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June 4th was a great day in poker. Not so surprising was the fact that Phil Ivey won his 6th WSOP bracelet....it was the way he did it and the way we as fans were able to observe this masterful display of artistry.

The day started with the final table in the 2-7 Lowball, Single Draw event. There were seven at the final table with Ivey starting sixth in chips. Soon after beginning one player was knocked out and over the next several hours, players fell and Ivey got stronger. When down to three, the battle really began with Yan Chen, John Monnette, and Phil Ivey. The chip counts went up and down for quite some time and finally Chen was eliminated. At some point, Monnette asked Phil what the difference in the payout was between first and third place and Ivey said about 3 million which was an indication of the amount of the prop bets he was involved in.

The heads up match lasted for 3+ hours with the lead bouncing back and forth and an amazing amount of skill and patience being displayed by Ivey. Monnette kept up and played extremely well but in the last hour of the match the pressure started to show. When he began to complain to the dealer and called the floor to get a new dealer, it was surely a sign to Phil that it was his for the taking. And take it he did, chipping away and then going in for the win. I had not ever seen John Monnette play before but knew the name. At the WSOP a few years ago, one of the floor reporters had reported that he had received a penalty for tearing his cards up after a hand when he got a bad beat. Since that time I remembered the name and had seen that he played regularly in events and knew he was a seasoned professional.

The most incredible thing about the whole experience as an observer was watching for nine or ten hours seeing very few cards since it was a drawing game and without any commentary. The only sounds you heard was chips, some crowd noise, the players talking and the announcer on the floor at the Rio. The forums were lighting up with viewers of the live video feed discussing the action. There were obviously hundreds if not thousands of people watching the masterful performance by Phil Ivey. At one point he was extremely low stacked and the Mixed Event was starting and he was signed up to play that one. He never lost sight of winning this event. He was not going to go that far and lose...just was not going to happen.

In the past few years, it has been obvious that Phil's head was not totally into tournament play...even last year the prop bets did not seem to motivate him he was reported to have lost a lot of money ....he still had a bad WSOP. A while back, Barry Greenstein had asked him which Phil was going to show up this year at the WSOP.....the impatient one who was only interested in getting a big lead at the very beginning or going out early, or the player, who when on his game, would fight tooth and nail to defeat all others in the field.

With this win, Phil Ivey confirms what most in the poker community know and that when he is on his game, only the luckiest has a chance. It has been reported that Phil tipped the dealers the entire first place money.....What a class act.......Great game sir!