Phil Ivey (born February 1, 1976) is an American professional poker player.
Early years
Ivey grew up in New Jersey and crafted his skills amongst his co-workers at a New Brunswick, New Jersey telemarketing firm in the late 1990's - Phil was a master salesman as well as a talented card player. 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 (WSOP), tying Phil Hellmuth Jr and Ted Forrest for the most wins in a single year.
Ivey also has bracelets in Pot Limit Omaha in 2000 and 2005. 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. Phil finished 23rd in 2002, 10th in 2003, and 20th in 2005.
Bracelet summary
Date Tournament Prize (US$)
05-May-00 $2,500 Pot Limit Omaha $195,000
03-May-02 $2,500 7 Card Stud Hi/Lo $118,440
10-May-02 $2,000 S.H.O.E. $107,540
23-Apr-02 $1,500 7 Card Stud $132,000
26-June-05 $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha $635,603
World Poker Tour
Ivey has also reached numerous final tables on the World Poker Tour (WPT), but has yet to win an event. He has coincidentally lost several of these WPT events by being eliminated while holding the same starting hand each time, an ace-queen.
European Poker Tour
Phil made his debut on the European Poker Tour (EPT) 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.
Other tournaments
On 20 November 2005, Ivey won the $1,000,000 first prize at the Monte Carlo Millions tournament. Four days later on 25 November 2005, Ivey won the $600,000 first prize at the FullTiltPoker.com's invitational tournament broadcast live on Fox Sports Net 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 2006, his total live tournament winnings exceed $7,000,000.
Cash Games
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) and in February 2006 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.
Outside of poker
Ivey is a Houston Rockets and Los Angeles Lakers 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.
Phil's hobbies include video games, proposition gambling, and recently he has also taken up golf.
Ivey is part of the design team for Full Tilt Poker. He also mentored WPT winner Annand "Victor" Ramdin.
Ivey resides in Las Vegas with his wife. He has joked about coming home dejected after losing thousands of dollars in cash game play, only to have to console his wife about her losses at penny-ante level online poker games while he was gone.
External links
Official site
Full Tilt Poker profile
World Poker Tour profile
Poker Babes profile
Guide to Poker profile
ALL IN interview
PokerPlayer magazine interview
Hendon Mob tournament results
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Ivey"
