Phil Ivey –
Walking The Line Between Edges And Ethics
It’s the poker headline of the week: Phil Ivey Loses £7.7m Crockfords Casino “Edge Sorting” Case
Some though look at that headline and believe that Ivey, the general consensus #1 poker player in the world, in fact “cheated” Crockfords and that’s why he lost his case. But did he? Or did he get the short end of the stick?
In what is a very nice read over on ESPN, famous blackjack card counter Jeff Ma, talks about the ethical line between advantage play and outright cheating and why he think that Phil Ivey caught a bad beat in court.
Read: Why Phil Ivey Got A Raw Deal
But casinos also have an obligation in this agreement. They get to create the game and set the rules — all of the rules. They can refuse service to you. They can kick you out. They can change the rules of the game. They have all the power. What they don’t ever say explicitly is that in their minds, part of this agreement is that you (the gambler) will lose.
So when someone figures out how to beat the game that they created, how can that be unethical?
It’s not just Ma who thinks that Ivey is the one who got cheated. You didn’t have to look far to find some members of the poker community taking to Twitter to express their displeasure over the verdict as well.
Total disaster of a ruling against PhilIvey</a> in London. Will never play at a Genting owned casino again </p>— Dan O'Brien (DanOBrienPoker) October 10, 2014
While we wait to see if Ivey appeals his loss in the Crockfords case, he will be forced to fight a similar lawsuit in the U.S. against the Borgata, this time though, if the results come out similar, instead of not collecting the cash, Ivey may be forced to return it.
What do you think? Did Ivey get freerolled or is he getting his just desserts?
Watch: One of the Best Laydowns at PSPC, and Possibly of All Time
Thi Xoa Nguyen makes an incredible fold with a full house at the $25K buy-in PSPC event.
It was during day 2 of the history-in-making $25,000 buy-in PokerStars Players No Limit Hold’em Championship when a Vietnamese lady by the name of Thi Xua Nguyen stunned everybody by making this incredible laydown versus Athanasios Polychronopoulos, a Greek-American professional poker player with two WSOP bracelets.
220 players remained on the field when Nguyen raised from the button with Ad Qc only to get 3-bet to 37,000 by Polychronopoulos from the big blind who held a pair of Aces.
Nguyen made the call and the flop landed Ks 9s Qd. Both the players checked. The Qh on Turn improved Nguyen’s hand to trips. She bets 17,000 after Polychronopoulos checked for a second time. He made the call and the Ace of Spade gave both the players a full house.
Polychronopoulos once again checked on the river with his Aces full. Nguyen bets 50,000 leaving her 153,000 chips behind but finds herself in a check-raise-all-in situation.
This is where things go crazy!!!
After tanking for a while, Nguyen lays down Ad Qc face up—a freaking Full house!!!. Out of respect for her incredible fold, Polychronopoulos flips out Aces and was himself stunned.
Did she misread her hand? No!!! She knew what she was doing. Nguyen put him on Aces or Kings and she was bang on right!!!
The hand was caught during the live stream and obviously, the viewers glued to the stream went berserk including the commentators James Hartigan, Joe Stapleton, and Lex Veldhuis.
Nguyen eventually finished 153rd for $25,450 and Polychronopoulos also made cash but busted against Platinum Pass winner, Jussi Nevanlinna.
What is more crazier is that on day 1 Nguyen won an EPT Monte Carlo package during a random draw table giveaway.
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