Phil Ivey, who now plays under the screen name “Polarizing” has had a rough 2014 off the tables, but a hot streak at Full Tilt saw him win more than $690,000 in just a week’s time. While he might have lost out on millions thanks to a lost court case in the United Kingdom, Ivey’s had by all accounts a solid year at the tables. Recently, Ivey played more than 20,000 hands during a 30-day stretch, and according to HighStakesDB, a popular poker hand tracking website, he’s been dominating the nosebleed games.
A Dominating Week
According to the tracking website, during a 30-day period starting on October 23 through November 21, Ivey is up a total of $550,000 at the cash tables on Full Tilt. The reason he is up is thanks to a pretty good week, even by his lofty standards. When he started logging hands on November 4, he did pretty well as he won about $440,000 in just a day, but that quickly evaporated as he ended up down $110,000 just a couple of days later, a swing of about a half million dollars. Things stayed pretty much the same heading into November 11.
It was on that day that Ivey was down about $200,000 (when examining during this specific 30-day window) that he got very hot. By November 14, he was up $660,000, then had a couple of days’ worth of downswings before hitting his high of nearly $880,000. By the end of the 30-day window examined, Ivey was up to about $550,000 in profits. According to the website, Ivey has logged approximately 20,433 hands from October 23 through November 21 time period, netting $570,993. For those of you counting at home, that’s an approximate profit of $27.94 every single time he plays a hand of poker.
Wins Six Pots Hit Six Figures
During this run, Ivey has won some of the biggest hands of the year, marked by six different hands that saw a six-figure pot shoved his way. The biggest was played on November 5, at $200-$400 Mixed Pot Limit Omaha, where Ivey saw $256,782 come his way on a split pot.
His second biggest pot won was at $200-$400 Mixed No Limit Hold’em holding Kc-Qc. On the big blind, his opponent min raised to $800 and Ivey three-bet to $2,800 which was called. With a flop of 5c-Kh-6c he had flopped top pair with a good kicker, plus the second-nut flush draw. Ivey c-bet on the flop, with his opponent coming over the top for three times his amount. Ivey called and a Qh came on the turn, giving Ivey top two pair plus the flush draw. Ivey checked the turn and his opponent led out and in response, came over the top with a big raise which was called. On the river, a 6h came, which didn’t improve Ivey. He checked, his opponent led out for a very small amount, and Ivey called. His opponent turned over 7c-4c, which meant he (or she) had a straight, flush, and straight flush draws at the flop which all missed. Ivey then saw a massive pot shoved his way.
Other six-figure pots won by Ivey include $161,350 at $300-$600 PLO, $145,656 at $200-$400 No Limit Hold’em, $106,596 at $200-$400 PLO, and $101,142 at $300-$600 No Limit Hold’em holding A-K offsuit. In that particular hand, Ivey was against an opponent heads-up who held A-Q offsuit and went all-in preflop. A queen actually spiked the flop, but Ivey went back ahead with a winning king on the turn.
Ivey’s 2014 Has Been Up and Down
While the famed poker pro has total live tournament winnings exceeding $21 million and has won countless millions playing in live cash games, he’s had a tough 2014. While he won the 2014 Aussie Millions LK Boutique $250,000 challenge for AU$4,000,000 ($3.47 million USD), he took a huge loss in court. He was accused of cheating by a casino, and ended up losing the court case in the United Kingdom, which meant he lost out on an astounding $12.4 million.
