Phil Ivey Hits A $3 Million Downswing

Phil Ivey has long been considered the best all-around poker player in the world and few could argue with his enviable record. Since cashing in at his first live tournament back in 1998, the 37 year-old has captured nine WSOP bracelets and amassed live winnings of $17,649,220. Ivey’s online cash record has been equally as impressive and the $19,242,744 he had earned playing under his own name at Full Tilt makes him online poker’s biggest ever winner.
Despite his incredible success, however, 2013 is fast becoming a year Ivey may well want to put well behind him as a quick glance at his poker results will confirm. As far as live tournaments are concerned, Ivey’s $131,746 in winnings are his lowest ever, not including 2011 when he boycotted playing the WSOP in protest of Full Tilt’s failing to pay out its poker players balances.
Online, the story is even more grim with Phil Ivey playing at Full Tilt Poker under his latest pseudonym “Polarizing” currently down a massive $3,232,426 with -$2,980,086 of that total coming in this year alone. In fact, Ivey’s losses places him second on the list of this year’s biggest losers, behind Gus Hansen currently down $4 million.
Several reasons have been proposed for Ivey’s poor 2013, with various suggestions including Ivey having lost some motivation and desire having  already accomplished nearly everything he could hope to accomplish playing poker. In addition, others have pointed out that the increasingly younger and hungrier players entering the game have eroded much of the advantages Ivey once held over his competitors. The possibility exists, also, that Phil Ivey has simply ran into some bad variance, which is purely a part of the professional hazzards accepted by the players .
Whatever the case may be, the poker community will be following with increasing interest just how Phil Ivey goes about turning around one of the biggest downswings of his impressive poker career so far.