GPI Player of the Decade | #9 Phil Ivey

Who are the Top 9 poker players on the live tournament circuit during the past decade? Find out this week…

#9 | PHIL IVEY 

Age ›› 37
Born ›› Absecon, NJ
Resides ›› Las Vegas, NV
Team ›› IveyPoker

GPI# ›› 437  |  2013 PoY# ›› 652
GPI Score 2004-2013: 5,422

Wins ›› 2004-2013: 14  |  Career: 27
Earnings ›› 2004-2013: $15,669,218  |  Career: $17,669,367

WHAT ABOUT IVEY?

Many may be surprised to see Phil Ivey, widely recognized as the best poker player in the world, so low on this list; however, his failure to obtain a higher ranking is easy to explain.

While Ivey was winning on the live tournament circuit for many years, he has taken a back seat in the past few years, choosing to play cash games and working on the release of IveyPoker, a free-to-play poker game that is available as a Facebook App instead.

Also, Ivey has historically picked up a lot of points playing the World Series of Poker each summer in Las Vegas. Ivey chose not to play in 2011 and his 2013 WSOP was not what he would consider a success (only 1 cash compared to 7 in the previous season) causing him to miss out precious points. There is no doubt that additional cashes in either of those years would have helped Ivey climb this list significantly. The difference between the 6th and 9th positions, for example, was less than 400 total points.

IVEY’S HIGHLIGHT REEL

Ivey has collected a ton of cashes on the live circuit in the past 10 seasons. While Ivey’s biggest scores have usually come in high buy-in events, his most important cashes would come in WSOP events.

Ivey has won five WSOP bracelets in the past ten years, most recently at the inaugural WSOP Asia-Pacific in Melbourne where he took down the Mixed Event title, but it’s his run in the 2009 Main Event that had the whole poker world buzzing. Ivey, who bubbled the final table in 2003, the year Chris Moneymaker made his miraculous run, was able to do a little better in his 2009 run, finishing 7th as Joe Cada would be declared the eventual Champion.

Ivey has also been a standout on the World Poker Tour. Ivey has qualified for nine WPT final tables in his career but it wasn’t until FT #8 that he picked up his first WPT title, winning the L.A. Poker Classic at the Commerce Casino in Los Angeles back in Season VI.

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GPI PLAYER OF THE DECADE COUNTDOWN

#9 ››  Phil Ivey  |  5,422 points
#8 ››  J.C. Tran  |  5,569 points
#7 ››  Shannon Shorr  |  5,578 points
#6 ››  ElkY  |  5,778 points
#5 ››  John Juanda  |  6,261 points
#4 ››  Barry Greenstein  |  6,457 points
#3 ››  Michael Mizrachi  |  6,553 points
#2 ››  Erik Seidel  |  6,953 points
#1 ››  Daniel Negreanu  |  7,377 points

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