Phil Ivey denied $11 million win...
 

The world's best poker player has an $11 million win withheld by a London casino.

http://www.inquisitr.com/358942/phil...s-from-casino/

There's a lot of this going on these days, just refusing to pay gamblers because they can. Ivey will eventually get paid, the negative stigma this place will have isnt worth the 11 million, they dont want the reputation that they can decide if they dont want to pay you or not.

I read another article on my phone about this, and it said something along the lines of the woman he was with had been flagged by other casinos.

Yeah...Ivey's female companion supposedly had her membership in another casino revoked.

this is not anything new to the gambling world. i have seen this in Vegas before where they put a baccarat shoe together. but i have never heard or seen anyone try to take down a casino for $11 million in one shot, that is being greedy. they could have got them for something reasonable like $100,000.

it sounds like Ivy tried to set them up by losing first. Billy Walters did the same thing in Roulette to Steve Wynn in the Golden Nugget in Atlantic city. he got paid because all he did was scout the roulette wheels for 2 months and figured out the bias to the wheel.

the bigger question in this case is not that Ivy and his friend took them down, i wonder how the pit boss watching the game let it go on for so long and let them win that type of money to start out. and this had to be an inside job where someone brought the cooler in and had the eye in the sky turn their heads.
they all had to be a part of the conspiracy.

So, if Ivey had LOST 11 million, would they have given him his money back? Casino Free Rolling Phil, its not right.

How exactly did he set them up? Seems like a legit win to me, even the casino says "they havent found anything".

The casinos are not in the gambling business anymore.

They pretend to welcome the action of the high rollers, and they lick their chops when a player puts $1.6 million of his own money into the game...but they cry like little girls when the "lamb slaughters the butcher". :)

Exactly. Vegas especially is terrified of gamblers, anyone they think has a 'good opinion' is not welcome at the casino. If you want to bet sports there, you gotta look and act like a square.

true. Sounds exactly right from the details given in the story.

he lost $80k first then beat them

Ivey had $1.6 million of his own money in the game...which the casino returned to him. If a man is allowed to gamble at such a high level...then an $11 million win is possible, without cheating.

Phil Ivey's casino gambling exploits are legendary; million dollar win/loss sessions are nothing new to him.

Years ago, in the Bahamas I was playing craps at a table that was unbelievably hot. Everyone who got ahold of the dice held them for a half hour. Suddenly, a casino official came to the table and announced that they would be closing early :(

the article leaves out the info we would need, to know how fair the ruling was.

It comes down to what kind of odds he bucked.

If he bet 1.4 million on a single hand to tie and won (8-1payout), I can't see how the casino would have a case - he simply got lucky on a risky gamble.


but if he was playing all night and bucking the odds in an improbable fashion on the Player vs. Bank (pays evens) then the casino has a strong case.

The article makes it seem like the later. Maybe it wasn't ??

Who knows this could all be a publicity stunt too.

Interesting that Phil Ivey's name should come up in this recent article about Billy Walters and his penchant for selecting high profile celebrities to use as "beards" for his high stakes sports wagering operation.
I guess Ashton Kutcher was his most recent associate, and he was backed off in Vegas not long ago.

http://linemakers.sportingnews.com/s...egas-syndicate

Years ago, I read a book by English professional gambler Alex Bird (c.1950-70s) on his success in gambling. The close of his story listed his only regret in how he went about his business. It was that he had not used a high profile celebrity, such as Omar Sharif, to front for him in making wagers. Sharif had developed the reputation as a degenerate gambler.
Any bookmaker, or casino, in Europe would take his action - especially if he was wagering with cash.
Bird figured that he could have kept his ventures running much longer with such a front person - he had been barred all over the place.

Seems Billy Walters thinks the same way. In addition to Ivey and Kutcher - Bruce Willis, Phil Mickleson, and Floyd Mayweather have all been mentioned as possible associates of Walters. Very likely, the female companion of Phil Ivey in the London casino has, also, been an acquaintance of the gambling guru.

Interesting stuff...... :ThmbUp:

that guys works overtime dreaming up ways to get the house. he is the best ever at it. casino;s must spend millions every year to try to protect themselves from this gem of humanity. to give him some credit, i have never heard of him scoring off a degenerate gambler

Why, just because he won?

I recall a crap game at the Golden Nugget in 1976 where the dice rolled for almost 2 hours. I know, because I took 2 turns on the stick on that game. It started at the end of my first turn, then my 2 turns on base, one turn on break, back on the stick and one more on the base when the hand ended. around 100-110 minutes. It was a quarter game (to start). At the end, the smallest player had almost $1000 in the rail - LOL - this guy couldn't win money if his life depended upon it.

Every roll of the dice after about 45 minutes took like 2-3 minutes paying off the hard ways and props. Biggest player had around $60k in the rail.

Small limit back then -$500 - but 5x odds. They advertised a $5k limit but you had to negotiate it ahead of time.

Two points I would make:

1. The joint was convinced they were being cheated.

2. People can get lucky. The casinos don't like that but it can happen.

Today, when a casino loses, apparently they sometimes just refuse to pay. "We must have been cheated" from the casino side sounds a lot like the players they used to laugh at.

It's been over 30 years since I read that book, but it was the celebrity status of Omar Sharif that Alex Bird was interested in. Of course, it didn't hurt that many people knew that Sharif was a terrible gambler. In the 1960/70s, there were few actors as famous around the world as Sharif. Bird figured, also, that he could have helped him lose a lot less money over time. Maybe even win.

boy do i wish i was on that table :lol:

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/the-tu...032520482.html

An article explaining how Ivey allegedly cheated. The late Titanic Thompson
was reputedly able to do this also. I don't think this is illegal.

Pay up. You were outsmarted.

Totally bogus - he won that money fair & square...
card up his sleeve? NO
dealer helping him out by manipulating the cards? NO
quick handed trickery at the table? NO

so he notices an anomaly in the card design and capitalizes on it...suppose I spot a track bias and make a few big scores...are the other bettors going to demand their money back because I "cheated" ?

It's cheating
 

If the cards were faulty, and Ivey was able take advantage of it, it's cheating.
There is not a gaming establishment anywhere that would tolerate this, and the bodies that govern most of them (i.e. Nevada Gaming Control) would side with the house in any such case.

Ivey has no chance in court.
If he wasn't the celebrity that he is, he might face prosecution himself.
Take your stake money and run, buddy......

Let's put in another way, for all of you siding with the player.

How long do you think Phil Ivey would stick around in a holdem game where one, or more,
of his opponents recognized a pattern on the backs of the community cards?
Do you think he would feel cheated, and demand any losses back?

Ok, so the deck that house provided for gambling was flawed.

Ivey apparently took advantage of this.
I don't know whether Ivey should be allowed to profit from their mistake or not. I'm leaning toward "YES", but I haven't put a lot of serious thought in.
I am sure the 'rules' say that he is not.

The bigger questions are not about that ruling(unless you are Ivey), but are in regard to the deck that the house provided being flawed.
HUGE can of worms opened :eek:

Is this baccarat? The cards are in a shoe with a cover on it.....there is no skill in baccarat there are set standards on certain draws is this article a publicity stunt? Phil wasn't cheating

Phil bets 5k a box on dice And is a loose cannon...

I grew up around Phil used to play 3/6 holdem at trop and taj in ac was good back then....he graduated the same high school as me edison nj and played in a lot of clubs in perth amboy nj

Fun fact: in my opinion 2 best players in world are Phil Ivey and Tom durrrrrr dwan....both graduated from Edison nj 2 high schools Edison high school and John p Stevens high school

Phil don't have to cheat games to win he will bury any game he is in he has the heart of a lion

Theft
 

Leaving the register open and unattended is stupid but that don't mean you can take the cash.

well said. :ThmbUp:



I think the fact that the deck was flawed brings up bigger questions.

Was it 1 flawed deck in that 1 casino that a top world player Ivey just happened to LUCK into? , and immediately noticed?

I don't know cards very well, but I thought they shuffled together a few decks and used new decks every so often.... I'm not sure.

Was every deck flawed??

Is it possible the casino has known about this and been exploiting it??

Did Ivey notice it, or was he tipped off by a casino insider??

If every deck was flawed was this something the manufacturer was involved in??

It's likely to result from manafacturer error, and that many decks are flawed. Someone may have been sharp enough to pick up on it, or it's possible that an employee, or former employee, of the card company is on the take.
This wouldn't be the first time this situation has arisen, and the casino will always cry foul.

You mean he has no chance to lose in court. That's what you meant, right?

Yeah, but if you take the cash and they have no proof you did, can you get in trouble? That's the 64 dollar question.

The problem with stealing or cheating the casino they have the rewind button....and if it doesn't go in the casinos favor the tapes "get lost" or "the camera" wasn't on

Wouldn't happen in Nevada
 

As someone who works in a casino surveillance department, I'd love to see the size of the fine our property would face from the NGCB if we tried to pull that one. #megabucks

It's a generalization.....can't tell u how many times there is a ruling or something happens on a game and the camera didn't see it.....

Or how many cameras aren't even on because a lack of manpower up in the room.....100 percent fact

Oh, now it's a generalization.

Anyway, can't believe people are ignoring the really important parts of this story. That Ivey requested the dealer HOLD THE CARDS a certain way, differently than normal (don't have a clue how a dealer holds the cards in Punto Banco, some type of baccarat), AND TO USE THE SAME EXACT CARDS THE NEXT DAY!!! And apparently, the casino complied to both requests, remarkably.

How doesn't those two odd requests not raise SERIOUS alarms on the floor? And yet they continued to let him play...

Casino employees are among the dumbest people on earth trust me....it's a line of work where no college degrees are needed to climb from dealer to vice president or director of a department...

I don't know how to put links on here pace but google how the golden nugget And taj got buried in baccarat because of this gem:

Baccarat game they put the cards in the machine then in the shoe burn the 6 of clubs then has to burn 6 more cards....

Now baccarat there are set procedures of what side player or bank stays or draws.....to make a long story short the cards were never shuffled and all in order....well the sharp Asians players saw notice this a few hands in and they start betting like the results were already in

The cards were literally coming out 3-4-5 clubs then 6-7-8 clubs etc etc etc....the dealer floor people and survaillence never noticed it....there were a ton of terminating the next day....the story leaked out a few months after it happened....google golden nugget and taj mahal baccarat casino losses or scam and read the articles....

I smell another generalization disclaimer coming...

No disclaimer coming for this one I can promise you that......u have 1000s of me working at the casino....and on here we all know I'm not smart!!! :lol: :lol:

But you were right with your post before,...once Ivey asked the dealers to hold the cards a certain way the bells have to start going off!!!!! Good call on that one pace!!!!! :ThmbUp: :ThmbUp: :ThmbUp:

There is no such thing as "the world's best poker player."

True. However, he was gambling with his income from Full Tilt, which has been estimated at $1,000,000~ a month.

What he was doing was nothing more than degenerate gambling, which for some odd reason has received lauditory praise from otherwise astute observers.

But, there has been speculation that his "daring exploits" were nothing more than publicity stunts for Full Tilt Poker. The ploy was to simply try and play as close to break even as possible thus garnering lots of attention for the site of which he was part owner.

Either way, his current imbroglio will not end well. Casinos do not like it when they are taken advantage of.

Obviously, I can't speak for any other surveillance rooms other than those I've worked in. Every game on every table at all times has at least one dedicated camera on it. Each camera is recorded on a DVR, with the video stored for 30 days.
Should any video need to be saved from that game, we have that long to do so, and once it's downloaded it is saved for eternity.
No camera is ever switched off. They can malfunction, but are normally fixed quickly and, if that's not possible, another camera can be used in it's place.

Most of the times that you hear OBS claiming that there was no coverage of an incident on a certain game, you can put it down to "operator error". I won't dispute that casinos aren't staffed with a high percentage of rocket scientists. ;)

PA - your drawing attention to Ivey's request for special handling of the cards is indeed central to the plot. It is, also, very much a red flag as to whether he was cheating. Not knowing the game he was playing, I stayed away from making the point, but it's very likely he was doing it to gain his edge.