In an article that popped up in the Mail Online that has been discussed at length on PocketFives, former Full Tilt Poker owner and front man Phil Ivey (pictured) booked a £7.3 million payday at a British casino, but the establishment has refused to pay out. Ivey racked up his winnings playing Punto Banco and, according to the Mail Online, "struck a remarkable winning streak." Maybe he got lucky, but the casino is acting like that something fishy could have happened.Ivey was with what the Mail Online described as a "beautiful Oriental woman" at the time of his hot streak. The news outlet noted, "Staff, including the female croupier, were interviewed at length amid fears there may have been some form of collusion. This is thought to have been ruled out… Suspicions over the win intensified when it was discovered that his companion's membership of another Mayfair casino had previously been suspended. The reason for this has not been revealed."
The session in question occurred over a two-day period in August and lasted for seven hours total. Ivey has reportedly been repaid his £1 million stake, but despite not finding any evidence of cheating thus far, the casino, Crockfords, has not shelled out his winnings. Crockfords is a private club that has been around for nearly 200 years.
Posters in a thread in the Live Poker forum here on PocketFives pointed out the irony of Ivey, a former front man for the soon-to-be-reborn Full Tilt Poker, being unable to access his funds. Another PocketFiver observed, "Funny that the casino has a hard time paying out, but if he lost £10 million, we wouldn't have heard a word about it."
A poster on Two Plus Two pointed out that Ivey's hot streak might not be that preposterous: "£7.3 million at £150,000 per hand is <50 bets up. That is not even such an unlikely streak to go on from a casino's point of view, right? I guess they are just being little bitches."Moreover, an article in the Daily Mail claimed that Ivey has not been accused of any wrongdoing: "Strangely, it is not even clear if Ivey has been accused of any wrongdoing. The police are not thought to have been contacted. The casino's insistence on keeping its hands on the money is all the more curious because Punto Banco, which Ivey chose to play, is a skill-free game in which the gambler plays only against the banker and seeks simply to get a score as close to nine as possible. This means that, as with a roulette wheel, it is almost impossible for a player to 'fix' the outcome."
While some posters asserted that the Daily Mail was potentially not a credible source, CNN picked up the story on Tuesday. According to the Atlanta-based news outlet, "The casino (pictured) has not had contact with legal representatives for Ivey" and Crockfords and the gambling commission declined to comment. CNN could not reach the eight-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner to solicit his reaction.Also in question is whether Ivey was betting or whether the mysterious female who accompanied him was doing so. One poster on Two Plus Two wrote, "I'm sure this has been mentioned already, but Ivey didn't play a single hand, the woman that was with him played every hand of Baccarat." Given her membership to another Mayfair casino had been revoked, her winnings could be in question.
Check out the reaction from the PocketFives community by clicking here.
