Phil “Polarizing” Ivey Down $2.3m At Full Tilt This Year

By Phil Ivey’s standards, 2013 is proving to be a mixed bag so far, the crowning glory of which came last month when he won his 9th WSOP bracelet at the A$2,200 Mixed Event in Melbourne for $54,252. With that victory Ivey took this year’s live tournament earnings to $116,202, although with the WSOP in Las Vegas starting on May 29th, that figure could soon rise dramatically.
On the virtual felts, however, Phil “Polarizing” Ivey has enjoyed better times and thus far in 2013 is down a whopping -$2,297,409 after 52,146 hands played. Last week Ivey, dropped $956,528 to top the week’s list of losers, despite employing a rigid stop-loss system which helps him limit the potential damage to his bankroll. In fact, Phil Ivey is known as the king of “stop losses” online, a practice which isn’t always to the taste of his opponent’s. At the end of March, for instance, Phil “Polarizing” Ivey enjoyed a profitable session against high-stakes regular “SallyWoo”, who subsequently declined to begin a game of FLO8. As their online chat went:
Polarizing: quit when u want
Polarizing: i may play 2 min
SallyWoo: nah, u too nitty
Polarizing: ha
SallyWoo: we play another time
Polarizing: play 8 games
SallyWoo: well when i played u lhe u said play other games, i moved to 08, now here u wont really givve action, so ill move to another game will it happen again at plo?
SallyWoo: will you quit me at horse if i play that? or can we battle?
SallyWoo: like in future
Polarizing: what are u talking about
Polarizing: i have no idea what your talking about
Polarizing: u have issues
SallyWoo: issues?
Polarizing: i will play i just quit when i want
Polarizing: simple as that
SallyWoo: u lose 2bb and quit 9 out of 10 times and i have issues gotcha
Polarizing: ha
Nevertheless, Ivey had no difficulty finding a new taker in the guise of Kyle “KPR16” Ray, who promptly proceeded to lose $161,000 over 165 hands to the top poker pro.
Overall, however, the game of poker continues to swing in both directions, even for the top pros, and with an estimated personal wealth of around $100 million, and over $35 million in live and online winnings to his name, Phil Ivey continues to be the player most other pros fear and respect in equal measure at the poker tables.