Happy Tuesday Obots!
Did you know the most feared poker player in the WORLD is a black man?
Phil Ivey
Phillip Dennis “Phil” Ivey Jr. (born February 1, 1976) is an American professional poker player who has won eight World Series of Poker bracelets, one World Poker Tour title and appeared at nine World Poker Tour final tables. Ivey is regarded by numerous poker observers and contemporaries as the best all-around player in the world today.
Ivey first began to develop his poker skills by playing against co-workers at a New Brunswick, New Jersey telemarketing firm in the late 1990s. One of his nicknames, “No Home Jerome”, stems from the ID card he secured to practice in Atlantic City, New Jersey in his teenage years. His other nickname is ‘the Tiger Woods of Poker’.
Ivey is a regular participant in the $4,000-$8,000 mixed cash game at the Bellagio hotel in Las Vegas (often referred to as the Big Game). In February 2006, he played heads-up Limit Texas Hold’em versus Texas billionaire Andy Beal. With stakes at $25,000/$50,000 and $50,000/$100,000, Ivey won over $16,000,000 over the course of three days. Ivey was playing for “The Corporation”, a group of poker professionals who pooled their money and took turns playing against Beal. Earlier in the month, Beal had beaten the Corporation out of over $13,000,000.
As of 2012, his total live tournament winnings exceed $16,000,000. $5,294,840 of his total winnings have come from cashes at the WSOP. He is currently ranked 2nd on the all time money list behind Erik Seidel.
This dude takes no prisoners.
Ivey has given money to a number of charitable causes.In March 2008, Ivey donated $50,000 to Empowered 2 Excel, a Las Vegas charity for underprivileged children, and later that week created the Budding Ivey Foundation, a non-profit organization to continue the work of his grandfather, Leonard “Bud” Simmons. The foundation raised $260,000 (mostly for Empowered 2 Excel) at a July 3, 2008 charity poker tournament,and is also involved in children’s literacy projects and programs to feed the homeless.
(info courtesy of Wikipedia and pokernewsdaily.com)