All Eyes on Phil Ivey in the Main Event

Poker News - July 10, 2009 - Written by Bruce

Going into today's WSOP Main Event Day 3 the biggest name in the world of poker is near the top of the leader board. Feared poker pro Phil Ivey is sitting with almost 350,000 chips going into today's action. He has made a name for himself over the last decade or so as the game's most feared player. What makes the Las Vegas pro so dominant is his ability to play any form of poker at a world class level. He has been crushing the highest cash games in the world for many years while also showing he is one of the top tournament players in the world as well. Ivey started Day 2b with about 84,000 chips and went on to chip up nicely finishing with the 6th largest stack going into Day 3.

Since Ivey is arguably the top cash game player in the world he doesn't play as many tournaments as most other pros. He plays online at the highest buy in levels on the poker site Full Tilt. He is routinely sitting with up to a million dollars in play scattered over three or four tables. He definitely has made a huge amount of money from his online play and also plays in the biggest live cash games in the world. He is said to have made an insane amount of money over the years in the live games. Back in 2006 a group of the top poker professionals in the world pooled their money together to play against Texas billionaire Andy Beal. Beal starting off by winning 10 million dollars off the group, but he had been yet to face the phenom Ivey. Over a course of three days Ivey won an insane 16 million dollars off of Beal leading the billionaire to quit. This insanely clutch performance by Ivey helped elevate his status as a poker legend. When he can make millions playing cash games it is obvious to see why he would spend less time playing the more drawn out tournaments. This being the case Ivey has still won a remarkable 7 World Series of Poker bracelets which is good for the fourth most all time. Overall he has won $10.8 million in tournament winnings.

Already at the 2009 World Series of Poker Ivey has won a remarkable two events. He was reported to have won upwards of ten million dollars or more in side bets at this year's world series with this two victories. The exact bets and amounts are not known but it is safe to say that Ivey has had a very profitable month of poker. With a top six chip stack going into today's Day 3 play Ivey is in great shape to make a deep run in this years Main Event. Poker fans all over the world will be following the action to see if this giant of the poker of the world can find his way to this years final table.