Look up Antonius in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Antonius is the nomen of the gens Antonia, one of the most important families in ancient Rome, with both patrician and plebeian branches. It is also the source of the English personal name Anthony, as well as a number of similar names in various European languages.

Marcus Antonius claimed that the gens was descended from Anton, a son of Heracles. Women of the family were called Antonia. The Antonii produced a number of important generals and politicians, some of whom are listed below. For other persons with this name, see Antonia (gens).

• Marcus Antonius (83 - 30 BC), ally of Caesar, triumvir and afterwards enemy of Augustus. Probably the most famous of the Antonii, his life is depicted in William Shakespeare's play Antony and Cleopatra. He promulgated the leges Antoniae of 44 BC, abolishing the office of dictator, re-adjusting provincial commands, confirming Caesar's acta, and granting provocatio to those convicted de maiestate and de vi.^[1]

Other Antonii[link]

• Marcus Antonius, the orator, Marcus Antonius' grandfather (died 87 BC)
• Marcus Antonius Creticus, Marcus Antonius' father
• Gaius Antonius Hybrida, Marcus Antonius' uncle
• Gaius Antonius, Marcus Antonius' younger brother (died 42 BC)
• Lucius Antonius (disambiguation), multiple people
• Marcus Antonius, sometimes called Antyllus, Marcus Antonius' eldest son by Fulvia (died 30 BC)
• Iullus Antonius, Marcus Antonius' youngest son by Fulvia (died 2 BC)
• Antonius Natalis, an equestrian, member of the Pisonian conspiracy against Nero
• Marcus Antonius Gordianus I, emperor in AD 238
• Marcus Antonius Gordianus II, emperor in AD 238
• Marcus Antonius Gordianus III, emperor from AD 238 to 244

Women of the gens[link]

• Antonia, the daughter of Marcus Antonius, the orator
• Julia Antonia
• Antonia Hybrida Major
• Antonia Hybrida Minor
• Daughters of Mark Antony -

• Antonia
• Antonia Major
• Antonia Minor, mother of Claudius

• Iulla Antonia
• Antonia Tryphaena
• Antonia Furnilla, mother of Marcia (mother of Trajan) and Marcia Furnilla
• Claudia Antonia
• Antonia Clementiana, daughter of Antonius Felix, the Roman Governor of Judea
• Antonia Agrippina, possibly a granddaughter of Antonius Felix
• Antonia Gordiana, daughter of Gordianus I and mother of Gordianus III

See also[link]

• Antonia (gens)
• Antonious

References[link]

Patrik Antonius
Nickname(s)	PA, Black Lotus, The Finn
Residence	Helsinki, Finland
Born	(1980-12-13) 13 December 1980 (age 31) Helsinki, Finland
World Series of Poker
Bracelet(s)	None
Final table(s)	2
Money finish(es)	14[1]
Highest ITM Main Event finish	601st, 2010
World Poker Tour
Title(s)	None
Final table(s)	1
Money finish(es)	7
European Poker Tour
Title(s)	1
Final table(s)	2
Money finish(es)	2
Information accurate as of 30 October 2011.

Patrik Antonius (born 13 December 1980 in Helsinki, Finland) is a Finnish professional poker player, former tennis player and coach, and model from Vantaa, Finland. He currently resides in Monte Carlo. Antonius was mentored by poker pro Marcel Lüske as a member of Luske's "Circle of Outlaws"^[2] and later advised by Jennifer Harman.^[3] Antonius is married to Maya Geller and has two children.^[4]

Tournament poker[link]

Antonius began making a name for himself on the poker tournament circuit with two finishes near the final table of a European Poker Tour (EPT) event and a World Poker Tour (WPT) event, 12th at the EPT PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, then 15th at the WPT Bay 101 Shooting Stars event two months later, in early 2005. He went on to finish in the money in three events of the 2005 World Series of Poker (WSOP). In September 2005 he made the European Poker Tour (EPT) Main Event final table, finishing 3rd in Barcelona. The next month, Antonius won the EPT event in Baden bei Wien, taking home the €288,180 first prize when in the final hand his 8♠ 4♥ beat Gunnar Østebrød's Q♥ 9♣ on a board of 4♠ 7♠ 8♥ 3♣ 7♣. In December 2005 he finished the year 2nd in the WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic in Las Vegas, Nevada, winning $1,046,470.

In July 2006 he placed 9th in the 143-player 8-handed World Series of Poker $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event, taking home $205,920, his biggest cash that year. In 2007 World Series of Poker, Antonius entered numerous tournaments but he only cashed in the World Championship of Pot Limit Omaha event, placing third and winning $311,394, making that his ninth WSOP cash and increasing his WSOP earnings to a total of $569,964. Antonius has been featured three times on NBC's Poker After Dark. In his first appearance he finished as runner up, losing out to fellow poker professional Jennifer Harman, but his next attempt saw him defeat Brad Booth in heads-up play to take the victory. In his third appearance he was runner up again, this time to Johnny Chan. As of 2011^[update], Antonius' total live tournament winnings exceed $ 3,375,000.^[5] His 14 cashes at the WSOP account for $911,178 of those winnings.^[6]

Antonius was not able to enter the 2009 WSOP Main Event, as he was turned away when attempting to register along with hundreds of others due to a capacity field.^[7]

He also plays in some of the highest profile online tournaments, and in September 2008 he finished 2nd in the Full Tilt Poker $25,000 buy-in Heads-Up Pot Limit Omaha Championship, winning $320,000.

Antonius finished 9th in the 593-player 8-handed €10,400 2011 World Series of Poker Europe main event for a prize of €90,000.^[8]

Cash games[link]

Antonius is a heads-up specialist.^[9] He is a regular high stakes player online and one of the most successful having won millions of dollars.^[9] He has played on Full Tilt Poker under several nicknames, including Luigi66369, CryMeRiver9 and Finddagrind, but having become a member of "Team Full Tilt" he now plays under his real name.^[10] During his early career he also used screen names e.g. I_knockout_U, try_hrdr_fish and -ANTONIUS- on various other poker networks. Previously Antonius was one of a team of players associated with Martinspoker.com.

He is equally prolific in live cash games, and is a regular in the [Game (poker)|Big Game<], the high-stakes cash game at the Bellagio. Antonius appeared on the third to sixth seasons of GSN's High Stakes Poker. Patrik was involved, along with Sammy Farha, in the show's largest ever pot; it totaled $998,800. After a preflop raise and re-raise the flop came 6♦ 3♣ 9♦; Antonius held J♥ 9♥ for top pair and Farha held K♦ Q♦, giving him two over-cards and a flush draw. Sammy called Patrik's all-in raise instantly and the two agreed to run the turn and river four times. Though Sammy's hand was a slight favorite, Patrik won three of the four runs and collected $749,100.

In another sizable pot on High Stakes Poker, Patrik went up against Jamie Gold. Jamie had K♠ K♦ versus Patrik's A♠ J♦. Patrik raised to $4,000 preflop with Jamie reraising to $14,000, after declaring that his hole cards felt "like aces." The flop came out 3♠ Q♦ 10♥, giving Patrik an inside straight draw. Jamie bet $15,000 into a $30,800 pot, which Patrik called. The turn was the K♥, giving Patrik a straight and Jamie a set of kings. Patrik bet $45,000 into the pot, which Jamie reraised all in. Patrik immediately called making the pot worth $743,800. The players agreed to run the river three times. Despite being a 77-23 favorite, Patrik won only the last of the three times, as Jamie hit a full house on the first two. Even after losing two times as a favorite, Patrik remained calm and showed no emotion on his face. At the time, it was the largest pot ever on High Stakes Poker.

Antonius has since lost a pot of almost $600,000 to Tom Dwan on an episode of the Poker After Dark high stakes cash game. Tom straddled the hand to $1,200 and Patrik was first to act having pocket 10's, with which he raised. Tom reraised the hand with pocket kings, and Patrik called. The flop gave him a set of tens and he bet $27,000, which Tom called. The turn was a king, giving Tom a set of kings. Patrik bet $59,000 which led to Dwan going all-in for over $200,000, which Patrik called, making the pot almost $600,000. They ran it twice, Patrik losing both. It was the largest pot in the history of Poker After Dark.

Antonius was the first player to go up against Dwan in his "Million Dollar Challenge" on Full Tilt Poker (though not the first to accept the challenge). Dwan has challenged players to high-stakes no-limit hold 'em or pot-limit Omaha at Full Tilt, playing four tables at a time heads-up for a total of 50,000 hands. Dwan has put up $1.5 million to any opponent's $500,000; the player who is ahead after 50,000 hands will win the money put up by his opponent, while retaining any winnings resulting from play in the challenge.^[11] The Antonius vs. Dwan match has not been finished as of July 2011, lasting longer than two years, as the two pros could not free their schedule to play.

In November 2009, Antonius won the biggest pot in online poker history, $1,356,946 against Viktor Blom, who was at the time known only by his Full Tilt Poker moniker, Isildur1.^[12][13]

Notes[link]

External links[link]

• Official site
• "Net Working" article by Antonius
• Barry Greenstein's player analysis of Antonius
• Poker Pages profile

Doyle Brunson
Brunson at the 2006 World Series of Poker.
Nickname(s)	Texas Dolly, Big Papa, The Godfather of Poker
Residence	Las Vegas, Nevada
Born	(1933-08-10) August 10, 1933 (age 78) Longworth, Fisher County, Texas
World Series of Poker
Bracelet(s)	10
Money finish(es)	35
Highest ITM Main Event finish	Winner, 1976, 1977
World Poker Tour
Title(s)	1
Final table(s)	3
Money finish(es)	8
European Poker Tour
Title(s)	None
Final table(s)	None
Money finish(es)	1
Information accurate as of 28 February 2012.

Doyle F. Brunson^[1] (born August 10, 1933) is an American professional poker player who has played professionally for over 50 years.^[2] He is the first two-time World Series of Poker main event champion to win consecutively,^[3] a Poker Hall of Fame inductee, and the author of several books on poker.

Brunson is the first player to earn $1 million in poker tournaments and has won ten World Series of Poker bracelets throughout his career, tied with Johnny Chan for second all-time, one behind Phil Hellmuth's eleven. He is also one of only four players to have won the Main Event at the World Series of Poker multiple times, which he did in 1976 and 1977. He is also one of only two players, along with Bill Boyd, to have won bracelets at the WSOP in four consecutive years. In addition, he is the first of five players to win both the WSOP Main Event and a World Poker Tour title. In January 2006, Bluff Magazine voted Brunson the #1 most influential force in the world of poker.^[4]

Early life[link]

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (November 2011)

Brunson was born in Longworth, Fisher County, Texas, a town with a population of approximately 100, and was one of three children. Because of Longworth's small size, Brunson frequently ran long distances to other towns, and became a promising athlete. He was part of the All-State Texas basketball team, and practiced the one-mile run to keep in shape in the off-season. Although he was more interested in basketball than running, he entered the 1950 Texas Interscholastic Track Meet and won the one-mile event with a time of 4:43. Despite receiving offers from many colleges, he attended Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene, Texas, because it was close to his home.

The Minneapolis Lakers were interested in Brunson, but a knee injury ended his playing days. He had taken a summer job and was unloading some sheetrock; when the ton of weight shifted, Brunson instinctively tried to stop it, but it landed on his leg, breaking it in two places. He was in a cast for two years, and the injury ended his hopes of becoming a professional basketball player. He still occasionally requires a crutch to get around because of the injury. Brunson changed his focus from athletics to education, obtaining a bachelor's degree in 1954 and a master's degree in administrative education the following year.

Brunson had begun playing poker before his injury, playing five-card draw and finding it "easy." He played more often after being injured and his winnings paid for his expenses. After graduating, he took a job as a business machines salesman but, on his first day, he was invited to play in a seven-card stud game and earned over a month's salary in under three hours. He soon left the company and became a professional poker player.

Poker career[link]

Doyle Brunson on the way to his 1976 WSOP Main Event title.

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (November 2011)

Brunson started off by playing in illegal games on Exchange Street, Fort Worth, Texas with a friend named Dwayne Hamilton. Eventually, they began traveling around Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana, playing in bigger games, and meeting fellow professionals Amarillo Slim and Sailor Roberts. The illegal games Brunson played in during this time were usually run by criminals who were often members of organized crime, so rules were not always enforced. Brunson has admitted to having a gun pulled on him several times and that he was robbed and beaten. Poker was not a socially accepted career path during this time and, given the reputation of those running the games he was playing in, he had little legal recourse.

Hamilton moved back to Fort Worth, while the others teamed up and travelled around together, gambling on poker, golf and, in Doyle's words, "just about everything."^[5] They pooled their money for gambling and after six years, they made their first serious trip to Las Vegas and lost all of it, a six-figure amount. They decided to stop playing as partners yet remain friends.

Brunson finally settled in Las Vegas. He has been a regular player at the World Series of Poker, since its creation in 1970, playing in the Main Event nearly every year since then in addition to many of the other preceding bracelet-awarding events. He made some WSOP championship event final tables before his back-to-back wins, but since this was when the event was winner-take-all, they are not counted as cashes. Besides his two championship wins in 1976 and 1977, Brunson's other main event cashes are: 1980 (runner-up to three-time champion Stu Ungar), 1982 (4th), 1983 (3rd), 1997 (16th), and 2004 (53rd).

Brunson authored Super/System, which is widely considered to be one of the most authoritative books on poker. Originally self-published in 1978, Super/System was the book that transformed poker by giving ordinary players insight into the way that professionals such as Brunson played and won, so much so that Brunson believes that it cost him a lot of money. An updated revision, Super/System 2, was published in 2004. Besides Brunson, several top poker players contributed chapters to Super/System including Bobby Baldwin, Mike Caro, David Sklansky, Chip Reese and Joey Hawthorne. The book is subtitled "How I made one million dollars playing poker," by Doyle Brunson. Brunson is also the author of Poker Wisdom of a Champion, originally published as According to Doyle by Lyle Stuart in 1984.

Brunson continues to play in the biggest poker games in the world, including a $4000/$8000 limit mixed poker game in "Bobby's Room" at the Bellagio. He also plays in many of the biggest poker tournaments around the world. He won his ninth gold bracelet in a mixed games event in 2003, and in 2004, he finished 53rd (in a field of 2,576) in the No Limit Texas hold 'em Championship event. He won the Legends of Poker World Poker Tour event in 2004 (garnering him a $1.1 million prize) and finished fourth in the WPT's first championship event. Early in the morning on July 1, 2005, less than a week after Chan had won his 10th gold bracelet - setting a new record - Brunson tied the record at the 2005 WSOP. He is currently one bracelet behind Phil Hellmuth, who earned his 11th bracelet at the WSOP on June 11, 2007.

Brunson's nickname, "Texas Dolly," came from a mistake by Jimmy Snyder. Snyder was supposed to announce Brunson as "Texas Doyle," but incorrectly pronounced the first name as Dolly. It stuck and many of Brunson's fellow top pros now simply refer to Brunson as "Dolly."

Brunson has two Texas hold'em hands named after him. One hand, a ten and a two of any suit, bears his name because he won the No Limit Hold 'Em event at the World Series of Poker two years in a row with them (1976 and 1977), in both cases completing a full house. In both 1976 and 1977, he was an underdog in the final hand. Another hand known as a "Doyle Brunson," especially in Texas, is the ace and queen of any suit because, as he says on page 519 of Super/System, he "never plays this hand." He changes his wording in Super/System 2, however, noting that he "tries to never play this hand."

As of 2011, his total live tournament winnings exceed $6,000,000.^[6] He has totaled $2,945,053 in earnings from his 34 cashes at the WSOP.^[7]

World Series of Poker bracelets[link]

Family life[link]

Brunson met his future wife, Louise, in 1960 and married her in August 1962. Louise became pregnant, but later that year, a tumor was discovered in Doyle's neck. When it was operated on, the surgeons found that the cancer had spread and declared it incurable. They felt that an operation would prolong his life long enough for him to see the birth of the baby, so they went ahead with it. After the operation, no trace of the cancer could be found.^[9] The doctors said that his recovery must have been a miracle, and Brunson has attributed his cure to the prayers of friends of his wife and their correspondence with Kathryn Kuhlman, a self-proclaimed Christian faith healer.^[10] Louise developed a tumor shortly afterwards and, when she went for surgery, her tumor was also found to have disappeared. In 1975, their daughter Doyla was diagnosed with scoliosis, yet her spine straightened completely within three months.

Doyla died at 18 when she took too much potassium for a heart-valve condition. Over the following year, Brunson read Christian literature and converted to Christianity.

His son, Todd, also plays poker professionally. Todd has won a bracelet in Omaha Hi-Lo at the 2005 WSOP, making the Brunsons the first father-son combination to win World Series bracelets. His daughter Pamela played in the 2007 World Series of Poker and 2009 World Series of Poker main events, outlasting both Doyle and Todd both times.

SEC investigation[link]

On December 14, 2005, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed an action^[11] to enforce subpoenas issued to the attorneys of Doyle Brunson regarding his unsolicited offer in July 2005 to buy WPT Enterprises, Inc., the publicly traded owner of the World Poker Tour, at a high premium over its then-market value. Shortly thereafter, the Commission contends, a public relations firm Brunson hired, and a website he endorses, publicly announced the offer. The Commission asserts that publication of this offer, widely covered in the media, triggered a steep rise in WPT's stock price on record trading volume.

When pressed for details, Brunson and his lawyers immediately stopped responding to the WPT and the media. Instead, after delivering the offer, Brunson withdrew from the engagement. When the WPT publicly disclosed Brunson and his law firm's unresponsiveness, its stock price sharply declined, costing investors tens of millions of dollars in lost market value. The offer eventually expired by its terms.

The SEC is formally investigating whether Brunson's offer and its publication violated federal securities laws, including the anti-fraud provisions of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. As part of its investigation, the SEC subpoenaed documents and testimony from Brunson's lawyers. However, Brunson, who has invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and declined to testify in the investigation, directed his lawyers to withhold certain documents and not to testify on critical aspects of the offer, under the attorney-client privilege and work product doctrine. The subpoena enforcement action seeks to set aside these privileges on various legal grounds, including the crime-fraud exception, and to compel Brunson's firm to provide the requested documents and testimony. The court has not yet set the Commission's action for hearing.^[12]

Bibliography[link]

• Doyle Brunson's Super System: A Course in Power Poker (1979) ISBN 1-58042-081-8
• According to Doyle (1984) ISBN 0-89746-003-0
• Poker Wisdom of a Champion (2003) (formerly titled According to Doyle when published in 1984) ISBN 1-58042-119-9
• Doyle Brunson's Super System 2: A Course in Power Poker (2005) ISBN 1-58042-136-9
• Online Poker: Your Guide to Playing Online Poker Safely & Winning Money (2005) ISBN 1-58042-132-6
• My 50 Most Memorable Hands (2007) ISBN 1-58042-202-0
• The Godfather of Poker: The Doyle Brunson Story (2009) ISBN 1-58042-257-8

References[link]

Doyle Brunson et al. (2005). "My Story". Super System 2. Cardoza Publishing. pp. 41–68. 

Notes[link]

External links[link]

• Official site
• Doyles Room
• World Poker Tour profile
• Poker Pages interview
• ALL IN Magazine interview

Phil Ivey
Ivey at the Million Euro Challenge
Nickname(s)	The Tiger Woods of Poker No Home Jerome
Residence	Las Vegas, Nevada
Born	(1976-02-01) February 1, 1976 (age 36)
World Series of Poker
Bracelet(s)	8
Final table(s)	22
Money finish(es)	42
Highest ITM Main Event finish	7th, 2009
World Poker Tour
Title(s)	1
Final table(s)	9
Money finish(es)	13
European Poker Tour
Title(s)	None
Final table(s)	1
Money finish(es)	2
Information accurate as of 28 February 2012.

Phillip Dennis "Phil" Ivey Jr.^[1] (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.^[2][3][4]

Poker[link]

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.^[5] His other nickname is 'the Tiger Woods of Poker'.^[6]

Live poker[link]

Tournaments[link]

As of 2012^[update], his total live tournament winnings exceed $16,000,000.^[7] $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.^[8]

World Series of Poker[link]

Ivey's tournament accomplishments include winning three bracelets at the 2002 World Series of Poker, tying Phil Hellmuth Jr, Ted Forrest, and Puggy Pearson for most tournament wins in a single year (Jeff Lisandro has also since tied the record).^[9] Ivey also has bracelets in Pot Limit Omaha from 2000 and 2005. In 2000, he was the first person to defeat Amarillo Slim heads-up at a WSOP final table.^[10] In addition to his eight World Series bracelets, Ivey has had great success in the WSOP Main Event. He placed in the top 25 four times between the 2002 World Series of Poker and the 2009 World Series of Poker. Ivey finished 23rd in 2002, 10th in 2003, 20th in 2005 and 7th in 2009.

In 2009, Ivey won his 6th bracelet in the $2,500 No-Limit 2-7 Draw Lowball Event of the 2009 WSOP. He defeated a field of 147 players to catch his bracelet. He won a very long heads-up battle against John Monette. He then proceeded to win another bracelet in the $2,500 1/2 Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo 1/2 Omaha Hi/Lo event besting a field of 376 people. He defeated Ming Lee heads-up. While winning the $2,500 1/2 Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo - 1/2 Omaha Hi/Lo event he also managed to place 22nd in the $5000 Pot-Limit Omaha Eight-or-better despite only playing during the breaks in the Stud/Omaha event.

In the 2010 World Series of Poker, Ivey received the most votes for the Tournament of Champions.^[11]

At the 2010 WSOP Ivey won his eighth bracelet in the $3,000 H.O.R.S.E. event in a final table made up of other notable players, which included Bill Chen (2nd), John Juanda (3rd), Jeff Lisandro (5th) and Chad Brown (8th).^[12]

Between 2002 and 2009, Ivey finished among the top 25 players in the Main Event four times, in fields ranging in size from 600 entrants to just under 7000.^{[citation needed]} Ivey finished 10th in the 2003 WSOP Main Event (one place short of the final table), and 7th in 2009. In 2009 his A♣ K♠ lost to Darvin Moon's A♦ Q♠ when a queen paired Moon on the flop; he ended with winnings of $1,404,002.

With eight World Series of Poker bracelets, Ivey is currently tied with Erik Seidel for the fifth most of all-time. Also, at age 34, he was the youngest player to ever win eight (Phil Hellmuth was 39). In addition, no other player has accumulated eight bracelets more quickly; it took Ivey only ten years from the time of his first bracelet to his eighth (Johnny Moss took 11 years). He is also the all-time record holder for most bracelets won in non-Holdem events, with all 8 of his victories coming in non-Holdem events. His 2010 win gave him the lead over Billy Baxter.

On May 31, 2011, Ivey announced he will not be playing in the 2011 WSOP: "I do not believe it is fair that I compete when others cannot... until a solution is reached that cements the security of all players, both US and International, I will, as I have for the last six weeks, dedicate the entirety of my time and efforts to finding a solution for those who have been wronged by the painfully slow process of repayment."^[13]

World Poker Tour[link]

Ivey has also reached nine final tables on the World Poker Tour. He has lost several of these WPT events by being eliminated while holding the same starting hand each time, an ace and a queen. Nine out of the twelve times Phil Ivey has cashed in a WPT event, he has also made the television final table. During the sixth season of the WPT in February 2008, Ivey made the final table at the LA Poker Classic at Commerce Casino that included Phil Hellmuth and Nam Le, eventually capturing the $1,596,100 first prize and putting an end to his streak of seven WPT final tables without a victory. Ivey has earned close to three million dollars in WPT cashes. Ivey made his debut on the European Poker Tour in Barcelona, September 2006. He came to the final table of nine as the chipleader, but he eventually came in second to Bjørn-Erik Glenne from Norway.

Other notable tournaments[link]

In 2006, Ivey was enticed to London to participate in The London All Star Challenge of the inaugural European Poker Masters. Not only Europe's first-ever independent poker tour, the EPM boasted the best lineup of players ever seen in Europe. As one of the favorites, Ivey made it to the final table to finish seventh, and collected £6,700 ($12,534). In November 2005, Ivey won the $1,000,000 first prize at the Monte Carlo Millions tournament. Just one day after, Ivey took home another $600,000 for finishing first at "The FullTiltPoker.Net Invitational Live from Monte Carlo". His six opponents were (in reverse finishing order) Mike Matusow, Phil Hellmuth, Gus Hansen, Chris Ferguson, Dave Ulliott, and John Juanda.

On the January 22, 2007 airing of NBC's Poker After Dark, Ivey won the $120,000 winner-take-all "Earphones Please" tournament by eliminating Mike Matusow, Tony G, Andy Bloch, Phil Hellmuth and Sam Farha. On the April 15, 2007 airing of NBC's "National Heads-Up Poker Championship", Ivey was defeated by actor Don Cheadle. The loss marked the third consecutive year Ivey had been eliminated in the first round from this tournament. His streak ended in 2008, when he advanced to the semifinals, losing to eventual champion Chris Ferguson. Phil Ivey took part in seasons three and six of GSN's High Stakes Poker.

On January 29, 2012 Ivey won the Aussie Millions A$250,000 High-roller event, defeating Patrik Antonius heads-up for a prize of A$2,000,000, at the time placing him 2nd in the all-time career tournament earnings. Ivey had also placed 12th at the Aussie Millions main event for a prize of A$100,000.^[14]

Cash games[link]

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, during a heads up match at The Wynn Resort. 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.

Online poker[link]

Ivey was part of the original design team for Full Tilt Poker. In May 2011, Ivey filed a lawsuit in Clark County, Nevada claiming Full Tilt had breached his contract. The suit asked for damages in excess $150,000,000, as well as for him to be released from his contract with the company.^[15] Ivey voluntarily withdrew the suit on June 30.^[16]

According to HighStakesDB.com, Phil Ivey earned $1.99 million on FullTilt in 2007, $7.34 million in 2008, $6.33 million in 2009 and $3 million in 2010.^[17]

Personal life[link]

Ivey was born in Riverside, California and moved to Roselle, New Jersey when he was three months old.^[18]

Ivey resides in Las Vegas. In December 2009, Ivey and his wife, Luciaetta, filed a joint petition for divorce after seven years of marriage. The divorce was granted on December 29, 2009.^[19]

Ivey is a Los Angeles Lakers, Houston Rockets, and Buffalo Bills fan and can often be seen wearing basketball jerseys. Ivey's hobbies include video games, prop betting and golf. He participated in the inaugural World Series of Golf, where he finished in third place.

Philanthropy[link]

Ivey has given money to a number of charitable causes.^[20] 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.^[21] The foundation raised $260,000 (mostly for Empowered 2 Excel) at a July 3, 2008 charity poker tournament,^[22] and is also involved in children's literacy projects and programs to feed the homeless.^[23]

Notes[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Phil Ivey

• Official site
• Full Tilt Poker profile