Phil Ivey

To most people Phil Ivey is considered the best player in the world. Even to those that disagree with that he would be in their top 5 list for sure.

This is an incredible achievement considering the fact that Phil is still in his early thirties, and that since bursting onto the scene in the 2000 WSOP just 7 years ago, he has collected an impressive collection of titles including 5 WSOP bracelets.

To this day Phil Ivey remains one of, if not the most feared opponents in the game, with an aggressive game and his trademark piercing eyes and stare.

Background

Phil Ivey was born in 1976 in Riverside, California but shortly after he and his family moved to the other side of the U.S to Roselle, New Jersey. In his childhood days Phil would play poker with his grandfather who taught him how to play, and it became a real interest for him.

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Phil Ivey!

While Phil was still at high school he would play in adult poker games and wipe them clean, but he continued to try to improve his game and master what was becoming a big part of his life.

Despite being underage, at the age of 18 Phil began to go to Atlantic City under the alias of Jerome and his fake I.D. During the next few years and the late 90's Phil continued to play at Atlantic City building a serious bankroll and working on improving his game.

At the age of 21 Phil, who was still known to all the poker community in Atlantic City as his fake I.D alias of Jerome apologised to all his friends and the management at the casino and revealed that he was not really Jerome, and from that day on he began to be known under his proper name. Little did he know that in a few years time the name Phil Ivey which he had spent so much effort hiding would become one of the biggest worldwide brands in poker.

Poker Career

Ivey first burst on to the professional poker circuit in 2000, when he took his game which he had been mastering for the previous years to the World Series of Poker. He made an immediate impact winning his first WSOP bracelet in the Pot Limit Omaha event and in doing so defeated two poker legends at the final table in Phil Helmuth and Amarillo Slim.

This would be the start of a successful WSOP career and he won two more bracelets in 2002 and his total currently stands at five bracelets. He has also done well in the WSOP main event over the years and finished in the top 25 in three recent years in 2002, 2003 and 2005 which considering the starting field for the main event in these years was anything up to 5,000 is a remarkable achievement.

After his WSOP win in 2000 Phil began to play in the big cash games in Las Vegas. He became a regular at these games and today he continues to play in the now famous "Big Game" at the Bellagio in Vegas where players can win or lose millions in a night.

Phil has to date collected over $5m in career tournament winnings including all his WSOP wins but also a $1million win in the Monte Carlo Millions tournament and a $600k win for the Full Tilt Poker Invitational which amazingly he won just 24 hours after the Monte Carlo win.

Of course the above figure does not include any cash game winnings and although there is no record of this it is likely to make his tournament winnings look like small change.

Team Full Tilt

Phil Ivey has been a pivotal part of Team Full Tilt and has been involved in the design and development of the popular online poker room. He plays online exclusively at FullTilt Poker and is usually happy to chat to his fans at the table while he is playing in some of the biggest cash games on the internet.

Learn, Play and Chat with Phil Ivey and the other Full Tilt Pro's. Download Full Tilt Poker's free online poker software today.

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Phil Ivey
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