FULL TILT POKER BLOG

#872 – Phil Ivey vs. PhilIvey.com

Posted by Editor | Filed under Uncategorized

During the past few weeks, I’ve told you two of my favorite Phil Ivey stories. In “Kings and Queens of Europe,” I described the effect Phil Ivey’s intensity could have on people, even in a crowded tapas bar. And in “You Own Ivey,” I shared with you the time I owned 10% of Ivey in the Main Event. All it cost me was a AAA battery. Unfortunately, even though Phil has had four Main Event finishes in the top thirty, 2006 was not one of them.

It is not a coincidence that these stories appeared the blog while the countdown to the Main Event final table has been under way. Phil Ivey is not merely one of poker’s most captivating personalities. By making the final table, he has added a layer of prestige to the build-up to the November Nine. Naturally, because Phil is a member of Team Full Tilt I want to participate in this promotional activity.

In that spirit, Phil Ivey’s official website, PhilIvey.com, has been completely re-built. It has many nice features and is worth checking out. It’s not exactly a spoiler alert, however, when I tell you that there are no great hidden truths revealed about Phil Ivey on his website. Phil has mostly kept himself closed off as a public figure. Naturally, when we can’t get something that makes us want it more.

Still, PhilIvey.com succeeds in providing some worthwhile glimpses inside. For instance, it contains a detailed biography and timeline of Ivey’s achievements over the last decade. Even though this information is already available and you may know a lot of it, it still makes good reading. The bio and the timeline give you an idea of the RELENTLESSNESS, how thoroughly successful Phil has been in every aspect of poker since 2000. These sections of the site are a nice reminder that he actually did all this and kept doing it year after year. Phil Ivey is at the top of the “best player” lists in all areas of poker: the biggest live cash games, the biggest online cash games, World Series events, World Poker Tour events, high-profile televised events, limit games, no-limit games, pot-limit games, heads-up, full-table.

Another enjoyable aspect of Phil’s website is the video section. Even though these are implicitly or explicitly promotions for Full Tilt, they provide you with a look of Phil Ivey at the table, how he can appear to opponents and what his internal dialogue might contain. Even though they are staged and very artistic (with great lighting, color, and camera angles), I can tell you from experience they are realistic. I watched Phil Ivey from across the table when he played Andy Beal for three days in February 2006. If anything, these videos understate Ivey’s intensity. When Phil played Andy, I sometimes found it difficult sitting across the table from him – and I was just watching.

The last highlight of PhilIvey.com is the hand replayer. This feature allows you to watch Phil’s twenty biggest online poker hands. The smallest of the twenty hands (which is also the oldest) was a pot worth more than $337,000 on September 18, 2008.

As enjoyable as all this is, it’s clear that Phil Ivey has not devoted any of himself to the site. For instance, the most recent Twitter entry is from July 16 and it comes not from Phil but from “Team Ivey.” (When some people at Full Tilt were bugging Chris Ferguson during the World Series to use Twitter, Chris said, “I’ll start using Twitter when Phil Ivey does.”) In addition, I’d like to think if Phil was more involved in the site, he would have also included some of his biggest LOSING online poker hands. And the biography, as impressive as it is, reveals little that we don’t already know. I still recommend that you check out PhilIvey.com, but where can you go to get the real story?

Did you have to ask?

I have been following poker – following Phil Ivey – for five years and I have heard a lot and seen a lot. I have seen Phil Ivey in situations others haven’t seen. I have noticed details that escaped everyone else. I have gathered stories other people haven’t heard. And to confirm Phil’s suspicions, I have been writing it down and you will be the beneficiaries.

For the next four Sundays, October 18 – November 8, I will be writing and posting a four-part series called Looking for Ivey, sharing what I’ve learned about Phil Ivey these last five years, with a focus on my first-hand observations and stories that have not been widely reported. I would also like to raise the obvious questions not asked in PhilIvey.com: How does Phil Ivey gamble so much and so high? And how does he do it so well? Even if I can’t find definitive answers, I’ll share some details that can lead us in the direction of answers.

In addition, I will be gathering more information and posting additional reports as available, as well as covering Phil and fellow Full Tilt pros James Akenhead and Steven Begleiter live at the final table.

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