I'm Phil Ivey, Bitch

Another day, another bracelet. Such is the life of “The Man” Phil Ivey. Phil Ivey took down his 7th bracelet tonight when he won the $2,500 ½ Omaha Hi-Lo ½ Stud Hi-Lo event. He added another in a long line of mixed bracelets to his resume.

What I love is how he won the bracelet. He was one of the short stacks heading into the day but was able to pick up a pot early to give him a little breathing room. He then did what I like to call flipping on the “I’m Phil Ivey Bitch” button. He went from short stack to chip leader in three hands and really never looked back.

He used a combination of good cards, aggression, and general aura to keep himself at the top. His heads-up opponent gave a good try, but Ivey was probably just taking a break. He then hit the switch again and BANG, his opponent was down to 130,000 chips with betting limits 50k and 100k. At that point, people had already started updating wikipedia and all other record books because it was just a formality. (I know this because I looked up Ivey’s wiki about 5 minutes after he won and it was already listing his 7th bracelet win.)

Ivey is 33 and tied with Billy Baxter with 7 bracelets. There is still a great chance he wins a third bracelet this series. I once said that I thought that Erik Seidel had the best chance to take over the all-time bracelet lead. This was based on the fact that Ivey for the last two years seemed disinterested in really winning a bracelet. Now, Ivey has put myself and everyone else on the planet on notice that he is serious about winning bracelets. At the rate he is going, he might eclipse the “other Phil” by the time he turns 40.

Phil Ivey is the greatest living poker player on the planet. Period