Phil Ivey Profile
It should come as little surprise that Phil Ivey is a member of the 2009 November Nine. He is one of the most successful, decorated professional poker players of our time. With nearly $10 million in live tournament career earnings, the only real surprise is that Phil Ivey has not already won the World Series of Poker Main Event; just about the only accomplishment he lacks.

Ivey got his start as a teenager in the late 1990's, playing poker with his fellow employees at a New Jersey telemarketing firm. He acquired a fake ID to get into the casinos, earning himself the nickname “No Home Jerome”. Phil saw incredible success in Atlantic City casinos, and knew all to well that he'd found his destined career path.

Ivey took his first WSOP bracelet in 2001, but it wasn't until the age of 23 that Ivey became an icon in the professional poker world, winning 3 more WSOP bracelets at the 2002 WSOP. He earned another in 2005, and just this year, Ivey claimed another 2 WSOP bracelets in the 2009 World Series of Poker for an impressive total of 7.

Other accolades include holding the record for the most WPT final table appearances, with 8 thus far. Ivey emerged victorious just once out of those 8 attempts, earning him a single WPT Title.

In one of the most memorable occurrences of Ivey's young career, he was seated heads-up across the table from Andy Beal. The phenomenal mathematician has gained fame for challenging the most prolific poker pros, and often besting them at their own game. Ivey was not to be one of them. Phil turned the tables on Beal, and after 3-days of cash game play, had already taken a whopping $16.6 million from Beal's sizable wallet.

At 33 years of age, Phil Ivey is one of the most fearsome foes on the felt. His impressive career has brought him 100 tournament cashes, 34 in WSOP events, with 18 1st place finishes, including 7 WSOP bracelets. His career winnings currently total $9,606,333. Come this November (if not sooner), Phil Ivey will finally break the $10 million mark as he is guaranteed to pocket a minimum of $1.2 million at the final table of the WSOP Main Event. He might even near double his earnings, as a 1st place finish would be worth $8.5 million.

Ivey is not in the best position to win the WSOP Championship. He has the third smallest chip stack going into the November Nine, holding just 9,765,000 chips - a far cry from chip leader Darvin Moon's 58,930,000. Then again, Ivey is by far the most experienced poker pro in the November Nine. If anyone can come back from a near 1:6 deficit, it's Phil.

Phil Ivey is a member of Team Full Tilt, along with numerous other professional poker players like 2000 WSOP Main Event winner Chris Ferguson, Howard Lederer, John Juanda, Erick Lindgren, Jennifer Harman and others.

Being a Full Tilt Pro, its little wonder that Phil Ivey has earned way more money on the virtual felt than he has in live poker tournaments. There's no telling just how much online poker cash games have padded Ivey's wallet, but we do know he plays very regularly against online pros like Tom "Durrrr" Dwan, Phil "OMGClayAiken" Galfond and others who enjoy the nosebleed stakes.

Off the felt, Phil Ivey enjoys golf, video games and proposition bets. He is married to his high school sweetheart, Luciatta.