PROFILE: PHIL IVEY
After almost 2 months of competition a lot of money has been won, and lost. Titles have switched hands and a deserved small number of players have walked away with a prize some perhaps covet more than cash. Some have walked away with a WSOP bracelet, the most sought after trophy in poker.
Phil Ivey has already collected two this year in the $2,500 Omaha Hi/Lo / 7 Card Stud Hi/Lo and the $2,500 No-Limit 2-7 Draw Lowball and for his efforts cashed a healthy $326,905 from both events.
In November he will return to the WSOP Main Event Final Table in 7th place with 9,765,000 in chips and a guaranteed $1.25 million in prize money. In a tournament that is often questioned for luck having a huge part in deciding the winner Ivey’s style of play is surely making a case against this argument as he hunts for his eighth WSOP bracelet. Perhaps the best player in the world, Phil Ivey started out in the casinos of Atlantic City. He played as a teenager under an alias and established the nickname ‘No Home Jerome’ because of this.
Ivey’s first WSOP bracelet came in spectacular style in 2000 when he won the $2,500 Pot Limit Omaha and became the first person to defeat Amarillo Slim heads up at a WSOP final table. In 2002 he claimed another 3 bracelets in the $2,500 7 Card Stud Hi/Lo, $2,000 S.H.O.E. and the $1,500 7 Card Stud.
He won one more in 2005 when he took down the competition to capture the $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha title. It would be another four years before he won another bracelet at this year’s World Series. It is perhaps fitting that arguably the best player on the planet has already collected two bracelets at the 40th anniversary of the WSOP and goes into the final table as a favourite to win the biggest prize in poker despite his relatively low chip stack.
One thing is sure; Ivey’s success at this year’s event is great for the sport. His popularity is immense, a fact that was constantly heard through the Rio as people cheered and chanted as he won pot after pot and sent opponents crashing to the rail.
Over the coming months Ivey mania will grow. How many people will you see entering tournaments donning a baseball cap, oversized earphones accompanying a popular brand of MP3 player and a baggy shirt. How many of your friends will arrive to play in your home games dressed in homage to a man who is to poker what David Beckham is to Football or Roger Federer is to Tennis.
Between now and 7th November the man himself will most likely try to avoid the spotlight as he so often does. As professionals in the poker world continue to contemplate the ‘Tiger Woods of Pokers’ chances ahead of the final table he will play the cash games he loves and mentally prepare himself for the task ahead. He has famously said that he can see himself reaching a tally of 30 WSOP bracelets in his lifetime, a statement he still believes to be true.
And in the form he is currently in, who would bet against it?
