There are many names that have become household when it comes to professional poker and superstar Phil Ivey is at the forefront of that movement. The California native was born on February 1, 1976 and has been playing excellent poker for more than a decade.
Ivey spent the majority of his childhood in the state of New Jersey, where he learned to play good poker against the co-workers. He was working at a telemarketing company at the time and he found that his first love was for the game of poker. Ivey has many nicknames around the poker world, but one can be traced to his roots. “No Home Jerome” refers to Ivey’s fake ID that was acquired so that he could play poker in Atlantic City growing up. Many of the players there didn’t know that Ivey was underage, as his play certainly didn’t add up to a person younger than 21.
Phil Ivey is world renowned as one of the top cash game players in the world and he puts the majority of his focus on winning those games. Still, he does boast an impressive tournament resume. To his credit are five World Series of Poker bracelets, three of which were won in 2002. The three wins in a single year tied Ivey with Phil Hellmuth and Ted Forrest for most wins in a year.
He won the World Series of Poker title in Pot Limit Omaha in 2000 and 2005. His 2000 triumph included knocking off Amarillo Slim in a heads-up situation, which marked the first time that Amarillo Slim had ever been beaten heads-up. He has also thrived in the biggest poker event in the world, three times placing in the top 25 at the Main Event. His best finish was a 10th place finish in 2003.
In addition to being a regular at the World Series of Poker, Ivey also makes a living playing on the World Poker Tour. He has had good success there, reaching quite a few final tables. Like Phil Hellmuth, he has never won one of these events, though. Ivey has been knocked out of many World Poker Tour events while holding Ace-Queen, a fact that is somewhat strange. Though he has made seven final tables, his best finish was 2nd place in the World Poker Open. He has taken home more than $1.3 million on the World Poker Tour in his career.
Ivey has stretched himself to play some international poker, as well. He took a try at playing on the European Poker Tour in 2006, when he played in Barcelona. There, he was the chip leader when the final table began, but ended up coming in second at that event. Ivey has made it known that he’d like to play more international events in the future.
Ivey has also played internationally at the European Poker Masters, where he participated in the London All-Star Challenge. This tournament included a field of some of the world’s top players and Ivey invited the challenge of taking them on. He made his way all the way to the final table of the tournament, finishing 7th on his way to a $150,000 payday.
In addition to those tournaments, Ivey has made a name for himself playing other tournaments as well. He won $1 million at the famed Monte Carlo Millions in Las Vegas during November of 2005. He usually makes an appearance at tournaments when there are big name players in the field. Ivey has never been one to shy away from a challenge at the poker table. To date, he has claimed more than $8 million in poker winnings from his tournament play.
As mentioned previously, Ivey makes a name for himself in the popular cash games around Las Vegas. He is a regular at the “Big Game”, which is held at the Bellagio. He also took part in a heads-up matchup with billionaire Andy Beal in 2006. Ivey took more than $16,000,000 from Beal over a three day span. During that game, Ivey was representing a group of poker professionals known as “The Corporation”. Those players put their money together to play against Beal out in Las Vegas. Beal took more than $10 million from The Corporation just before playing Ivey. After his loss to Phil Ivey, Andy Beal claimed that he would never play poker again.
Phil Ivey also has his hands in other business ventures, including being one of the original people involved with the design of Full Tilt Poker. If you are looking for Ivey, you can find him at Full Tilt, where he routinely plays high stakes games with the general public.
If there was any doubt as to Ivey’s ability to take down the big boys, he showed in January of 2007 that he is for real. He won the “Earphone Please” tourney on NBC’s Poker After Dark and took home a $120,000 prize. That wasn’t the impressive part, though. Ivey was happy to take down Mike Matusow, Phil Hellmuth, and Sam Farha in route to winning the tournament.
Though Ivey has had success playing poker in many different types of games, he has been uncharacteristically unsuccessful playing heads-up poker at the National Heads-Up Poker Championship. In the 2007 version, he lost to an actor named Don Cheadle. That marked the third straight year that Phil Ivey failed to make it out of the first round of the event.
Those who know Phil Ivey outside of the poker table know that he is an avid basketball fan and roots hard for the L.A. Lakers. Ivey is also said to be a Houston Rockets fan. If you didn’t know Ivey, you could tell his allegiance because he wears so many jerseys while playing poker. He was knocked out of the final table of the 2003 World Series of Poker while wearing a Rockets jersey.
Other than poker, Phil Ivey enjoys all sorts of other types of betting. He gambles on sports and often gambles in regular casino games. He plays lots of video games and has recently taken a keen interest in the game of golf. Some feel that Ivey looks a lot like golf legend Tiger Woods, which is something that Phil doesn’t object to. In his spare time, Ivey likes to work on his short game and spend time with his lovely wife. The two now reside in Las Vegas, so that Phil can indulge his gambling-rich lifestyle.
Phil Ivey is playing at Full Tilt Poker!
