Phil Ivey Drops Nearly a Million in Online Poker Downswing

June 13th, 2015 | by Kaycee James

It’s only money: Phil Ivey took heavy losses last weekend playing Deuce-to-Seven Triple Draw on PokerStars. (Image: AP)

Phil Ivey has yet to make an appearance at the World Series of Poker, but that doesn’t mean he hasn’t been keeping himself busy. The legendary poker pro has been playing some big games in the online poker world, though his results have not been the stuff legends are made of.

According to data collected at HighStakesDB.com, Ivey lost nearly $1 million last weekend while playing on PokerStars, most of which was suffered while playing high-stakes Deuce-to-Seven Triple Draw on the site. The losses brought the yearly losses on his PokerStars account, known as “RaiseOnce,” to over $950,000.

Kibler-Melby Gets the Best of Ivey

Ivey engaged in a 12-hour session of Triple Draw against Cort Kibler-Melby (“thecortser”) last Saturday, with the two fighting it out at stakes of $1,000/$2,000. Kibler-Melby got out to an early lead and held on, winning about $115,000 on that first day.

That was only a prelude to a 13-hour session the next day, however. That session ended in an even bigger victory for Kibler-Melby, who won over $500,000 from the man often considered the world’s best poker player.

In total, the two sessions resulted in a win of $637,130 over the weekend for Kibler-Melby, accounting for much of Ivey’s losses.

Overall, Ivey is not having a very successful year online. Combining his results on PokerStars and Full Tilt (where he plays under the name “Polarizing”), Ivey is now down nearly $2.2 million in online play during 2015.

Active in Macau

Ivey has reportedly been playing online from Macau, where he recently helped open the new Poker Kung Club poker room at the Venetian Macau. He and fellow high-roller Tom Dwan have also been pushing a game called Six Plus Hold’em in the Chinese enclave, a game played exactly like Hold’em but without the lowest cards (twos through fives) in the deck.

But Ivey isn’t expected to stay away from the action in Las Vegas for much longer. Rumor has it that he’ll be coming back to Sin City sometime next week, which would likely get him in town in time to play the Poker Players Championship, the $50,000 buy-in event that is considered the most prestigious event on the WSOP calendar.

Big Names Winning at WSOP

If and when Ivey decides to start playing in some World Series of Poker events this summer, he’ll be looking to add to his lifetime haul of ten bracelets. If he can win an event, he’ll join several other top pros who have added to their bracelet collections at this year’s Series.

The most notable of these has been Phil Hellmuth, who extended his lead over Ivey (as well as Johnny Chan and Doyle Brunson) by taking down the $10,000 Razz Championship last week. Hellmuth now has 14 career bracelets, four more than any other player in WSOP history.

Another winner who is moving up the ranks of the all-time bracelet standings is Daniel Alaei. Earlier this week, Alaei captured his fifth career bracelet by winning the $10,000 Omaha Hi/Lo Championship. That made the American player the second-youngest in history to win five bracelets (trailing only Allen Cunningham), a feat that would seem to put him, perhaps along with Ivey, in one of the best long-term positions to challenge Hellmuth’s record.

Other notable winners at this year’s WSOP have included Robert Mizrachi and Max Pescatori, each of whom won their third career bracelets already.