Biography of Poker Player Phil Ivey
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Poker is a popular card game in which players, each holding one or more cards whose face value is concealed, place wagers into a central pot. The pot is awarded to the player or players with the best combination of cards or to the player who makes an uncalled bet. Poker can also refer to video poker, a single-player game seen in casinos much like a slot machine, or to other games that use poker hand rankings.
Phil Ivey (born February 1, 1976 in Riverside, California) is an American professional poker player.
Early years
Ivey grew up in New Jersey and crafted his game playing skills amongst his co-workers at a New Brunswick, New Jersey telemarketing firm in the late 1990s. One of his nicknames, "No Home Jerome", stems from the ID card he secured to practice in Atlantic City in his teenage years.
Poker tournaments
World Series of Poker
Despite now focusing more on cash games than tournaments, his tournament accomplishments include winning three titles at the 2002 World Series of Poker, tying Phil Hellmuth Jr and Ted Forrest for the most wins in a single year.
Ivey also has bracelets in Pot Limit Omaha from 2000 and 2005. In 2000, he was the first player to beat Amarillo Slim heads-up. In addition to his five World Series Bracelets, Ivey has shown great success in the WSOP Main Event. He placed in the top 25 three times from 2002 to 2005, with the fields growing exponentially each year. Ivey finished 23rd in 2002, 10th in 2003, and 20th in 2005.
Bracelet summary
| Year | Tournament | Prize (US$) |
|---|---|---|
| 2000 | $2,500 Pot Limit Omaha | $195,000 |
| 2002 | $2,500 7 Card Stud Hi/Lo | $118,440 |
| 2002 | $2,000 S.H.O.E. | $107,540 |
| 2002 | $1,500 7 Card Stud | $132,000 |
| 2005 | $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha | $635,603 |
World Poker Tour
Ivey has also reached numerous final tables on the World Poker Tour, but has yet to win an event. Coincidentally, he has lost several of these WPT events by being eliminated while holding the same starting hand each time, an ace-queen.
European Poker Tour
Ivey made his debut on the European Poker Tour in Barcelona, September 2006. He came to the final table of nine as the chipleader, but he eventually came in second to Bjørn-Erik Glenne from Norway.
European Poker Masters
In 2006, Ivey was enticed to London to participate in The London All Star Challenge of the inaugural European Poker Masters. Not only Europe's first ever independent poker tour, the EPM boasted the best line-up of players ever seen in Europe. As one of the favorites, Ivey made it to the final table to finish 7th, and collected just shy of $15,000.
Other tournaments
On 20 November 2005, Ivey won the $1,000,000 first prize at the Monte Carlo Millions tournament. Just one day after winning $1 Million, Ivey took home another $600,000 for finishing first at "The FullTiltPoker.Net Invitational Live from Monte Carlo". The other six men consisted of (in reverse finishing order) Mike Matusow, Phil Hellmuth, Gus Hansen, Chris Ferguson, Dave Ulliott, and John Juanda.
As of 2007, his total live tournament winnings exceed $7,800,000.
Other poker
Ivey is a regular participant in the $4,000-8,000 mixed cash game at the Bellagio hotel in Las Vegas (often referred to as the Big Game). In February 2006, he played heads-up Limit Texas Hold'em versus Texas billionaire Andy Beal. With stakes at $50,000/$100,000, Ivey won over $16 million over the course of three days. Ivey was playing for "The Corporation", a group of poker professionals who pooled their money and took turns playing against Beal. Earlier in the month, Beal beat the Corporation out of $10 million. After losing to Ivey, Beal claimed (not for the first time) that he was giving up poker.
Ivey is part of the design team for Full Tilt Poker. He can occasionally be found playing online at Full Tilt, playing high stakes limit and no limit hold 'em cash games, as well as PL Omaha Hi games. He also mentored WPT winner Annand "Victor" Ramdin.
Ivey resides in Las Vegas with his wife.
On the January 22, 2007 airing of NBC's Poker After Dark Ivey won the $120,000 winner-take-all "Earphones Please" tournament by eliminating Mike Matusow, Tony G, Andy Bloch, Phil Hellmuth and Sam Farha.
On the April 15, 2007 airing of NBC's "National Heads-Up Poker Championship", Ivey was defeated by actor Don Cheadle. Ivey has been eliminated from this tournament in the first round for three straight years.
Phil Ivey was one of the players who took part during season three of GSN's High Stakes Poker.
Outside of poker
Ivey is a Los Angeles Lakers and Houston Rockets fan and can often be seen wearing basketball jerseys. During the 2003 WSOP, he was seen wearing a Steve Francis jersey when he was eliminated in 10th place.
Ivey's hobbies include video games and proposition gambling, and recently, he has also taken up golf.
