The Holly & the Ivey

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We may still be two weeks away from Christmas, but Black Belt Poker have decided to hand out the gifts early, starting with a rare interview with the man the general consensus considers to be the world’s greatest poker player, Phil Ivey. In an extensive two-part interview, I ask Ivey a number of questions revolving around issues such as durrrr, prop bets, his supposed media-shyness and much more, as well as detail my own personal experiences of what it’s like to meet a legend of the game.

Phil Ivey is without doubt a poker icon having amassed an incredible $12.2 million in tournament winnings including eight WSOP bracelets, a WPT title, a Poker After Dark title, and numerous other final table appearances, most notably his recent seventh place finish in the 2009 WSOP Main Event for $1,404,014. In the all-time money list, Ivey is second to only Daniel Negreanu.

However, despite his tournament prowess, it’s probably his cash play that has garnered him the most respect, having made appearances on numerous televised cash games and become a permanent fixture in some of the biggest games Vegas has to offer. More recently, he has also shown that he can conquer the online world, mastering a range of different games and making an impressive profit at the nosebleed stakes on Full Tilt where he is reported to be over $15 million up.

It is therefore with great honour and gratitude that I was given the opportunity to interview the Full Tilt pro on behalf of Blackbeltpoker.com. As the interview progressed, Ivey began to open up more and more, serving up honest answers to the questions I threw at him. When probed about his reluctance to conduct interviews, Ivey said, “I don’t really mind doing this interview, doing the media side, it’s just that I’d rather be doing something else… People have started to take that as me being media shy, unfriendly, not wanting to do interviews, but that’s not the case.”

If you would like to hear more from Phil Ivey, then I urge you to check out the first instalment on Black Belt Poker and be sure to return next Saturday for the final part of this revealing two-part interview.