Poker Blog

Phil Ivey is back.

Bjorn Li 2,025,000 45,000
Patrick Healy 1,970,000 -230,000
Lee Nelson 1,896,000 646,000
Kenneth Wong 1,800,000 520,000
Janis Lesinskis 1,790,000 590,000
Matt Turk 1,360,000 -40,000
Yann Dion 1,255,000 35,000
Mohamad Kowssarie 1,170,000 145,000
Oliver Speidel 1,150,000 -255,000
Phil Ivey 1,148,000 -212,000
Daniel Idema 1,140,000 140,000
Karim Jomeen 652,000 257,000
Mile Krstanoski 470,000 -260,000
Joey Lawrence 385,000 -135,000
Minh Nguyen 385,000 -355,000
Grant Levy 318,000 -202,000
Danny Chevalier 300,000 40,000
Slade Fisher 114,000 -66,000

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Wednesday evening saw another healthy influx of high stakes cash games on Full Tilt Poker. To the surprise of none, the game was again full of the biggest named pros to ever play online. Tom Dwan ‘durrrr’ was joined by Di Dang screen name ‘Urindanger’, David Benefield, Gus Hansen, and Phil Ivey. In the first big pot of the day, Dwan wins a pot worth over $23,000 by rivering a straight against the top set of ‘FinnnishNightmre.’

The next hand went the opposite way. ‘FinnnishNightmre’ won this next pot for more than $20,000 with deuces full of aces, taking nearly all of his money back from Dwan.

Dwan dropped another pot in this hand. Gus Hansen made an eight high straight to win this pot after getting called on the river.

Hansen took another pot off one of his highest profile enemies witha bet of $3000 on the river of a Limit Omaha H/L hand.

Dwan got it back, however. In this pot, he made a full house on both runs of the hand for a win of over $32,000.

Dwan, however, went back in the red here. Phil Ivey took a Stud Hi pot to double up to over $23,000 with three eights.

Dwan once again took a hit, this time losing a hand of more than $35,000 to the quad aces of ‘FinnnishNightmre.’

Ivey won another big pot off Dwan in this hand. Kings were good enough to outlast straight and flush draws to take this pot.

The terrible day for Dwan didn’t stop there. In this Omaha H/L hand, Dwan called the river bet of Gus Hansen, only to be on the losing end of a scoop to a straight and a six low.

Di ‘Urindanger’ Dang came into the action here, winning a three way capped pot with queens full for $48,000.

The amazingly awful day of Tom Dwan continued in this hand, losing a pot of over $28,000 to Hansen, who won a Razz pot a queen low.

The biggest story of the big game on this day was the losses of Tom Dwan, which amounted to around $150,000. The winners on the session were Di Dang, Phil Ivey, and Gus Hansen. Hansen won nearly $100,000, while Ivey and Dang each won around $50,000.

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While high stakes poker seems exciting, many times the reality turns out to be that you are just doing a glorified bit of grinding. Let’s take for instance a session that Phil Ivey had at a couple of $1,500 – $3,000 7-Game tables. Ivey took down a series of really massive pots, but wound up really grinding out a small profit due.

Phil Ivey is considered one of the best stud players in the world and he schooled Patrik Antonius and UarePileous to the tune of $50k in Stud 8. Ivey brought it in with a 2c, Antonius completed with the Jc and UarePileous raised with a 6c. Ivey and Antonius called. Ivey caught and ace and bet $1,500. Antonius caught the 9d and called. UarePileous caught the Qs and called. Ivey caught the 8s on fifth and bet. Antonius caught the Ah and called. UarePileous called after catching the 7d. UarePileous caught an open pair of sevens on sixth and checked to Ivey who caught the 4d. Ivey bet and Antonius made the call having caught the Ah. UarePileous called as well. The river started with a check from UarePileious and a bet of $3,000 from Ivey. Antonius raised to $6,000 and UarePileous folded. Ivey then three-bet and Antonius flat called. Ivey turned over 5-5-3 to show a wheel and Antonius mucked his hand.

Ivey took a nice $46,799 pot a while later during pot limit omaha with a strong bet on the turn.

Two hands later, he took what proved to be the largest pot of the night in a hand against Nizot Skizared. Ivey raised to $3,000 pre-flop and was called. On the flop of 5d-8c-9c, action was checked to Ivey, who bet $3,000. Nizot Skizared raised pot to $12,600. Ivey called and the 9h fell on the turn. Action was checked to Ivey, and he bet $22,500. Nizot Skizared made the call and the 10c fell on the river. Action was again checked, and Ivey bet $63,600 into a $73,799.50 pot. Nizot Skizared laid it down and Ivey took a $73,799.50 pot. After this hand, the game broke with Ivey up about $20,000.

Ivey had his hands full with UarePileous on the other 7-Game table. The two exchanged some sizable pots during Holdem and pot limit omaha. The first came in Holdem. UarePileous started the hand with $25,734.50 and Ivey over $159k. Pre-flop, UarePileous had the button and raised to $1,800. Ivey immediately went for the kill and pushed all-in. Opps was the operative work when UarePileous called and held pocket queens against the pocket sixes of Ivey. Ivey picked up a straight draw on the turn, but a river king sealed the hand for UarePileous and awarded him a $51,468.50 pot.

Ivey donated some more to UarePileous four hands later in pot limit omaha. UarePileous raised to $1,800 pre-flop and Ivey made the call. On a flop of Jh-Kd-5h, Ivey checked and UarePileous bet $3k. Ivey raised pot to $10,200 and was called. Action was checked around when the As fell on the turn. The river fell the 9s and Ivey checked to UarePileous who bet $17,700. Ivey made the call and UarePileous showed Ah-Kc-Js-10c for top two pair. Ivey could not beat it and UarePileous was shipped the $59,399.50 pot.

The last big pot of the night went to Ivey without showdown. Ivey three-bet to $3,600 pre-flop and was called. On a flop of Kh-8c-9c, Ivey bet $5,400 and was called. The turn 6d was checked around. The river fell the 7d and Ivey again checked to UarePileous, who bet $14,800. Ivey then check-raised the size of the pot to $62,400 and UarePileous ran away. Ivey took down the $47,599.50 pot.

Action concluded between the two a few hands later. UarePileous finished up about $50k at this table, but Ivey finished about break even thanks to wins at this table earlier in the session from other players. For the session, Ivey finished up about $20,000, or about 6.5 big bets. While this isn’t a lot, there are many limit players that would love to have that sort of win rate. Of course, Ivey blows more than $20,000 betting on craps, so this probably won’t go down as a memorable win. However, it does prove the point that not all successful sessions are going to be six figure scores or better. In the end, a win is a win, and I’m sure Ivey will take it.

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After his performances in the 2007 and 2008 WSOP, I made the statement prior to the 2009 WSOP that Phil Ivey would win a bracelet in 2009. I said that if he focused that he might even win two of them. Well, Ivey found motivation in the form of prop bets and came through with two bracelets. Guess what folks, he has found his motivation for the next two years.

Phil Ivey and Howard Lederer have a bet going on between the two of them whether Phil can win two bracelets total over the next two years. If he is able to do so, Phil will take home a cool $5 Million. Ivey currently sits with seven bracelets and is in a tie with Billy Baxter on the all-time bracelet list. If Ivey can win two bracelets by 2012, he will be in a tie with Johnny Moss for the 3rd all-time.

Of course, there is always a chance that Ivey could just win the bet this year. In 2002, he won three bracelets and this past year he took down two. When Ivey is focused and playing at his best, he is a force to be reckoned with. Even in the years he didn’t win bracelets, he was still making final tables. He finished 2nd in the Stud World Championship in 2007 and then 4th in $5,000 H.O.R.S.E. that year. In 2008, he made another H.O.R.S.E. final table and bubbled the final table of the Stud World Championship. Of course, don’t forget the fact that he was 3rd in 2006 at the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event.

It is estimated that Ivey may play up to 80 events a year in order to try and achieve his goal. This is quite a jump over past years. In 2008, he was trying to find motivation just to play. He was a couple times overheard saying that he much rather play in the high stakes cash games in “Bobby’s Room” over at the Bellagio. Of course, those games don’t win the same type of publicity that winning a bracelet does.

Along with Allen Cunningham and Erik Seidel, Phil Ivey is really the only active player at present with a legitimate shot to catch Hellmuth for the all-time bracelet lead. (Based on number of bracelets won through 2009.) The big difference between Ivey and Hellmuth is that Ivey can win at just about any game he plays. Amazingly, Ivey does not have a NL Holdem bracelet. Many feel that it will be a matter of time. In the end, it really doesn’t matter. A bracelet is a bracelet, especially if you can rack up the numbers that Ivey has.

While Howard Lederer doesn’t believe Ivey can do it, I personally think that Ivey will win his prop bet. I look for him to take down some stud variant and show strong in one or more mixed games that will come up over the next couple of years. If you want to watch Ivey hone his game and Howard try to win some of that $5 Million he will likely have to give Ivey, head on over to Full Tilt Poker.

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