Ex FTP Player Phil Ivey Jumps Back On the Poker Radar
Although Black Friday has come and gone, poker players are reeling from the after effects of the fateful day and Phil Ivey is one of them. Phil Ivey is a former player for Full Tilt Poker, a redundant poker site with a deficit of $300 million player funds. After maintaining a low profile for a long time, Ivey has finally resurfaced playing back-to-back poker in the recent WSOP events.
This year, Ivey entered the World Series of Poker tournament with a loud bang. He recently entered the final table only a few days after winning the second place in the $10,000 Pot-Limit Hold’em. This summer, the former poker heavy weight grabbed cash rewards from four World Series of Poker events, out of which, in three of them he had progressed to the final table. Despite his winnings, Ivey has decided to stay media shy. His quick escape to his waiting trailer just outside Rio is a testimony to his keeping low-key.
The reason to Full Tilt Poker’s slow and painful decay can be attributed to their financial practices, which involved loaning their top sponsored players $10 to $20 million to compete in various events worldwide. Unfortunately, they paid a heavy price for this risk, as many of their seasoned players were unable to repay the loan amount. The buy-ins were a carefully guarded secret, however, they were out in the open the moment Groupe Bernard Tapie hit consistent roadblocks in completing their deal with the Department of Justice. Ben Dayanim, one of GBT’s legal representatives, publicized that the unpaid sum owed by some of Full Tilt Poker’s pro players included Phil Ivey among others. It was the debts that Dayanim claims, that have caused a serious snag to finalising the deal.
A chain of events that occurred post Full Tilt Poker’s revelation caused Groupe Bernard Tapie’s deal to fall apart, subsequently giving arch rival PokerStars the opportunity to stake its claim. According to certain sources, these so-called “debts” signify only a small margin of the $440 million that Full Tilt Poker’s executive team is accused of tapping. Full Tilt Poker’s executives – Howard Lederer, Ray Bitar, RafeFurst and Chris Ferguson have since gone off the radar and have not seen in the poker circuit since spring 2011. With so many questions left answered, poker fans around are waiting for the events of Black Friday to blow over. Although, many say Ivey owes about $ 4 million, the actual number and repayment details remain unknown. Layne Flack believes the number is a misconception, just as his own $ 2 million debt was a make-up figure thatwas paid back over the years.
Ivey’s long time peer – Daniel Negreanu firmly believes Ivey cannot be blamed to the fall of Full Tilt Poker. High stakes cash game pro – Ashton Griffin among other top players believe Ivey and the others shouldn’t have to take the blame, considering what went down with Full Tilt Poker still seems shrouded in mystery.
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