

Monday, March 22nd, 2010

There are certain names that are synonymous with poker greatness-Doyle Brunson, Stu Ungar, Daniel Negreanu, Phil Helmuth… but these are some of the best players of all time. Have you ever wondered who the best poker players of the moment are? The players that you should be following and watching right now for inspiration? ESPN has recently begun releasing a list of the top 10 poker players on a monthly basis. They’re calling their list “The Nuts.”

How is this list compiled? Unlike other lists that give anyone the opportunity to place votes online or send in nominations, “The Nuts” are selected each month by a team of experts at ESPN. The list is created based on current poker news, current tournaments, industry trends and other data. It includes players in all areas of the industry, from cash games to tournaments and everything in between. If someone is truly a poker star they are bound to make it onto ESPN’s list.

The current list, which follows, is made up of the top poker players of the moment from around the globe. If you are looking for a mentor, or just some inspiration, keep your eye on these top players:

1 – Phil Ivey

2 – Jason Mercier

3 – Tom Dwan

4 – Daniel Negreanu

5 – Patrick Antonius

6 – Yevgeniy Timoshenko

7 – Daniel Alaei

8 – Eric Baldwin

9 – Cole South

10 – Scott Seiver

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