In April, the BorgataHotel, Casino, and Spa in Atlantic City filed a lawsuitin the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey against Phil Ivey (pictured), saying he allegedly cheated during several sessions of high-stakes baccarat in 2012 resulting winnings of nearly $10 million.

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Ivey and his gaming partner, Cheng Yin Sun, were sued on 12 counts, including Fraudulent Inducement, Breach of Contract, and Breach of Implied Covenant of Good Faith and Fair Dealing. Ivey has now filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit.

To recap the issue at hand, Ivey and Sun allegedly knew of a defect in the way the Gemaco-brand playing cards used by Borgata were cut, making the pattern on the back of the cards asymmetrical. In advance of a visit in April 2012, Ivey allegedly contacted Borgata to make special arrangements for the high-stakes baccarat game he wanted to play.

He allegedly asked for a dealer that spoke Mandarin Chinese, an eight-deck shoe of purple Gemaco cards, permission to have his guest sit with him, a private gaming area, and an automatic card shuffler. His requests were granted and he also agreed to a maximum bet of $50,000 and an advance deposit of $1 million.

During four visits spanning from April to October, Ivey and Sun allegedly asked the dealer to rotate key cards in the shoe once their values were revealed. Because of the asymmetrical patterns resulting from the miscut cards, it was possible to identify these cards before they were dealt from the shoe, giving Ivey a huge advantage. The automatic shuffler was key because it does not change the orientation of the cards, thus keeping this “edge-sorting” tactic in play. Over the course of the visits, Ivey won $9.8 million.

Here’s an infographic of a similar incident that occurred in London showing how edge-sorting works:

Furious, Borgata sued Ivey in April of this year claiming he defrauded the casino by making his special requests under the pretext of superstition when he allegedly knew that he was going to be able to edge-sort if the requests were granted.

In the motion to dismiss, Ivey’s legal team made three main arguments. One is that Ivey and Sun simply did not cheat. They did nothing but use their eyes and intelligence to win; any unusual advantage they may have had was the result of concessions Borgata granted.

“Plaintiff’s complaint belies its own imaginative pleading,” the motion read. “It was Borgata, and only Borgata, that produced, possessed, and maintained absolute control over all the implements of gambling, from the cards to the shoe to the automatic shuffler at all times while Ivey remained on its property.”

“The use of nothing more than his eyesight and his reliance upon information that was equally available to every single casino customer in no way equates with the [action and wrongful intent] required to accomplish any of the multiple criminal statutes upon which plaintiff relies,” the motion added.

Another argument Ivey’s attorneys made is that even if what Ivey did were illegal, the six-month statute of limitations has expired. “As is obvious from the complaint, Borgata never reported any of the alleged ‘illegalities’ to the exclusive agency empowered to make that determination, the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement,” they stated in the motion.

Along those lines, the third argument made in the motion is that it is the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement that is allowed to go after Ivey, not the casino.

The poker community has not had much reaction to the latest chapter in the Ivey/Borgata saga, but there was much discussion about it when Borgata originally filed its lawsuit. For example, poker pro Daniel Negreanu sided with Ivey at the time, Tweeting, “Big fish sets all the rules, okays all the rules, they need to eat it when they get beat and not be whiny biatches about it,” adding, “It’s appalling to freeroll customers. Take their money if they lose, but don’t pay when they win? Are you for real Borgata? That’s dirty.” Negreanu is pictured.

Stay tuned to PocketFives for the latest on this developing story.

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