Home

On Saturday, June 13 the poker world was again treated to a virtual clinic on play the reaches a level seldom seen. The forums are lighting up with excitement before, during, and since the final table that lasted well into the night in the East. The final was peppered with some of the best Jon Turner, Carlos, Mortensen, Dutch Boyd, Phil Ivey and other players not so well known mostly on the internet.

To watch Ivey play is a truly amazing sight. We were able to watch parts of a live stream of his table although the circumstances were less than perfect. A different final table of NLHE was scheduled to be broadcast and ESPN/WSOP was resistant to making a change with the excuse that the type of games, Omaha/Stud 8 are more difficult to produce. Luckily parts were shown at the beginning with one camera and no announcers. While the second NLHE table was playing, protests were being received via Twitter and Email so in the later stages of the Omaha/Stud event #25, cut aways were done from time to time and when down to three with Phil Ivey, Carlos Mortensen, and Ming Lee the players were wired up and the cameras rolled.

Jimmy Fricke and Brian Micon were announcers for the other table and switched their attention to this event as well and did a good job under the circumstances. To see this being played out in a rather impromptu way with little production was very interesting.

Ivey showed his mastery time and again as he trounced his opponents. As is usual the chip lead was passed around and on his down times, the cool Ivey just waited for his time to come and it did. When Mortensen went out in third, it was apparent it would take a miracle and total melt down by Ivey for Lee to prevail....and prevail he did.

In the interview after he won, Phil was asked about the much talked about bracelets prop bets. Ivey acknowledged the bets and stated he had "scooped" all of those bets. He also made it known that he would be happy to built his bracelet count and that it would take a while to equal or pass Hellmuth's record.

It has been a joy to watch Phil Ivey in the year's WSOP and it is only half way over. In last year's WSOP, Ivey had many of these same bets but it was apparent from his demeaner that he really did not have his head in the game. It seems that Barry Greenstein can take some of the credit for getting his focus back.....that is an assumption on this writer's part.....when he asked Phil which Phil was going to show up this year. This year Mr. Ivey seems to really be enjoying himself and that is a wonderful sight to see.

Mr. Ivey......thanks for sharing your enjoyment with your fans.....gg, Sir!