Phil Ivey: I don’t like the word impossible!
It must be a tough decision.
Phil Ivey’s been in the tank for six minutes already while the chipleader from Sydney Australia has spent three minutes looking at the ceiling, two minutes looking at Phil and one minute sitting back in his chair, slightly vexed. Which is apparently what Ivey was waiting for, because now he calls.
Show 6 (July 18) featuring Phil Ivey is online now! Click the play button to listen:
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Ivey has done it again
The river card is a blank, a red four joining the three spades and club on the ace high board, and your man from Australia fires into Phil Ivey once again. He’s raised preflop and now launched three barrels large. This last one is 500,000, more than half of what Ivey’s got left. Phil has not called quick, he’s not called quickly once and during his dwells he’s peered across the table, deep eyes, the long stare, no hurry at all, looking and watching and waiting.
He’s finally made up his mind and sticks in the chips. Your man’s got two sevens, just a bluff. And Phil has caught him with a weak top pair. The crowd goes wild. Ivey has done it again.
Phil Ivey is standing on the rail eating an apple. It’s a TV break 4-handed and Ivey is as relaxed as can be. He’s chatting with a group in the front row, none of them poker players, just friends or family who have come to cheer him on. Between bites of the bright red fruit he talks animatedly with a buddy in the front row. They are laughing. It’s not about poker. The money sits in front of the table, on display, almost a million dollars in bundled cash. But Ivey hasn’t given it a second glance. Nor would he. It’s the crystal cup in the center and what it represents. Another title, another step towards history.
I sat on the rail for every minute of Ivey’s final table run at the WPT Bellagio, Season 9. I even got a chance to ask him some questions. Tune in to The Poker Show to hear what he meant when he said, “Impossible? I don’t like the word impossible!”
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