Phil Ivey's Great Start To 2012

After being off the radar since the Full Tilt debacle broke last year, poker legend Phil Ivey has put himself firmly back on the tournament map after taking away US$2,161,895 in winnings from the Aussie Millions.
The 35 year-old created quite a buzz after falling just short of the AUD$10k buy-in Main Event, eventually finishing in 12th for $102,947.
However, soon after he was back in action at the AUD$250,000 Super High Roller, where a small but tough field of 16 gathered for the event. These players included such pros as Jason Mercier, Tom Dwan, Sorel Mizzi, Sam Trickett, John Juanda, and Erik Seidel. 
After Daniel Negreanu exited in 4th empty-handed, Gus Hansen then collected
$800,000 in 3rd, while Phil Ivey defeated Patrik Antonius ($1.2million)  to earn his biggest score to date of $2,058,948. Commenting later, Ivey said:
“It feels good to be back. I took some time off from poker. This is one of my first tournaments back and it’s nice to get back to winning again.”
Over the past years, Phil Ivey has clocked up regular seven figure sums competing in tournaments, with results as follows; 2008 ($2,025,042), 2009 ($1,801,863), and 2010 ($1,623,231).
Phil Ivey then produced a blank 2011 after his sympathy for Full Tilt customers compelled him to not to compete last year, stating:
“I do not believe it is fair that I compete when others cannot.”
That changed recently after Full Tilt moved closer to completing a deal with the DoJ and potential buyer Bernard Tapei. As a result, Ivey is already enjoying a bumper year just one month in and has now moved back into 2nd place on Poker’s All Time Money List with $16,021,839 in earnings.
Eric Seidel, who enjoyed an incredible 2011, had started to pull away in top spot, but now Ivey has managed to close the gap so that he is just $800,000 or so behind. Maybe 2012 will see Ivey reclaim his number one spot once more.