Tournament: Phil Ivey wins two bracelets at 2009 World Series of Poker

Professional poker player Phil Ivey has so far won two championship bracelets at this year’s World Series of Poker, bringing his number of career titles up to seven. His wins in the US$2,500 buy-in No-Limit 2-7 Draw Lowball tournament earned him just over US$96,000. Less than a week later, he earned another title in the US$2,500 buy-in Omaha Hi/Lo / 7 Card Stud Hi/Lo tournament, along with over US$220,000.

With bracelet number seven, Ivey has passed such names as Layne “Back-to-Back” Flack, Men “The Master” Nguyen and T.J. Cloutier and has tied poker legend Billy Baxter for sixth on the all-time career bracelet list. Ivey sits behind only Erik Seidel (eight bracelets), the late Johnny Moss (nine), and former world champions Johnny Chan (ten), Doyle Brunson (ten) and Phil Hellmuth (eleven) on the all-time list.

Aside from the first-prize money Ivey has raked in, several unidentified sources are reporting that he has also earned upwards of US$1,000,000 in “side bets” from his title wins. Since Ivey had not won a bracelet since the 2005 WSOP US$5,000 buy-in Pot Limit Omaha event, some observers may have felt that the young poker pro had lost his edge or was distracted by other business and personal interests. This year, Ivey has proved them wrong with a vengeance.

Surprisingly, none of Ivey’s wins have come in the wildly popular no-limit hold’em variety of poker tournaments. His career stands in contrast to all-time bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth, who has earned all eleven of his bracelets in hold’em tournaments, with seven coming in no-limit events, including his 1989 World Championship title. Also, Ivey did not earn his first title until 2000, making him the fastest player to win seven bracelets (ten years) along with Johnny Moss (1970-1979).

At only thirty-three years of age, Ivey stands posed to break every WSOP record on the books. Like the great performer to whom he has often been compared, the only question that remains is not if but when will he rewrite history?

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