Posts Tagged ‘Phil Ivey’

Author explains why Phil Hellmuth is Poker’s Phil Mickelson

Wednesday, May 1st, 2013

With 41 PGA Tour victories and 4 Majors Championships, Phil Mickelson is one of the greatest golfers of all-time. With 12 WSOP gold bracelets, Phil Hellmuth is one of the best poker players in history. And author/mental coach Jared Tendler has found a way to link both of these greats.

Tendler, who co-wrote The Mental Game of Poker 2 with Barry Carter, described both Hellmuth and Mickelson as guys who are excellent at their respective games, but have issues when things aren’t going right.

He told PokerListings, “Hellmuth and Mickelson both have more mental game issues than Tiger and Ivey. Both Hellmuth and Mickelson are great champions, won a ton, but I don’t think they have the composure and consistency that Ivey and Tiger show.” He added, “That’s a testament to how good they are when they’re at their best but it’s almost more telling about how good they are at their worst.”

Tendler also drew a comparison between Phil Ivey and Tiger Woods by saying that they both bring a mental intensity and focus that no other player can match.

“Like Tiger and Mickelson at their best might actually be equal. But Tiger might be three shots better when they’re both at their worst,” said Tendler. “Ivey might be a full big bet better than Hellmuth, or Galfond or whoever when they’re at their worst.”

The author also explained one of the biggest concepts in his book, which is being “in the zone.” Tendler stated the following:

The zone is basically the peak of your mental performance. It’s the space in your own mind where everything just seems sort of easy and natural. You’re making very high-level decisions very easily.

If you’re a golfer your golf swing is working out and every shot’s going where you want it and you’re able to visualize the shot very easily.

In poker your reads are spot-on and you’re able to make correct decisions easily, sometimes to the point that you’re not even sure exactly why it’s right.

Seeing as how poker skills are determined by your drive to learn and ability to focus, it definitely sounds like Tendler’s book could be pretty helpful for players.

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PokerStars to open World’s Biggest Branded Poker Room in Macau

Friday, February 22nd, 2013

Over the past few months, PokerStars has been making some major forays into the land-based gaming world. First, they worked out a deal to buy the Atlantic Club Casino in Atlantic City; then they announced plans to build a branded poker room in London. And now Stars has announced that they’ll build the world’s largest branded poker room in Macau.

The room will be built at the City of Dreams Casino, which is located on the world-famous Cotai Strip. “PokerStars Live at the City of Dreams” will offer cash games, daily tournaments and 13 permanent poker tables. The venue will be spacious enough to add extra tables when needed and host major events like the Asia Championship of Poker, Macau Poker Cup series, Macau Millions and the Asia-Pacific Poker Tour Macau.

Danny McDonagh, who’s the PokerStars Director of Live Operations for Asia-Pacific, discussed the new poker room by stating:

The PokerStars online brand drives more traffic to live poker events than any other. Players know that PokerStars is synonymous with integrity and high quality. That makes this collaboration a natural fit because City of Dreams has been at the forefront in providing the most innovative and premium gaming experience that is second to none in Macau.

Macau is already one of the world’s biggest destinations for live poker games. And now that PokerStars will be building a branded room at the City of Dreams, the Macau poker scene only figures to get bigger.

Some of the famous poker pros who commonly travel to Macau include Tom Dwan, Phil Ivey, John Juana and Andrew Robl. Combine these action-hungry players with the Asian businessmen who regularly play in these high stakes games, and you can see why Macau features some of the biggest pots in the world.

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Phil Ivey returns to Full Tilt Poker under New Name

Wednesday, December 12th, 2012

Following a long hiatus from the poker world, which coincided with Full Tilt Poker shutting down, Phil Ivey has been getting more and more involved in the game lately. First off, he returned to the 2012 WSOP and won five gold bracelets. Then he started a poker training website called IveyPoker. Now it appears as if he’s back to playing high stakes poker games on Full Tilt – only under a different name.

Ivey was previously a sponsored pro by the site and owned a stake in FTP. But now that he doesn’t have any contractual obligations with the poker room, he’s been grinding under the screen name “Polarizing.”

Apparently this started a few weeks ago when other high stakes players were sent an email stating how Ivey would be changing screen names with the Full Tilt relaunch – something that’s been acceptable given how the revamped FTP is owned by a totally different company.

Since his return, the eight-time WSOP champion has wasted no time in winning on the high stakes tables. Over the past couple of days, he’s collected $225k in profits while playing against some of the world’s top 2-7 Triple Draw players. His overall winnings this week are a bit lower at $114k, but still very good nonetheless.

Before Full Tilt Poker went offline in June, 2011, Phil Ivey was easily the greatest online player of all-time. He’d earned $19.24 million in profits, which is simply amazing when you consider that Patrik Antonius is a distant second with $11.84 million. Based on the hot start he’s gotten off to already since the FTP relaunch, we can only assume that Ivey will continue building on his record amount of profits – rather than suffering through major losses like fellow high stakes grinder Gus Hansen.

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What the Lederer Files have taught us about Howard

Friday, September 21st, 2012

Howard Lederer is currently in the process of doing a big interview with PokerNews that centers on his involvement in Full Tilt Poker’s demise. The seven-hour interview is called “The Lederer Files,” and it’s supposed to give Howard an opportunity to explain his actions. But with The Lederer Files over halfway finished, all we’ve gotten so far are the ramblings and accusations of a sociopath.

Rather than accept responsibility for his actions, Howard chose to deflect blame on others such as Ray Bitar. He said that Bitar was severely underqualified to serve as Full Tilt’s CEO and too incompetent as well.

Lederer also took aim at Phil Ivey by saying his lawsuit ruined any chance to sell FTP. Howard’s exact quote was, “He wasn’t speaking out for anybody except himself. He had a moral obligation to the poker community to do everything he could to, at the very least, not damage the company he had greatly profited from – the lawsuit was absurd.”

The onslaught of blame didn’t end here though because Lederer also brought all of the poker pros who took loans from FTP into the matter. He specifically identified Ivey, John Juanda and Erick Lindgren by saying that these players were unwilling to pay millions in loans back to Full Tilt. He said, “We got a lot of resistance. As of the end of May 2011, the only member who paid back what he owed the company was me. I owed the company $700,000 and I paid it in late May.”

What a surprise that Lederer would take this opportunity to say that only he repaid the loan. Of course, it’s a lot easier to do so when you’ve taken well over $40 million from the site – much of which came from player deposits. This being said, it’s no wonder why the US government wants around $40 million back from Howard through a civil suit.

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Has PokerStars finally bought Full Tilt?

Sunday, July 29th, 2012

Few poker players these days have faith in a potential Full Tilt Poker deal getting done any time soon. After all, we’ve been teased by Groupe Bernard Tapie enough to where another potential FTP deal seems like poker news sites crying wolf. Nevertheless, online poker players who are collectively owed around $400 million have gotten their hopes up again following news that PokerStars has worked out an arrangement with the US Department of Justice.

Two sources in Gambling911 and Wedeen Eolis have confirmed that PokerStars will be allowed to buy Full Tilt, provided they pay US players back of course. Gambling911 was first to surface with a story since they claimed that the US Attorney’s Office finally approved a deal with PokerStars. And the reason why this gambling news site supposedly got the story is because they filed a motion to intervene back in 2009. That said, they have access to certain information coming from Full Tilt legal dealings.

As for Wendeen Eolis, the reputable government affairs consultant claims that an impeccable resource let her know how Full Tilt Poker has indeed been purchased by PokerStars. But like Gambling911, Eolis doesn’t have any more details to pass along at this time.

With respect to both sources in this story, it’s still too early to began celebrating the impending return of $400 million to the poker world. As mentioned before, Groupe Bernard Tapie took players on an emotional roller coaster that resulted in nothing getting done. Before that, Phil Ivey and his “White Knight” investors were supposed to buy FTP and get players their money back.

As we now know, neither the Ivey nor GBT deal came to fruition so we’re forced to question whether the PokerStars news is true. But assuming an official announcement is made, it would truly mean a lot to poker players who have fortunes stuck on Full Tilt.

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Phil Ivey knocking on Door of WSOP Bracelet #9

Thursday, June 14th, 2012

It’s been a glorious return to the World Series of Poker for Phil Ivey since he’s made two final table thus far – and we’re not even halfway through the 2012 WSOP. After skipping the 2011 WSOP due to Full Tilt Poker negligently mishandling player deposits, Ivey has played remarkably. This being said, here’s a quick look at what he’s done so far:

Event #15 Final Table

The 2012 WSOP Event #15 tournament was certainly difficult since it was loaded with lots of top-level pros. This is immediately apparent when you consider that the final table consisted of Bryn Kenney, Adam Friedman, John Monnette, and Todd Brunson. Unfortunately for Ivey, his chip disadvantage coupled with the strong competition saw him bow out in 7th place ($34,595). Friedman would go on to win the tournament along with $269,037, but it was a strong showing by Ivey indeed.

2012 WSOP Event #18

While Event #15 was tough, the Event #18 field may have been even stronger since only the best anted up the $10,000 buy-in to compete in this PLO tournament. But as many good players as there were, only one mattered to the media among the 179 grinders since Phil Ivey had grabbed a big chip lead.

He couldn’t have asked for a better situation either when he still carried a chip lead into heads-up play against Andy Frankenberger. With WSOP bracelet #9 firmly within reach, Ivey traded hands with Frankenberger until his advantage slowly disappeared. Eventually, it was Frankenberger with the chip lead, and he was able to finish Ivey off to grab his second career bracelet.

As for Phil, he hasn’t won a gold bracelet since 2009. Now for most players this isn’t a bad thing at all; however, Ivey is widely considered the top all-around poker player in the world. So it’s no doubt that he’ll be vigorously seeking bracelet #9 at some point in the 2012 WSOP.

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Stories to watch in 2012 WSOP

Thursday, May 31st, 2012

Right now is the best time of the year to be a poker fan since the 2012 WSOP has officially begun. And as always, it promises to be yet another amazing event filled with big winners and memorable stories. But a few stories will no doubt stand out above the rest, and here are some tales that we think will be the most prominent.

Phil Hellmuth hunting for his 12th Bracelet

Once again, Hellmuth going after his elusive and record-extending twelfth WSOP gold bracelet will no doubt be a hot topic of discussion. Just the fact that the Poker Brat finished 61st in Event #2 was already a big story, so imagine how much he’ll dominate the poker headlines by making a deeper run.

$1 Million Buy-in Tournament

We’ve already heard a ton of talk about the Big One for One Drop since its $1 million buy-in is a record. Another record will also fall when the winner is crowned because the top prize is expected to be worth between $15-$18 million (depending on the number of entrants). Jamie Gold currently holds the record for the largest poker tournament payout ($12 million), but don’t expect this mark to be standing in early July.

Viktor Blom playing in First WSOP

We’ve seen a lot of Viktor “Isildur1″ Blom over the last few years since he’s such a successful online cash game player. However, this is the first look that we’ll have of the 21-year-old in the WSOP. Blom has had some tourney success already (PokerStars Caribbean Adventure High Roller title), and it will be interesting to see if he can expand on this.

Phil Ivey is Back

Ivey was sorely missed at the 2011 WSOP – as he supposedly sat out to protest Full Tilt Poker’s poor management before and after Black Friday. But he won’t be skipping the world’s largest poker event this year since he’s already competed in a couple of tournaments. You can bet that people will be watching with great interest to see how the world’s best all-around poker player performs this year.

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Where do Shaun Deeb’s Five Scoop Titles fit into Poker Lore?

Sunday, May 20th, 2012

If you’ve been paying attention to the poker news lately, you may have heard that Shaun Deeb has pulled off the incredible feat of winning four tournaments in PokerStars’ 2012 SCOOP. In all, he’s now captured a total of five SCOOP victories, which is two better than anybody else in online poker history. That said, it’s worth looking into where Shaun Deeb’s five SCOOP titles (more specifically four in a year) rank in poker lore.

Deeb’s Take on the Matter

If you ask Shaun Deeb himself, he doesn’t think the four SCOOP titles that he won in a single year is all that impressive. He modestly said, “It’s not as sick as everyone is making it out to be. All fields were under 100 people, and the events had amazing structures. A lot of (opponents) aren’t full-time mixed-game players.”

Even though Deeb himself may not think these wins are sick, you still have to consider that he’s survived four fields of extremely tough poker pros en route to an amazing 2012 SCOOP. Furthermore, nobody else has done anything like this in online poker tournaments in such a short span.

About the only knock against his accomplishments is that the wins occurred in tourneys where field sizes ranged from around 75-150 players. Still…not exactly easy when you consider the competition.

Other Historic Tournament Accomplishments

While it’s difficult to gauge where four SCOOP wins in a year ranks, it should be noted that he won these tourneys at a time where poker is extremely tough from a competition standpoint. So how would he compare to three-time WSOP bracelet winners in a single year?

Well the last person to do this, Jeffrey Lisandro, pulled off the feat in 2009 while facing a number of smaller mixed game fields. That’s actually pretty close to what Deeb dealt with in his SCOOP tournaments, except he won one extra tournament and was most likely facing a little tougher competition online. Sure nobody’s going to argue that SCOOP wins are more prestigious than WSOP bracelets, but four SCOOP titles in a year is comparable to three WSOP wins.

How about Erik Seidel’s 2011 year, in which he won four major live tournaments and finished high-up in several others – en route to $6.5 million in winnings. Honestly, we won’t compare Deeb’s four SCOOP wins in a year to this, but we will say that some of Seidel’s wins came in the glorified SNG’s known as Super High Roller tournaments. Overall though, we have to hand it to Seidel here.

Sparing you any further list of historical poker triumphs, we’ll just say that Shaun Deeb’s SCOOP wins deserve a big place in poker history, but maybe not as high as something like Seidel’s magical year.

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Justin Bonomo wins Monte Carlo Super High Roller and €1.64m

Thursday, April 26th, 2012

Justin Bonomo captured the biggest victory of his already-illustrious poker career after winning the 2012 Monte Carlo Super High Roller along with €1,640,000 ($2,165,217). It’s also worth mentioning that this huge cash vaulted Bonomo to the top of the 2012 money list. It wasn’t easy for “ZeeJustin” to pull all of this off though since he had to battle through a pro-heavy event.

Some of the pros involved included Jonathan Duhamel, Daniel Negreanu, Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, Phil Ivey and Patrik Antonius. Several of these players managed to make it into the money, but the tournament finale came down to Bonomo and Tobias Reinkemeier.

And despite the fact that Bonomo held a 6-1 chip advantage, Reinkemeier managed to keep things interesting by prolonging the seemingly obvious result. However, ZeeJustin was able to finally finish off the German while holding A-Q(o) against Reinkemeier’s pocket 4′s. Bonomo paired his ace on the board to take the hand along with the win.

With the EPT Monte Carlo Super High Roller title on his resume, Justin Bonomo has now earned $5,067,854 just in live tournaments alone. This doesn’t even include all of the money he’s made in online poker tournaments, online cash games, and live tourneys.

Some of his career highlights include finishing second in a 2008 WSOP $5k NLHE tournament ($230,159), winning a WSOP Circuit Caesars Palace event ($227,692), and finishing second in a 2011 WSOP $2,500 2-7 Triple Draw tournament ($117,305).

Going back to the EPT Monte Carlo Super High Roller, here’s a look at some of the other players who cashed in the event, including the pros we discussed before:

1st – Justin Bonomo, €1.64 million
2nd – Tobias Reinkemeier, €1.06 million
3rd – Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, €621,000
4th – Patrik Antonius, €443,000
5th – Masa Kagawa, €345,500
6th – Daniel Negreanu, €310,000

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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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