In one of the "so crazy it must be true" stories coming out of the 2009 World Series of Poker television coverage comes this story from last night's ESPN coverage: Phil Ivey mucks a winner. With just 26 players to go, Phil Ivey was in a heads up showdown with 2.5 million in the pot. Here's how the hand played out:

Phil Ivey could not catch a break on Day 8 and when he did, he mucked the winning hand. In the sure-to-be-legendary hand in question, Ivey opened pocket eights from under-the-gun for 320,000. The action folded around to Jordan Smith, who three-bet to 1,000,000 straight from the big blind. Ivey called and they saw a flop. Both players checked and the fell on the turn. Check-check again. The river was the -- check-check a third time. Smith opened up his for aces up, but Ivey mucked his spade flush, clearly not realizing he held the .

If it turns out that Phil Ivey doesn't win the bracelet in this 2009 World Series of Poker Main Event, this could turn out to be exactly why. A small mental mistake could end up costing Ivey literally millions of dollars.

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Posted under world series of poker

It's starting to look like this is Phil Ivey's year to shine. The best player in the world is currently in a great position to win his first WSOP Main Event. With just 64 players left Phil Ivey is in third.

Darvin Moon closed out Day 6 with 9,745,000 to take the chip lead, while Billy Kopp finished a strong second with 8,245,000 and the always-dangerous Phil Ivey ended in third chip position with 6,345,000.

Posted under Tournaments

Phil Ivey is among 30 people left in the $5000 No Limit Shoot out event. Not only that, but he is tied for first place. With the other 30 people. Seem impossible?

The explanation is that this is the $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em Shootout. The structure involves every initial ten-handed table playing down to a single winner on Day 1, without table breaks, as if each were a separate sit-and-go tournament. Each of those table winners made the money and advanced to Day 2. Among those returning when action resumes at 2:00 p.m. Monday are Phil Ivey, David “The Dragon” Pham, Jennifer Harman, Barny Boatman, Neil Channing, and Lex Veldhuis.

Basically, to add his 3rd bracelet this year and 8th overall Phil Ivey has to win two straight six handed sit and gos. Can he do it? This is one time I would DEFINITELY bet on Phil Ivey.

Posted under Tournaments

Phil Ivey won his 7th bracelet in the $2,500 Omaha/7 Card Stud Hi-Lo mixed game. Here's how he did it:

In the final hand, Lee moved all in on third street with and Ivey made the call with . Ivey improved to three queens by the river and Lee finished with only a pair of jacks. Ivey’s three queens were enough to win him his second gold bracelet of the 2009 World Series of Poker and his seventh overall. Phil Ivey is now tied with Billy Baxter for fourth all-time in bracelet wins. In addition to his seventh bracelet, Ivey received $220,538 in prize money.

This further solidifies Ivey's position as the top poker player in the world and can only do more to improve his image at Full Tilt Poker (speaking of, here's a Full Tilt Poker Review). He is currently tied for 6th place on the all-time bracelet list and with one more will move into a tie for 4th. Can he do it this year? I certainly think there's a good chance, but wouldn't count on it. Winning a bracelet is HARD.

If anyone is currently looking for a new poker room a great way to find it is by using the Ultimate Poker Search. If you are looking to play with the pros, it will give you Full Tilt. If you are looking for great bonuses, it will give you something else. You can fine tune your search to find the poker site you want. Pretty cool.

Posted under Tournaments

Of all the games for Phil Ivey to win his sixth WSOP bracelet it's kind of fitting that he would do it playing Deuce to Seven Draw. Considered a game that requires a lot of skill it kind of makes sense. Ivey won about $96k from winning this tournament, but the real prize comes in his bracelet bets which was anywhere from 3 to 10 million.

Here's how Ivey did it:

After a period of trading blinds, John Monnette moved all in and Phil Ivey made the call. Everyone left their seats trying to get as close to the action as possible, and each player declared he was taking one card. Ivey had 7-6-4-2, while Monnette held 9-7-5-2. John Monnette showed his card first, revealing another seven, meaning that he was drawing dead. Phil Ivey turned over the five for the winning hand and his sixth WSOP gold bracelet, his first since 2005.

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Posted under Tournaments