Phil Ivey First Interview in Three Years: No Questions About Full Tilt Poker Debacle
We’ve been wanting to hear from Phil Ivey for the past year following the April 2011 indictment of Full Tilt Poker. We got the interview, but sorely lacking was any mention of Full Tilt Poker, not from the interviewer and not from Ivey. Its abrupt closure following accusations of improprieties ranging from a ponzi scheme to money laundering to bank fraud has resulted in millions of dollars being owed to players.
The so-called “Tiger Woods of Poker” - a reference to his uncanny likeness to the golf pro - has actually not given an interview in approximately three years.
When asked about his nearly one year absence from playing, Ivey did not touch on either the Full Tilt Poker situation or his messy public divorce.
Nolan Dalla conducted the interview with Ivey for the WSOP.com website:
Dalla: I have to ask about your absence from last year’s World Series of Poker. What were you thinking in terms of missing the excitement? Was it tough to be away from all your peers and your friends?
Ivey: It was very tough missing playing the World Series of Poker. I love playing these tournaments and I missed it.
Dalla: Missed it like -- I can’t wait to get back?
Ivey: Yeah, I couldn’t wait for the following year. I’m happy to be back playing this year.
Dalla: And then you did come back – and with an absolute vengeance. It’s almost like letting a lion out of a cage. You come out and you just destroy, literally. Five final tables in a two-week period, which is astonishing considering the field sizes and difficulty. Do you recognize yourself how impressive that is?
Ivey: Yeah, I realize it. I don’t know if it’s ever been done before, but it’s something I’m proud of. I would have liked to have won. It would have been nicer to win five events in two weeks, but it didn’t fall that way.
Ivey’s disappearance coincided with the collapse of Full Tilt Poker. He briefly filed a civil lawsuit against the company but eventually dropped the action. Ivey, while one of Full Tilt’s most visible representatives and a stakeholder, has so far been cleared of any wrong doings. Fellow poker pros and stakeholders Howard Lederer and Chris Ferguson, on the other hand, were accused of running a ponzi scheme in connection with the company. The company completely stopped paying its customers last summer.
Ivey, whose net worth is estimated around $100 million, was also embroiled in an ugly divorce from his wife Lucietta. The court ultimately awarded her a purse collection worth more than $1.2 million, jewelry valued at more than $1 million and $180,000 a month in alimony.
When asked whether he believed the layoff hurt his game, Ivey said it had not.
“No, I don’t think it helped or hurt it. I’ve been playing poker my whole life around the clock. I would say, if anything, it hurt it a little bit. Because when you’re playing poker, you have to be in stroke, especially when you’re playing against really good players. So, when you first come back and you play against players that have been practicing over the last year and have been playing all the time, you have to make some adjustments, figure out what they’re thinking, what they’re doing. Constantly, the game of poker is changing. Players are constantly adjusting and playing better and better so you have to keep up with the curve.”
With a 2nd, 3rd and 5th place finish at three World Series of Poker events this year, each of which was held within a 7 day span, it’s indeed plausible to suggest that the layoff did little to disrupt Ivey’s game. Not to mention he’s won over three quarter of a million dollars since his return six months ago.
- Nagesh Rath, Gambling911.com
