Phil Ivey

Birthplace
Riverside, California

Hometown
Atlantic City, New Jersey

Birthday
February 1

Total Winnings
$3,370,721

Phil Ivey was born in Riverside, CA but grew up in New Jersey. At eight years old, his grandfather showed him how to play Five-Card Stud, and his way with the cards seemed all too natural. He subsequently learned other poker games, and, by the age of sixteen, he was playing in backroom games for money. Though Ivey was already a talented player, he didn't make enough money at the poker tables to support himself and divided his time between poker and a job at a telemarketing company.

In 2000, Ivey began entering poker tournaments like the WSOP, displaying his skills in a variety of games and winning his first bracelet in the $2,500 Omaha Pot Limit event. The prize money and title of champion spurred him on, and he was promptly traveling around the country to play in numerous of tournaments. In 2002, he entered several events at the WSOP and won his next three bracelets, this time in the S.H.O.E., Seven-Card Stud Hi-Lo, and H.O.R.S.E. events. He capped this by winning his fifth bracelet in 2005 at Pot Limit Omaha.

Many fans of the game got their first look at Phil when he appeared at the World Poker Finals at Foxwoods. He then made the final table at seven more WPT tournaments, two of those being the World Championships. The eighth time was a charm for Ivey, who won his first WPT Championship at Season VI’s L.A. Poker Classic, earning $1,596,100. Most recently, Ivey final tabled Bellagio Cup in Season IX, finishing in third place.

It seems like a silly idea to even try to sum up Phil Ivey’s long, long list of poker accomplishments, but we’ll go ahead and give it a shot. He has more WPT final tables than any other person with nine. He has nine WSOP bracelets. He is in the top five of nearly every list denoting lifetime tournament earnings, with over $13.8 million in winnings. When he shows up at a poker table, the table often falls silent. In the span of just a decade, Ivey has established himself as such a force in the poker world that even his entrance and exit from a tournament is always a story.