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#759 – 2009 WSOP #17 – Seen & Heard #6 – Phil Ivey Has Just Won His Sixth World Series Bracelet
After more than three hours of heads up play against John Monnette and rebounding on several occasions with a short stack and overcoming some bad luck, Phil Ivey won his historic sixth World Series of Poker Bracelet at 10:32 PM local time on June 4, 2009. He prevailed over a field of 147 in Event #8, $2,500 No-Limit Deuce-to-Seven. In addition to the ninety-some-thousand dollar first prize, he has won somewhere in the neighborhood – as has variously been reported/speculated – of $6 to $10 million in proposition bets.
Phil won five bracelets between 2000 and 2005 and, in so doing, became one of the most feared closers in World Series history. It took him just twelve final tables to rack up those five victories.
But in 2006-2008, despite ever-escalating bracelet bets totalling millions of dollars, Ivey’s final table magic seemed to escape him. Although he made five more final tables (in four-$5,000 events and the $50,000 HORSE), all he could manage was sixth, fourth, third, and second (twice).
Once he got heads-up with Monnette, he steamrolled him, building a big chip lead. His opponent twice doubled up, however, once with a better T-9 and once when Ivey had a better draw and paired one of his cards.
But things ended as they should. Phil Ivey established, for the umpteen-millionth time, that he is The Man.
June 4th, 2009 at 9:57 pm
Watched it live on bluffmagazine.com from 4-handed on. Absolutely sick how Ivey dominated Monnette, who is a 2-7 regular at Commerce. A classic example of Ivey figuring out a way to beat his man, even in a game where he was probably giving up an edge in experience. Experience can’t teach you to pick off bluffs with Ace high, which was a pretty defining hand as it gave him the heads-up chip lead for the first time. It was really a sight to see.