WTF? Phil Ivey Suing Full Tilt and Skipping the 2011 WSOP

By Pauly
Las Vegas, NV

"Check Ivey's Facebook page," said KevMath.

I headed to facebook.com/philivey and scrolled down to the bottom of his page. He released a rather bizarre statement, so bizarre that most of the folks in the press box were dubious.

Among the most shocking sentences were...

"I am not playing in the World Series of Poker as I do not believe it is fair that I compete when others cannot. I am doing everything I can to seek a solution to the problem as quickly as possible."

"I refuse to remain silent any longer. I have electronically filed a lawsuit against Tiltware related to the unsettled player accounts."

Hoax? Hack? Legit? WTF?

Within an hour, the FB statement was confirmed by Phil Ivey's manager according to a post on Wicked Chops Poker.

By the way, whoever his manager is -- he has impeccable timing (waiting until the 2md half of Game 1 of the NBA Finals to release the statement). However, why the hell would his manager post a statement on Facebook (and in 6 wall posts)? Sure 70% of Americans have Facebook pages and most of them "LIKE" Phil Ivey, but that "press release" via Facebook was weak sauce, at best.

To add a little plutonium to the inferno, 2+2 is blowing up right now.

Ivey suing Full Tilt? How much money does he have tied up? I mean, is he really crying himself to sleep at night ("on a big pile of money with lots of beautiful women") thinking how his reputation was "dragged trough the mud"?

Ivey was one of the original investors in Full Tilt and is considered an owner. Did Ivey just set a precedent? And will more player-owners decide to sue Full Tilt as well?

Ivey will not be at the WSOP this year, squashing speculation about... 1) whether he'd want to put himself in the line of fire from angry players with funds stuck in FT, and 2) whether his bracelet prop bets in excess of millions were going to draw him to the Rio.

I mean... wow. The only comparison is that the situation reminds of when Michael Jordan retured from the NBA at the top of his game -- and then played minor league baseball. Makes me wonder if Phil Ivey is going to go slumming with us at the Gold Coast every night at 3am to compete in the World Series of Pai Gow.

Someone wondered if Phil Ivey was going to retire... I dunno if he'll do that. I mean, this is fucking Phil Ivey. As Change100 noted, "He's one of the few Full Tilt pros who can actually make money playing poker."

And this news might have killed any chance of Full Tilt repaying player funds. Without Ivey as the #1 show pony in the FT stable, the online poker room is substantially less attractive to potential investors. Over the last few weeks, FT honchos were desperately seeking potential buyers in order to improve their cash flow (and thereby be able to pay out players).


"See you in court, biatch!"
Stay tuned for more developments.

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Update...

10:01pm PT.... @BarryGreenstein tweet'd that Ivey called up him and wasn't happy....

"Phil called me and screamed into the phone for 5 minutes, so I can't really say I talked to him."

10:10pm PT....According to Phil Ivey's website (www.philivey.com), his complete statement is now on the front page. IMHO, the statement should have appeared on his website first with a follow up post with links to the original statement. Well, at least, that's what I would have done if I was part of Ivey's PR team.

10:57pm PT... Check out Change100's post Phil Ivey Suing Full Tilt, Won't Play WSOP .

11:24pm PT... Looks like some tool at the PPA is against Ivey's actions, according to this 2+2 thread. That's reason #1,420 why the PPA is a bunch of ignorant twats.

11:45pm PT... We recorded a podcast. Listen to Ivey Drops Drama Bomb by Suing Full Tilt and Boycotting the WSOP .