Phil Ivey and Knowing When to Quit

Phil Ivey is used to pressing his poker skills to their fullest at the gambling tables in order to gain an advantage over his opponents, but the 10-times WSOP bracelet winner also knows when to quit and online famously used to employ a strict stop-loss policy of two buy ins before quitting a session.
One then has to wonder why in 2012 after winning around $9.6 million from the Borgata Casino in New Jersey by using a controversial edge-sorting technique, one of the best gamblers in the world then decided to ride his luck by trying to get away with using the very same fraudulent technique at a UK casino.
Although Ivey and an accomplice called Sun then went on to take Crockfords Casino in London for a further £7.3 million ($11 million), the British venue did not have the wool pulled over their eyes so easily, and after becoming suspicious of his antics at their Punto Banco table subsequently refused to pay him the money. Ivey then tried to sue Crockfords for his ‘winnings’, but instead the high-profile court case merely served to alert New Jersey’s Borgata Casino as to Ivey’s antics, and after reviewing their own records filed charges against the US poker pro.
That lawsuit was settled last week, and although the Borgata’s charge of fraud has since been thrown out, the lawsuit went in favor of the Borgata and Ivey now faces the prospect of having to return the huge sum. As the judge explained while summing up the case:
“By using cards they caused to be manoeuvred in order to identify their value only to them, Ivey and Sun adjusted the odds of Baccarat in their favour. This is in complete contravention of the fundamental purpose of legalised gambling, as set forth by the CCA.”
Phil Ivey will now undoubtedly be wondering why he wasn’t just satisfied to win almost $10 million from Borgata and quit while he was ahead, instead of pressing his luck in London. By going for broke, Ivey not only wiped out his original profit, but has now landed himself in a whole world of pain.