Phil Ivey in Court Wednesday: ‘I’m an Advantage Player, Not a Cheater’

Professional poker player Phil Ivey is asking a London appeals court to decide when playing your cards correctly crosses the line into cheating.  Ivey was found to have cheated London’s Crockfords’ casino out of 7.8 million pounds ($11 million) at a form of Baccarat back in 2012.

"For a long, long time cheating has been regarded as involving dishonesty," Richard Spearman, Ivey’s lawyer, said in a London court Wednesday. The gambler’s bid to recoup money a Genting Bhd. casino withheld has taken almost six years.

Ivey is accused of utilizing a technique called “edge sorting”, whereby a player gains an edge by discovering flaws in slight design of cards.  Ivey’s attorney argued this is a legitimate tactic, not cheating.

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"There are a lot of games in which deception, certainly in the sense of bluffing, is integral to the game," Spearman said. Ivey "would not act dishonestly." The appeals court will have to decide the legal definition of cheating and what it constitutes.

"Baccarat is a game of pure chance," Christopher Pymont, Genting’s lawyer said in court. "It is not a game of skill, it is not a game of mixed skill and chance."

"You are not supposed to know what is coming out of the shoe," he said. "Those are the rules."

Ivey was present in court Wednesday. He claims to be  an “advantage player,” someone who is highly skilled at trying to tip the odds in his favor.

"It is not in my nature to cheat which is why I was so bitterly disappointed by the judge’s decision," Ivey said through a spokesman in November after he was given permission to appeal.

- Ace King, Gambling911.com