Phillip D. "Phil" Ivey (born February 1, 1976) is an American professional poker player who has won seven World Series of Poker bracelets and one World Poker Tour title and appeared at eight World Poker Tour final tables.
After his runner up finish at the 2010 Aussie Millions 100K event Ivey is currently listed as first in the world among all-time money winners in tournament poker. Ivey is regarded by numerous poker observers and contemporaries as the best all-around player in the world today.
Personal life
Ivey was born in Riverside, California and moved to Absecon, New Jersey when he was three-months old.
Ivey resides in Las Vegas. In December 2009 Ivey and his wife, Luciaetta, filed a joint petition for divorce after seven years of marriage; which was granted on Dec 29, 2009.
Ivey is a Los Angeles Lakers, Houston Rockets, and a Buffalo Bills fan and can often be seen wearing basketball jerseys. Ivey's hobbies include video games, prop betting and golf. He participated in the inaugural World Series of Golf, where he finished in third place.
Philanthropy
Ivey has given money to a number of charitable causes.In March of 2008 Ivey donated $50,000 to Empowered 2 Excel, a Las Vegas charity for underprivileged kids, and later that week created the Budding Ivey Foundation, a non-profit organization to continue the work of his grandfather, Leonard "Bud" Simmons. The foundation raised $260,000 (mostly for Empowered 2 Excel) at a July 3, 2008 charity poker tournament,and is also involved in children's literacy projects and programs to feed the homeless.
Career
Ivey first began to develop his poker skills by playing against 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.His other nickname is 'the Tiger Woods of Poker'.
World Series of Poker
Ivey's tournament accomplishments include winning three bracelets at the 2002 World Series of Poker, tying Phil Hellmuth Jr, Ted Forrest, Puggy Pearson, and Jeff Lisandro for most tournament wins in a single year. Ivey also has bracelets in Pot Limit Omaha from 2000 and 2005. In 2000, he was the first person to defeat Amarillo Slim heads-up at a WSOP final table. In addition to his seven World Series bracelets, Ivey has had great success in the WSOP Main Event. He placed in the top 25 four times between the 2002 and the 2009. Ivey finished 23rd in 2002, 10th in 2003, 20th in 2005 and 7th in 2009.
In 2009, Ivey won his 6th bracelet in the $2,500 No-Limit 2-7 Draw Lowball Event of the 2009 WSOP. He defeated a field of 147 players to catch his bracelet. He won a very long heads-up battle against John Monette. He then proceeded to win another bracelet in the $2,500 1/2 Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo 1/2 Omaha Hi/Lo event besting a field of 376 people. He defeated Ming Lee heads-up. While winning the $2,500 1/2 Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo - 1/2 Omaha Hi/Lo event he also managed to place 22nd in the $5000 Pot-Limit Omaha Eight-or-better despite only playing during the breaks in the Stud/Omaha event.
Main Event finishes
Between 2002 and 2009, Ivey finished among the top 25 players in the Main Event four times, in fields ranging in size from 600 entrants to just under 7000.[citation needed] Ivey finished 10th in the 2003 WSOP Main Event (one place short of the final table), and 7th in 2009. In 2009 his A♣ K♠ lost to Darvin Moon's A♦ Q♠ when a queen paired Moon on the flop; he ended with winnings of $1,404,002.
Multiple Bracelet Winner
With seven World Series of Poker bracelets, Ivey is currently tied with Billy Baxter for the sixth most of all-time. Also, at age 33, he is the youngest player to ever win seven (Phil Hellmuth was 37). In addition, other than Johnny Moss, no other player has accumulated seven bracelets as quickly; it took Ivey only nine years from the time of his first bracelet to his seventh (Moss also took nine years).
Year Tournament Prize (US$)
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
2009 $2,500 No-Limit 2-7 Draw Lowball $96,367
2009 $2,500 Omaha Hi/Lo / 7 Card Stud Hi/Lo $220,538
World Poker Tour
Ivey has also reached a record eight final tables on the World Poker Tour. He has lost several of these WPT events by being eliminated while holding the same starting hand each time, an ace and a queen. Eight out of the nine times Phil Ivey has cashed in a WPT event, he has also made the television final table. During the sixth season of the WPT in February 2008, Ivey made the final table at the LA Poker Classic at Commerce Casino that included Phil Hellmuth and Nam Le, eventually capturing the $1,596,000 first prize and putting an end to his streak of seven WPT final tables without a victory. Ivey has earned close to three million dollars in WPT cashes. 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.
Other tournaments
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 lineup of players ever seen in Europe. As one of the favorites, Ivey made it to the final table to finish seventh, and collected £6,700 ($12,534). In November 2005, Ivey won the $1,000,000 first prize at the Monte Carlo Millions tournament. Just one day after, Ivey took home another $600,000 for finishing first at "The FullTiltPoker.Net Invitational Live from Monte Carlo". His six opponents were (in reverse finishing order) Mike Matusow, Phil Hellmuth, Gus Hansen, Chris Ferguson, Dave Ulliott, and John Juanda.
As of 2009, his total live tournament winnings exceed $12,800,000. $4,865,010 of his total winnings have come from cashes at the WSOP.
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