He’s already done more in his career arguably than any other player all-time, but the (too-soon to call him “legendary”?)Phil Ivey etched another chapter in his legacy at the 2014 World Series of Poker. In Event #50, the Eight Game Mixed Event, Ivey became only the fourth player to crack the double-digit mark in bracelets in winning the tournament over a 485 player field.
Ivey came into the final day of the tournament third in chips among the 13 players remaining, looking up at Dan Heimiller and Aaron Steury as play began. The rest of the field was no slouch either as Daniel Negreanu, Amnon Filippi, Alex Rocha, Stephen Chidwick and Yuebin Guo were just some of the other competitors taking their seats. From the start, however, it seemed that it was Ivey’s day.
He started off by knocking Negreanu under 100K in chips in 2-7 Triple Draw to take over the lead, but that was short lived. When the action switched to No Limit Hold’em, Chidwick got a double up through Devin Looney after Looney found an Ace on the flop to go with his A-Q but Chidwick found a set with his pocket sixes. After the game switched to Seven Card Stud Hi/Low, Ivey once again hit the afterburners in eliminating Abdel Hamid in 10th place and, on the very next hand, cutting a swath of chips out of both the stacks of Heimiller and Christoph Haller.
By the time Heimiller eliminated Negreanu in ninth place to set the official final table, Ivey had a commanding chip lead over Steury and Chidwick while Haller, Heimiller, Guo, Rocha and Bruce Yamron filled out the other seats at the final table. Heimiller wasn’t quite done yet as the 2014 Seniors’ Event champion eliminated Rocha in eighth place as Ivey slipped back to the pack a bit. Ivey would continue to push the field and earn chips, however, getting Yamron to make a Seventh Street fold in Stud Hi/Low to replenish his stack.
While Heimiller yo-yoed a bit with his stack, Steury began to apply some pressure himself. Nailing a wheel in Triple Draw, Steury cracked the 500K mark and took the lead from Ivey with over 700K in chips when the game switched to Stud. Ivey would immediately grab it back in Omaha Hi/Low as he forced both Steury and Chidwick out of a hand on the river to push himself over the 700K mark.
Ivey’s roll continued in Razz, where he knocked Steury further down the ladder in making a 6-5-4-3-A against a seven-low out of Steury. With those chips, Ivey moved over the 900K mark and, by the next break, still was sitting on a nearly 400K lead.
It looked as though Ivey would eliminate one of his main competitors as he moved over the million chip mark. In Stud 8, Ivey left Heimiller with only 40K in chips, but the veteran professional would work his way back into the match with several double-ups. Ivey, for his part, looked as if he was running away from the pack after eliminating Chidwick in fifth place in Triple Draw, but four-handed play would bring him down from Cloud 9 quickly as he handed chips to Yamron and Heimiller.
Stunningly, Heimiller actually worked into the lead after winning a big hand in Limit Hold’em against Ivey, but the nine-time WSOP bracelet winner would come right back during the same round to bring those chips back into his stack. When the players decided to take a dinner break, Ivey (1.097 million) was still the class of the field with Yamron (556K), Heimiller (299K) and Steury (232K) barely able to add up to Ivey’s stack.
An hour of play following dinner was dominated by Yamron and Ivey as, after Heimiller’s elimination of Steury in fourth place, Yamron cut those chips from Heimiller in LHE and Triple Draw. Once Ivey was able to end the day for the resilient Heimiller in third place, he went to heads up play actually trailing Yamron but by less than 100K in chips.
Over the span of 30 minutes, Ivey would take the tournament back and the championship. Yamron couldn’t hold onto his lead and, even with his best efforts, always seemed to come up on the short end against Ivey. On the final hand in Omaha Hi/Low, Yamron’s final chips got to the center on an A-7-5-K flop and turn. Yamron showed an A-J-8-7 for a flopped two pair and low draw, but Ivey’s A-K-9-8 bested him with turned Aces and Kings and a gut shot straight redraw. Ivey only had to fade the sevens in the deck and Yamron’s shot at a low to win the title; once a Queen hit the river, Phil Ivey had captured his tenth WSOP bracelet.
1. Phil Ivey (United States), $167,332
2. Bruce Yamron (United States), $013,375
3. Dan Heimiller (United States), $66,246
4. Aaron Steury (United States), $44,286
5. Stephen Chidwick (United Kingdom), $30,488
6. Yuebin Guo (United States), $21,592
7. Christoph Haller (Germany), $15,720
8. Alex Rocha (United States), $11,750
With this victory, Ivey becomes only the fourth man – alongside Johnny Chan, Doyle Brunson (both with 10) and Phil Hellmuth (13) – to own double-digit WSOP bracelets. Considering that Ivey earned his tenth at the age of 38 (Hellmuth didn’t win his tenth until age 41), the “Poker Brat” may be feeling some heat for that WSOP bracelet record very soon from Ivey!
