Phil Ivey is the closest thing to a rock star that poker has, when asked almost everyone includes Phil in their top 5 list of current poker players. Poker is not Phil Ivey’s problem. There are however whispers that he has other bigger problems, rumors that have dogged him for a while. One of the things that makes Phil so good is his willingness to gamble for seemingly unlimited stakes, it was Phil that saved “the corporation” from Andy Beal erasing a deficit of close to 10 million dollars and actually turning a tidy profit for the group. The only problem is when Phil beats someone for 20 million dollars that is not all of his money.

Phil is often seen playing negative expectation games like craps and blackjack and not just little bets, millions of dollars are in play. If you play poker your credit is your calling card. The problem with Phil is that the poker economy is tighter than it used to be, people do not just give money away so easily anymore and when you couple that with the fact that a creditors money might be in play at the baccarat tables, that can make people uneasy. If you think that Phil has an endless bankroll and does not have to rely on credit occasionally you are wrong, all bigger players do by the nature of the amounts of money.

Phil likely will not struggle getting lines of credit from any number of sources, he is after all Phil Ivey and people will loan him money to swim in his wake. The problem with that is it only goes so far once the shine is off that trophy it is lost forever.

Verdict:

2/28

Robusto, by most accounts Phil has been on a heater capped off by his win of the LA Poker Classic for 1.5 million. 1.5 million is a bad craps session for Phil but he can officially be upgraded with his run in cash games as well. No one runs hotter than Phil.

2/26

Considering selling assets, it is hard to imagine Phil busto but he really does push things to the edge from time to time. He is also rumored to have some good investments.

Credit: No one is screening his calls at the moment.