Phil Ivey

Phillip D. Ivey (born February 1, 1976) is an American professional poker player who has won five World Series of Poker bracelets and has a World Poker Tour title, making the final table there a record eight times.

Early years
Ivey was born in Riverside, California and moved with his family across the country to Roselle, New Jersey as a three-month old. He crafted his game playing skills amongst his co-workers at a New Brunswick, New Jersey telemarketing firm in the late 1990s. One of his nicknames, "No Home Jerome", stems from the ID card he secured to practice in Atlantic City in his teenage years. His other well-known nickname is 'the Tiger Woods of Poker'.

World Series of Poker
Despite now focusing more on cash games than tournaments, his tournament accomplishments include winning three bracelets at the 2002 World Series of Poker, tying Phil Hellmuth Jr, Ted Forrest and Puggy Pearson for the most wins in a single year.

Ivey also has bracelets in Pot Limit Omaha from 2000 and 2005. In 2000, he was the first person to defeat Amarillo Slim heads-up at a WSOP final table. In addition to his five World Series bracelets, Ivey has had great success in the WSOP Main Event. He placed in the top 25 three times from 2002 to 2005, with the fields growing substantially each year. Ivey finished 23rd in 2002, 10th in 2003, and 20th in 2005.

World Poker Tour
Ivey has also reached a record eight final tables on the World Poker Tour. He has lost several of these WPT events by being eliminated while holding the same starting hand each time, an ace and a queen. Eight out of the nine times Phil Ivey has cashed in a WPT event, he has also made the television final table. During the sixth season of the WPT in February 2008, Ivey made the final table at the LA Poker Classic at Commerce Casino that included Phil Hellmuth and Nam Le, eventually capturing the $1,596,000 first prize and putting an end to his streak of seven WPT final tables without a victory. Ivey has earned close to three million dollars in WPT cashes.

European Poker Tour
Ivey made his debut on the European Poker Tour in Barcelona, September 2006. He came to the final table of nine as the chipleader, but he eventually came in second to Bjørn-Erik Glenne from Norway.

European Poker Masters
In 2006, Ivey was enticed to London to participate in The London All Star Challenge of the inaugural European Poker Masters. Not only Europe's first-ever independent poker tour, the EPM boasted the best lineup of players ever seen in Europe. As one of the favorites, Ivey made it to the final table to finish seventh, and collected £6,700 ($12,534).

Other tournaments
On 20 November 2005, Ivey won the $1,000,000 first prize at the Monte Carlo Millions tournament. Just one day after, Ivey took home another $600,000 for finishing first at "The FullTiltPoker.Net Invitational Live from Monte Carlo". His six opponents were (in reverse finishing order) Mike Matusow, Phil Hellmuth, Gus Hansen, Chris Ferguson, Dave Ulliott, and John Juanda.

As of 2008, his total live tournament winnings exceed $10,000,000.

Other poker activities
Ivey is a regular participant in the $4,000-$8,000 mixed cash game at the Bellagio hotel in Las Vegas (often referred to as the Big Game). In February 2006, he played heads-up Limit Texas Hold'em versus Texas billionaire Andy Beal. With stakes at $25,000/$50,000, Ivey won over $16,000,000 over the course of three days. Ivey was playing for "The Corporation", a group of poker professionals who pooled their money and took turns playing against Beal. Earlier in the month, Beal had beaten the Corporation out of $10,000,000. After losing to Ivey, Beal claimed (not for the first time) that he was giving up poker.

Ivey is part of the design team for Full Tilt Poker. He can often be found playing online at Full Tilt, playing high-stakes cash games up to $500-$1000 no-limit and $2000-$4000 limit.

On the January 22 2007 airing of NBC's Poker After Dark, Ivey won the $120,000 winner-take-all "Earphones Please" tournament by eliminating Mike Matusow, Tony G, Andy Bloch, Phil Hellmuth and Sam Farha.

On the April 15 2007 airing of NBC's "National Heads-Up Poker Championship", Ivey was defeated by actor Don Cheadle. The loss marked the third consecutive year Ivey had been eliminated in the first round from this tournament. His streak ended in 2008, when he advanced to the semifinals, losing to eventual champion Chris Ferguson.

Phil Ivey was one of the players who took part in season three of GSN's High Stakes Poker.

Outside of poker
Ivey is a Los Angeles Lakers and Houston Rockets fan and can often be seen wearing basketball jerseys. During the 2003 WSOP, he was wearing a Steve Francis jersey when he was eliminated in 10th place.

He has stated that he drives a Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren.

Ivey's hobbies include video games, prop betting and golf. He participated in the inaugural World Series of Golf, where he finished in third place. This tournament is a cross between poker and golf, with each player having to bet or fold on each hole.

Ivey resides in Las Vegas with his wife, Luciaetta.