Ivey is Tournament Chip Leader With 12 Players Left
Published on June 27th, 2019 12:05 pm EST
Phil Ivey is back where he belongs - chip leading a major tournament with a chance to win his 11th World Series of Poker bracelet. After a tumultuous couple of years, much of which was spending dealing with legal cases against Crockfords and the Borgata, Phil Ivey is back at the World Series of Poker, and in a big way. After three days of play in the $50,000 Poker Players Championship (widely regarded as being one of the toughest tournaments to win in poker), Phil Ivey is chip leading with just 12 players left.
The stakes are obviously high - not only is there $1,099,311 in first place prize money waiting to be won, but there is also a World Series of Poker bracelet on the line. Phil Ivey loves his side bets, and there is almost no doubt that a bracelet would be worth a great deal of money to Ivey when it comes to World Series of Poker side bets.
In addition, Phil Ivey would break away from the pack with a victory in the $50k Poker Players Championship later this week - he currently sits in a three-way tie with Doyle Brunson and Johnny Chan on the all-time bracelet list (all three men have ten bracelets), and Ivey would take sole possession of second place with a win. Doyle Brunson has retired from playing in bracelet events and Johnny Chan is rarely seen anymore, so second place would belong completely to Ivey if he was able to win.
Phil Ivey is ultra-competitive, and there is no doubt that he wants to catch Phil Hellmuth on the all-time bracelet list. Hellmuth is far ahead with 15 bracelets, though he is also significantly older than Ivey (Hellmuth is 54 years old, while Ivey is still just 42).
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With all of that being said, Ivey will have to deal with some very good players if he wants to win his 11th bracelet later this week.
Of the 12 players remaining, 8 have won at least one World Series of Poker bracelet, while four have won multiple bracelets. This includes Shaun Deeb, who has won four bracelets over the course of his career.
Here are the current chip counts heading into Day 4 on Thursday:
Phil Ivey, 4,775,000
Josh Arieh, 4,029,000
Shaun Deeb, 2,450,000
Bryce Yockey, 2,386,000
David Oppenheim, 2,108,000
Dario Sammartino, 1,721,000
Phillip Hui, 1,540,000
John Esposito, 1,200,000
Talal Shakerchi, 785,000
Chris Vitch, 623,000
Dan Cates, 319,000
Andrew Brown, 210,000
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Day 4 will take place on Thursday, where the remaining 12 players will play down to a final table. The final table will take place on Friday afternoon.
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Filed Under: The World Series of Poker
