The Tournament Record
Ivey's WSOP record speaks for itself:
| Year | Event | Buy-in | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | $2,500 Pot-Limit Omaha | $2,500 | $195,000 |
| 2002 | $1,500 S.H.O.R.S.E. | $1,500 | $132,000 |
| 2002 | $2,500 Seven-Card Stud | $2,500 | $132,000 |
| 2002 | $2,000 S.H.O.R.S.E. | $2,000 | $107,540 |
| 2005 | $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha | $5,000 | $635,603 |
| 2009 | $2,500 No-Limit Deuce-to-Seven Draw | $2,500 | $96,367 |
| 2010 | $3,000 H.O.R.S.E. | $3,000 | $329,840 |
| 2013 | $1,500 Eight-Game Mix | $1,500 | $219,792 |
| 2014 | $1,500 Eight-Game Mix | $1,500 | $166,986 |
| 2014 | $10,000 No-Limit Hold'em | $10,000 | $800,000+ |
His total live tournament earnings exceed $42 million, placing him consistently in the top 10 all-time.
What separates Ivey from players with comparable or higher lifetime earnings (like Justin Bonomo, Bryn Kenney, or Daniel Negreanu) is the range of formats. Ivey won bracelets in Hold'em, Omaha, Stud, Razz, and mixed games. He is arguably the most versatile poker player who has ever competed at the highest level.
The Cash Games
The tournament results are public. Ivey's legend, however, was built in the cash games, where the numbers are unprovable.
Ivey was a regular in the biggest cash games in the world throughout the 2000s and 2010s:
- The "Big Game" at the Bellagio, where the minimum buy-in was $100,000 and pots routinely exceeded $1 million
- Bobby's Room (now "Legends Room") at the Bellagio, a private high-stakes room
- The highest-stakes online games on Full Tilt Poker before Black Friday (2011), where Ivey played under his own name at stakes up to $500/$1,000
On Full Tilt, Ivey's results are partially trackable through third-party databases. He is estimated to have won between $15-20 million in online cash games before the site closed to US players in 2011. His live cash game results are unknown, but multiple credible sources (including other high-stakes professionals) have described him as one of the biggest winners in live poker history.
The Edge-Sorting Case
In 2012, Phil Ivey and his playing partner Cheung Yin Sun (a professional advantage player) visited the Borgata casino in Atlantic City and the Crockfords Club in London to play Punto Banco, a variant of baccarat.
What Edge Sorting Is
Certain brands of playing cards have asymmetric patterns on their backs. The left edge of the card looks slightly different from the right edge. This manufacturing defect is invisible to most people but detectable to trained observers.
In Punto Banco, certain cards (particularly 6, 7, 8, and 9) are more valuable to identify because they determine key strategic decisions. Ivey and Sun requested that the dealer rotate these specific cards 180 degrees during play, ostensibly as a "superstitious" preference. Once the cards were rotated, they could identify them from the back when they appeared in subsequent shoes.
The Results
At the Borgata, Ivey won approximately $9.6 million over four sessions.
At Crockfords, he won approximately 7.7 million GBP in a single session. Crockfords refused to pay, returning only his original stake.
The Legal Outcome
Both casinos sued. The legal question was whether edge sorting constituted cheating or legitimate advantage play (similar to card counting in blackjack).
Borgata v. Ivey
The New Jersey federal court ruled that Ivey had breached his contract with the casino. He was ordered to return $10.13 million (his winnings plus additional damages).
Crockfords/Genting v. Ivey
The UK Supreme Court ruled in 2017 that edge sorting constituted "cheating" under the Gambling Act 2005, even though Ivey did not tamper with cards or equipment. The ruling established that gaining an unfair advantage through deception (requesting card rotations under false pretenses) meets the legal threshold for cheating in UK gambling law.
The combined financial impact: approximately $20 million in losses and legal fees.
The New Legal Boundary
The edge-sorting case reshaped the legal boundary between advantage play and cheating. Card counting remains legal because it uses only publicly available information (the cards dealt face-up). Edge sorting was ruled illegal because it required actively manipulating the casino's equipment (having cards rotated) through deception.
Whether you view Ivey's actions as brilliant advantage play or dishonest manipulation depends largely on where you draw the line between skill and deception in gambling.
The Disappearance and Return
After the edge-sorting lawsuits and their financial consequences, Ivey's public poker presence diminished significantly. He played fewer WSOP events, appeared less in televised cash games, and maintained a lower profile than at any point since 2000.
He has continued to play high-stakes poker privately and has made periodic returns to tournament play. His most recent major public appearances have been at select WSOP and WPT events.
The consensus among high-stakes professionals is that Ivey remains one of the strongest players alive, even if his tournament volume has decreased.
Legacy
Phil Ivey's place in poker history is secure regardless of the edge-sorting controversy. The 10 WSOP bracelets across multiple variants, the dominance in the highest cash games, and the longevity of his career place him in a tier with very few peers.
Ivey may or may not be the single best poker player who ever lived. That claim is unprovable because cash game results are private, because the game evolves, and because peak performance varies by era and format. What is provable is that no player in history demonstrated Ivey's level of excellence across as many variants and formats over as long a period.
The comparison to Tiger Woods, which Ivey himself embraced, is apt in both directions. Both men combined dominance in their game with commercial appeal that reached beyond it, and both saw personal controversies complicate the public narrative. What remains underneath the controversy is the record itself: ten bracelets across multiple variants and two decades in the biggest games in the world.
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