Phil Ivey

Also known as the “Tiger Woods of Poker”, Phil Ivey is arguably the best all around poker player on the planet. Is skills stem from pure instincts as Phil Ivey claims to have never read a poker book in his life. Phil Ivey grew up in New Jersey very close to the gambling mecca of Atlantic City. Before he was of age to gamble, Phil Ivey would sneak into casinos using a fake ID and would play hours upon hours of Seven Card Stud at the Taj Mahal resort and casino. This was the start of his poker career and what a career it has been.

Play with Phil Ivey at Full Tilt Poker

Phil Ivey is mainly a cash game player who plays any and every form of poker. His favorite game is the mixed $4000-$8000 mixed game in Las Vegas with the best poker players in the world, usually playing for pots that could buy a house. He is also found playing the same game at stakes of $2k/$4k on Full Tilt Poker, who sponsors Phil Ivey. In the past 2 years, Phil Ivey has won about $10 million dollars on this poker site. Phil Ivey has also made numerous appearances on “High Stakes Poker” and “Poker After Dark”, 2 of the more popular poker television shows on television.

Although Mr. Ivey is mostly a cash game player, this is not to say he has not had success in tournament poker. As a matter of fact, Phil Ivey has one of the best tournament poker resumes out of any professional poker player. All together, Phil Ivey has won a whopping 7 World Series of Poker bracelets. His first bracelet came in 2000, when he won a $2.5k buy in Pot Limit Omaha Event for about $200k. He then won 3 bracelets in 2002, in $2.5k buy in Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo, a 2k buy in SHOE event, and a $1.5k buy in Seven Card Stud event. Those 3 events together were worth a total of a quarter million dollars. Phil continued his WSOP success in 2005 by winning a $5k buy in Pot Limit Omaha event for almost $650. His latest bracelets came this year, by winning a $2.5k buy in 2-7 Lowball event for $100k and another Omaha Hi/Lo / Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo event for over $200k. On top of all of his success, his 2009 WSOP is not over.

Phil Ivey also made the final table of the $10k buy in No Limit Hold Em championship as part of the “November 9”, and will play for the grand prize of over $8 million on November 10th. He is already guaranteed over $1 million for his final table appearance. Phil Ivey also holds the record for the most World Poker Tour final tables ever made, with a grand total of 8. Although he only won 1 of those tournaments, the win was worth $1.5 million. Phil Ivey also has a victory in the Monte Carlo Millions tournament, that earned him a cool $1 million.

Phil is also known for being a very generous player. After winning the 2-7 Lowball bracelet at the WSOP in 2009 for example, Phil Ivey gave his $100k first place prize away to the dealers of the tournament and only took the bracelet. As well, it is speculated that many professional professional poker players including Howard Lederer, Tom Dwan and Andy Bloch are putting up huge side bets against Phil Ivey winning the WSOP Main Event on November 10th. It is being said that Phil stand to win almost double the first place prize if he actually wins.