With his absence being one of the biggest mysteries over the past couple of years in tournament poker, one of the legends in the game, poker professional Phil Ivey, has stated that he plans to participate in this year’s World Series of Poker.
In an interview with Frank Op de Woerd and Laura Cornelius of PokerNews, Ivey reflected on his tournament trek over the past couple of years. Naturally, the discussion occurred after his victory in Montenegro during the Triton Poker Super High Roller Series, when Ivey defeated a talented final table of Dan Cates, Jason Koon and Mikhail Smirnov to win over HK$600,000 in the HK$250,000 Short Deck Ante-Only Hold’em event. In that discussion, Ivey gave some glimpses into his mind and the new game he was playing.
“I started recently with short deck, in the last year and a half,” Ivey noted to PokerNews. “It’s become quickly one of my favorite games.” In the unique variation, the deuces through fives have been removed from the deck, making for a 36-card deck instead of the usual 52. With the shortened deck, it makes for fewer players at a table (more action) and bigger hands required to win a pot. It also seems to be something that Ivey has taken to rather quickly; a few days following his victory in the tournament, he would finish third in another, larger HK$1,000,000 buy in event.
The big story from the PokerNews interview wasn’t the thrilling new game that Ivey was playing, however. It was the fact that, after not attending the WSOP since 2014, that Ivey would return to the sacred stage in Las Vegas this year. “I plan on playing this year. I want to start playing some more tournaments; I kind of announced that at the beginning of the year. I plan on playing the World Series of Poker.”
This would be news because, as previously stated, Ivey on the tournament poker stage has been non-existent. After winning his tenth (10th) WSOP bracelet in 2014 in the $1500 Eight Game Mixed Event (tying him with Doyle Brunson and Johnny Chan behind Phil Hellmuth’s 14), Ivey disappeared from the tournament poker scene. He would make a quick appearance in Australia for the Aussie Millions for a couple of tournaments in 2015 (where he won the $250,000 LK Boutique Challenge and cashed in the Main for a total of $2,245,000 Australian), but then almost drop off the face of the earth as far as tournament poker.
Ivey once again teased the poker world by coming out in January 2016 for another Triton event, their $200,000 Super High Roller event during the World Poker Tour National stop in the Philippines, but not get close to a tournament poker room for the remainder of the year or for the entirety of 2017. Instead, Ivey was content to sit in the cash games in these far-flung locales (and in Macau, where he has reportedly been engaged in some sizeable cash game action) instead of trekking to Las Vegas for “summer camp.”
Or was that all to the story?
Over the past few years, Ivey has been involved in litigation in both the United Kingdom and the States of America regarding his “extracurricular” activities outside the poker room. To be precise, it was the legal case that saw the poker legend going against a London casino over £7.7 million in punto banco winnings that Ivey racked up in 2012. That case, after winding its way through the British court system, saw the High Court decide in 2016 to uphold a previous court decision that Crockfords didn’t have to pay out Ivey because of his utilization of a controversial “advantage play” technique known as “edge sorting.” Things didn’t get better for Ivey after that. In December 2016, Ivey was ordered to return a $10.1 million casino win at the Borgata for employing the same tactic in their casino.
Whether he’s stayed away because of the court cases, because the cash game action has been “too good,” or because he just needed to take a break, the return of Phil Ivey to the WSOP in Las Vegas is certainly welcomed. Whether his “run good” from overseas will continue in Sin City will be something to watch, however.
