Phillip Dennis Ivey Jr. (born in 1977) is a professional poker player with 10 WSOP bracelets. As of 2019, his total winnings from live poker tournaments exceeded $26,250,000. He is also a highly successful cash game player.
He was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in 2017.
Short facts about Phil Ivey
Nicknames: No Home Jerome, The Tiger Woods of Poker, The Phenom
Born: 1 February, 1977 in Riverside, California, USA
Current residence: Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
Ivey was born in California, but moved to Roselle, New Jersey when he was just three months old.
Ivey and his wife Luciaetta divorced in 2009, after seven years of marriage.
Background
In the late 1990s, Ivey was working at a telemarketing firm in New Brunswick, New Jersey. He played poker with his co-workers there, slowly honing his poker skills.
While still a teenager, Ivey used a fake ID to get into casinos in Atlantic City where he could play poker. It is from this fake ID that his nickname “No Home Jerome” stems.
Live cash games
Ivey is a regular player in the $4k/$8k mixed cash game (“Big Game”) at Bellagio.
In February 2006, Ivey won over $16 million from Texas billionaire Andy Beal over the course of three days, playing heads-up Limit Texas Hold’em at The Wynn Resort. Ivey was playing as a part of The Corporation, a group of poker pros who pool their money and take turns playing Beal. Earlier that month, Beal had won over $13 million from The Corporation.
In 2017, Ivey focused on participating in high-stakes cash games in Hong Kong, which meant that he was largely absent from poker tournaments and cash games in the rest of the world.
Live tournament poker
WSOP
- As of 2018, Phil Ivey holds 10 WSOP bracelets from open events, which means that he is tied with Doyle Brunson and Johnny Chan for the second-largest amount of WSOP bracelets from open events. Only Phil Hellmuth, with 15 bracelets, have more WSOP titles than Ivey, Brunson and Chan.
- Ivey won his 10th WSOP bracelet when he was 38 years old, making him the youngest player ever to accomplish this. (Second youngest was Phil Hellmuth at 42.) Ivey is also celebrated for having accumulated his ten bracelets very quickly; it only took him 14 years. (For Hellmuth, it took 17 years to go from first bracelet to tenth bracelet.)
- Ivey won three bracelets at the 2002 WSOP, tying with Phil Hellmuth, Puggy Pearson and Ted Forrest for most WSOP titles in a single WSOP. (Since then, Jeff Lisandro and George Danzer have also tied the record.) It was after this 2002 feat that Ivey got the nickname “The Phenom”.
- All of Ivey’s 10 WSOP bracelets come from non-Texas Hold’em event. Five of them are from mixed-games.
- Ivey has placed top-25 in four different WSOP Main Events in 2002-2009. His highest finish in the WSOP Main Event is from 2009 when he ended up in 7th place.
Ivey’s World Series of Poker wins 2000-2018
- 2000
WSOP $2,500 Pot Limit Omaha
195,000 USD
- 2002
WSOP $2,500 7 Card Stud Hi/Lo
118,440 USD
- 2002
WSOP $2,000 S.H.O.E.
107,540 USD
- 2002
WSOP $1,500 7 Card Stud
132,000 USD
- 2005
WSOP $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha
635,603 USD
- 2009
WSOP $2,500 No-Limit 2-7 Draw Lowball
96,367 USD
- 2009
WSOP $2,500 Omaha Hi/Lo / 7 Card Stud Hi/Lo
220,538 USD
- 2010
WSOP $3,000 H.O.R.S.E.
329,840 USD
- 2013
WSOP Asia Pacific A$2,200 Mixed Event
51,840 AUD
- 2014
WSOP $1,500 Eight Game Mix
166,986 USD
WPT
Ivey has one World Poker Tour title. In 2008, he won the $10,000 L.A. Poker Classic at Commerce Casino, a win worth $1,596,100. The final table included Phil Hellmuth and Nam Le.
As of 2018, Ivey has earned around $3 million in WPT cashes.
Monte Carlo Millions
In 2005, Ivey pocketed $1 million by winning the Monte Carlo Millions tournament. The following day, he won the FullTiltPoker.Net Invitational Live from Monte Carlo, a victory worth $600,000.
Poker After Dark
Ivey won the $120,00 winner-take-all Earphones Please tournament at Poker After Dark, playing against Mike Matusow, Andy Bloch, Tony G, Phil Hellmuth, and Sam Farha. The programmed aired on NBC on 22 January, 2007.
Aussie Millions
In early 2012, Ivey won the Aussie Millions A$250,000 High-Roller Event, after defeating Patrik Antonius heads-up. The victory was worth 2 million AUD. Ivey also played in the Aussie Millions Main Event that year, finishing 12th and pocketing A$100,000 in prize money.
Two years later, Ivey won the 2014 Aussie Millions LK Boutique $250,000 Challenge, a victory that gave him A$4 million – the single largest tournament cash in his career.
In 2015, Ivey won the $250,000 Challenge again at Aussie Millions, but this time the prize was “only” A$2,205,000. Ivey is the only player ever to win this tournament two years in a row.
Online poker
Although chiefly famous for his live poker proves, Ivey also plays poker online, and he was a part of the original design team for Full Tilt Poker.
Ivey won almost $2 millions on Full Tilt Poker in 2007, over $7.3 millions in 2008, $6.3+ millions in 2009, and roughly $3 million in 2010. In 2011, he filed a lawsuit asking to be released from his contract with Full Tilt Poker. The suit was voluntarily withdrawn by Ivey later that year.
Awards
- All In Magazine 2005 Poker Player of the Year Award
- All In Magazine 2009 Poker Player of the Year Award
Charity
Ivey supports a variety of charitable causes.
In 2008, he founded the non-profit Budding Ivey Foundation in honour of his grandfather Leonard “Bud” Simmons. Among other things, the organization supports children’s literacy projects, programs to feed the homeless, and the Las Vegas charity Empowered 2 Excel for underprivileged children.
In 2010, Ivey partnered with the Make a Wish foundation to bring children to the Bellagio in Las Vegas.
Business ventures
- In 2012, Ivey launched the poker app “Ivey Poker”, where users can compete against Ivey and other pros.
- In 2014, Ivey launched the poker training site “Ivey League” with a stable of professional poker coaches.
Miscellaneous
- Ivey is fond of prop betting.
- Ivey is an avid golf player, and he participated in the inaugural World Series of Golf where he finished in fourth place in the final group.