Doyle Brunson and Johnny Chan had better take a look in their rear-view mirrors. Phil Ivey is tailgating. Ivey, the man most would probably consider the greatest living poker player, added to his legend Wednesday, winning the World Series of Poker Asia Pacific (WSOP APAC) $2,200 Mixed Event, earning himself his ninth career WSOP bracelet. With one more win, he will tie both Brunson and Chan for second on the all-time list behind Phil Hellmuth and his thirteen bracelets.
Beyond the simple number of bracelets he has won, perhaps the most impressive thing about Ivey’s collection is the skillset he has displayed in winning tournaments that featured a number of different game types. He has won two bracelets in Omaha, two in Stud, one in 2-7 Draw Lowball, and four in mixed games. Compare that to Hellmuth, who has won all but one of his bracelets in Hold’em events.
With over $17.6 million in lifetime live tournament earnings, Ivey now sits fifth on the all-time money list behind Antonio Esfandiari, Sam Trickett, Hellmuth, and Erik Seidel. Esfandiari and Trickett, however, won the bulk of their totals in the 2012 WSOP Big One for One Drop event. Excluding events like that with buy-ins over $50,000, Ivey is fourth on the all-time money list, trailing Hellmuth, Michael Mizrachi, and Daniel Negreanu.
This Mixed Event, the third tournament on the WSOP APAC schedule, featured eight rotating games: No-Limit Hold’em, Stud, Omaha 8, Razz, PLO, Limit Hold’em, Stud 8, and Triple Draw 2-7.
Ivey went into the final table as the chip leader with 144,300 chips, just slightly ahead of the aforementioned Negreanu, who had 129,000. Their combination of skill and chip stacks made them the clear bracelet favorites. Their two stacks totaled more than the other four stacks combined. Negreanu was unable to give poker fans the heads-up match they so dearly wanted, though, as he bowed out in fourth place. He had gotten all his chips in with straight and flush draws in a Pot-Limit Omaha round against Brandon Wong’s two pair and could not catch the card he needed.
Once Graeme Putt was eliminated in third place, it was Wong and Ivey for the bracelet with close to even chip stacks: 256,000 for Wong and 230,000 for Ivey. It was a grind-it-out type of heads-up match, but Ivey finally got to Wong in a 2-7 Triple Draw round. Wong opened to 20,000, Ivey three-bet to 30,000, and Wong capped the betting at 40,000 chips. After both players drew one card, Ivey bet 10,000 and Wong called. This time, Ivey stood pat and Wong drew one again. Ivey bet 20,000, Wong called, and again Ivey stood pat while Wong drew one. Ivey then bet 20,000 in the dark and Wong folded, obviously not getting the card he needed and leaving himself with just 5,000 chips.
It was academic after that. Wong had to go all-in on the very next hand. He lost and Ivey grabbed his ninth WSOP bracelet.
2013 World Series of Poker Asia Pacific Event #3: $2,200 Mixed – Final Table Results
1. Phil Ivey – $51,840
2. Brandon Wong – $32,039
3. Graeme Putt – $22,427
4. Daniel Negreanu – $16,336
5. Rob Campbell – $12,020
6. Kevin Song – $8,978
