Phil Ivey is one of the most famous poker players in the world today. Ivey is an American citizen. He was born on the 1st of February in Riverside, California.

Though Phil Ivey was born in Riverside, he grew up in New Jersey. He soon started working and earning in a telemarketing firm in the late nineties. He started playing poker for recreation with his co workers at the telemarketing firm.

Phil Ivey soon joined professional poker. He has won three titles at the 2002 World Series of Poker. He has competed against other great poker players like Ted Forrest and Phil Hellmuth. Ivey focuses more on cash games than professional tournaments of poker.

Ivey has also won bracelets in the Pot Limit Omaha competition in the year 2000 and then in the year 2005. He had beaten Amarillo Slim in 2000. Ivey has won five World Series Bracelets in all. He has also been very successful in the WSOP tournament. He was ranked in the top 25 three times from the years 2002 to 2005. Ivey was ranked 23rd in the year 2002, followed by being placed 10th in 2003 and 20th in 2005.

Ivey has managed to reach several finals in the World Poker Tours but he has yet to win that event. In fact he has been eliminated in these events despite of holding the same starting hand of an ace queen.

Ivey first played in his first European Poker Tour in Barcelona in the year 2006. At the end of the tournament, he was placed second behind Bjorn-Erik Glenne. Also in the year 2006, Ivey went to London to participate in the London All Star Challenge of the European Poker Masters. This tournament was a witness of many great poker players who participated in it. Though the competition was tough, Ivey managed to earn about $15,000 after finishing seventh on the final table.

Ivey was placed first in the all important Monte Carlo Millions poker tournament which took place on 20th November, 2005. He took home cash prize money of $1,000,000. On the very next day, he secured the first place at the FullTiltPoker.Net Invitational Live competition in Monte Carlo. Here he took home prize money of $600,000. The competition in that tournament was also very tough with the likes of Phil Hellmuth, Mike Matusow, John Juanda and Chris Ferguson. All of these players were great poker stars. As of today, the total earnings of Phil Ivey stand at $7,800.000.

Ivey also regularly participates in the $4000 to $8000 mixed cash games at the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas. These mixed cash games are also known as the Big Game. In February 2006, Phil played the all important Texas Hold’em competition. His opponent in that game was the popular Texan billionaire by the name of Andy Beal. There were stakes of $50,000 and $100,000. During the three days that the competition lasted, Ivey won over 16 million dollars. Ivey was not playing as an individual but he was playing for a poker group by the name of “The Corporation”. The Corporation was a group of poker professionals who pooled in their money and then they took their turns playing against Beal. In the same month, before this tournament, Beal had own $10 million by beating the Corporation. When Beal lost to Ivey in that tournament, he gave up playing poker.

Ivey along with Hellmuth is a part of the designing team of Full Tilt Poker website. He also plays on this website. Today he lives in Las Vegas with his wife. In January 2007, Ivey also won the “Earphones Please” tournament by defeating Phil Hellmuth, Mike Matusow, Andy Bloch and Sam Farha. However in April 2005, Ivey was defeated in the tournament called "National Heads-Up Poker Championship’ by Don Cheadle. This tournament has not been lucky for Ivey as he has been eliminated thrice already in the past in the first round itself.

Personal Quote

Every day is a different day. Poker is about living in the moment. Just like in golf, it’s one shot at a time. You don’t want to get too ahead of yourself. On the golf course, you don’t think five shots ahead. You think only about your next shot. And if you have a bad shot, you don’t want to think about that. You forget it and move on. That’s why poker and golf are so similar when you’re playing at a competitive level.