Poker Player - Phil Ivey
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Phil Ivey originally from Riverside California was raised in Roselle, New Jersey he married his High School sweetheart and now resides in Las Vegas Nevada he was introduced to poker by his grandfather. Phil's grandfather would play Five-card Stud for a penny-ante in order to teach the eight year old Phil about the dangers of gambling, his grandfather would cheat by taking cards from the bottom of the deck in the hope of deterring Phil from ever playing with anyone else. All Phil's grandfathers attempts had fallen on deaf ears, instead of being deterred a passion for card playing was ignited within Phil he declared to his family and teachers that he was going to be a professional gambler and no other career path would do.
When he was only sixteen years of age Phil began sitting in on friendly poker games which were hosted by his friends father, he soon found that the games where far from a challenge and he began to look for every opportunity to get more frequency with his play. By age eighteen Phil needed to expand on his poker playing so he obtained a fake I.D card and began to frequently visit the poker rooms of Atlantic City casinos. It wasn't all plain sailing in the early years he found that he lost much more than he ever won, but again there was nothing that could deter him from his goal instead he used his losses and mistakes as a learning curve while he began to gain a mastery of a variety of poker games. His knowledge began to grow and stretched from Limit, No-Limit, Omaha, Stud and then on to tournaments. When Phil was only twenty he decided to move to Atlantic City to become a full time resident.
Phil jumped into the world of poker with a splash and quickly established himself as one of the top poker players from around the world. Phil is more than often found at many final tables, earning himself the title the 'Tiger Woods of Poker'. At only twenty-eight Phil has been playing professional poker for over ten years and has a long list of achievements to his career so far. In 2000 at age 23 Phil came first place in the World Series of Poker $2500 Pot-Limit Omaha event taking home his first World Series of Poker bracelet betting out a star studded table, winning $195k. Soon after Phil began playing the higher stake games in Las Vegas and quickly became one of the most feared players, then in 2002 Phil won three gold bracelets tying with Phil Helmuth and Ted Forrest for the most single wins in one year by winning, WSOP Seven-card Stud making $132k, the WSOP Seven-card Hi/Low (limit) winning $118k and the WSOP S.H.O.E (limit) winning $108k. In January 2003 Phil found himself at the final table of the World Poker Open finishing in second place earning $290k, in April of 2003 he came 3rd at the World Poker Tour championship winning $253k, at the May World Series of Poker No Limit-Hold'em (main event) he came 10th winning $83k.
In 2005 Phil won his fifth gold World Series of Poker bracelet also winning $630,685, Phil then went on to grace two World Poker Tour final tables and then moved on to win the one million dollar prize at the Monte Carlo Million Dollar Event and then an additional $600k at the FullTiltPoker.Net Invitational Live in Monte Carlo. Phil has also won two Bellagio tournaments, one World Poker Open and two commerce tournaments.
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