Phil Ivey Takes 21 Year Old Limit Specialist For $500k

After a slow start to 2011 at Full Tilt’s cash tables in which he sunk $793,000 in the red, Phil Ivey has now put himself squarely back in the black once more after a whopping $476,000 winning weekend.
Having overcome an almost $800k downswing, Phil Ivey has now won over $1.1 million since the start of February to show a current profit of $323,309 so far in 2011.
The player contributing the most to Ivey’s comeback this weekend was “kagome kagome,”formely known as “IHateJuice,” who got involved in a mere 311 hands of $3,000/$6,000 limit hold’em against the 8 time WSOP bracelet winner.
Ivey and the German pro “kagome kagome” have been mixing it up at Full Tilt since the beginning of last December with Ivey paying the ultimate tribute to his 21 year-old opponent back in January by typing in the chat box: “I think we both know you are better than me at [limit hold’em].”
Ivey wasn’t just being overly complimentary, either, as kagome kagome was one of the biggest winners at Full Tilt in 2010, earning about $2.5 million from limit hold’em.
Responding at the time to Ivey’s kind words, kagome kagome later said in an interview with cardplayer:
“I don’t consider it that surprising that he told me I was better. I think Ivey is the best overall player of the world, but even he can’t be perfect at every single game.”
“Unlike me, Ivey has been on top of the game for years now. His aggressive style is hard to handle, because he won’t let you win any pot unless you either have a pair or a decent amount of experience against his kind. Playing live against Ivey would be quite the challenge.”
Going into February, Ivey’s German opponent still had the lead in their series of limit hold’em encounters but, despite the brevity of their recent battle, Ivey has now managed to level the playing field once more.
Interestingly, the special $3,000-$6,000 limit hold’em table was created for kagome kagome with Ivey in mind after the young, German pro confessed that the higher he plays, the bigger the thrill he gets.
However, one might wonder if “kagome kagome” might be shrewder playing an opponent who hasn’t won $18,229,740 playing cash games online, not to mention the $13,859,944 Ivey has picked up playing live tournaments.