In April 2014, Borgata in Atlantic City sued Phil Ivey for $9.6 millionafter the latter went on an epic winning streak in baccarat. The casino claimed Ivey (pictured), a 10-time bracelet winner, edge-sorted in order to gain an unfair advantage over the house and therefore shouldn’t be able to retain his winnings. Now, Ivey is countersuing.

Here’s why Ivey is countersuing, according to ESPN: “Borgata had destroyed the decks of cards in question. Further, the countersuit claims a representative of the casino acknowledged that the casino was aware playing cards have cutting ‘tolerances,’ that Ivey never touched the cards, and that granting the special requests of high rollers was not unusual.”

Ivey reportedly asked for a specific type of playing card that had the irregularities, an automatic card shuffler, an eight-deck shoe, a private dealer, and the companionship of Cheng Yin Sun, who spoke Mandarin to the dealer and reportedly asked for certain cards to be turned. Borgata agreed to all of Ivey’s requests. The rest, as they say, is history.

According to a previous article here on PocketFives, “Ivey cleaned up. On April 11, 2012, he won $2.4 million, then returned in May with the same conditions and won another $1.6 million. In July, he changed the terms slightly, getting Borgata to double the maximum bet. He then proceeded to win $4.7 million at baccarat. In October, he returned for one more go at it, winning $825,000.”

The Borgata case moved on to the discovery phase in March of this year. Borgata called Ivey’s actions “premeditated, practiced, and intricate.”

Ivey has been accused by Crockfords Casino in London of using a similar tactic to win at a game called punto banco. The site quoted Ivey as saying last October regarding those allegations, “It’s not in my nature to cheat and I would never do anything to risk my reputation… I believe that what we did was a legitimate strategy. We did nothing more than exploit Crockfords’ failure to take proper steps to protect themselves against a player of my ability.”

An appeal in the Crockfords case will be heard in December, according to ESPN. Ivey won over $12 million from the London establishment.

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