Phil Ivey – one of the best poker players of all times, is currently having legal issues. Ivey was accused of making attempts to “cheat” a reputable London-based casino and earn the life changing sum of £7.7 million.
Phil Ivey is a prominent American poker player who has won a lot of awards during his career. He made it to the final tables nine times, won ten bracelets in the World Series of Poker tournaments. He also won a title in the World Poker Tour. His unique strategy and impressive skills made his admirers believe that he is the best poker player today.
As far as the latest unpleasant events with the London casino are concerned, Phil is said to have noticed that there was a small fault with the playing cards and instead of informing the authorities, he used that information for his own benefit.
During the Court hearing, Ivey claimed that he was wearing his lucky hat and used his lucky pack of cards with the aim of concealing the strategy he had developed – namely tipping the odds for his benefit.
The Casino is a part of the thriving Malaysian Genting Group, which Ivey is currently suing. Although he gave back his stake, equal to £1 million, he totally refused giving his winnings back.
Despite the fact that the casino is one of the most reliable gambling providers, the authorities haven’t noticed the fault in the playing cards. That’s what they claimed during the Court hearing.
“Putting it bluntly, he played, he won and they ought to pay up” said the counsel of Ivey, Richard Spearman.
The cameras, located at the casino revealed the winning strategy of Ivey. The so called “edge-counting” technique enabled him to predict what the next card, coming out of the machine, will be. Actually, Ivey had the chance of seeing the cards before they even come out, which guaranteed him the impressive reward.
The casino authorities claimed that they made a request to the dealer to turn a few of the card around and refer to the superstition. However, Phil Ivey’s court defenders said that most casinos hope that the most popular players will bring them the highest percentage of earnings and even rely on such kind of superstitions. Up to now, the earnings of Phil Ivey are approximately £12 million. Ivey and his Hong Kong poker partner, Cheung Yin Sun, were also enabled to play for a couple of hours without their changes being checked.
The defender of Phil Ivey, assured the Court that his client has used a strategy that is extremely popular in the US, Canada and Australia and the game was an absolute fair play.
The casino counsel was not on the same mind though. He accused Ivey of using the ignorance of the casino authorities for his advantage and stated that such kind of actions are “immoral” and “dishonest”.
The investigation continues and further details will be revealed soon.
