Phil Ivey is considered to be the most feared professional poker player in the world and with the huge list of successes that the player has within his honour he definitely has the statistics to fight his corner.

Ivey was born 1st February 1976 in Riverside, California. After spending his immediate early years there, his family opted to move to Roselle, New Jersey.

The move to Roselle meant that Ivey was soon to see all the delights that Atlantic City had to offer due to his home been less than a stone throw away from the large and lively city.

The player claims that while all of his friends were dreaming of becoming sports stars, doctors or scientists, he was dreaming of the bright lights that came with being a professional poker player.

With his future planned out already within his mind, Ivey looked to learn the game of poker by turning to his grandfather, a teacher that opted to not only show Ivey the positives of 5 card stud poker but also the potential perils of the game and opponents by dealing from the bottom of the deck in order to catch the young card student out.

After sitting though lesson after lesson with his grandfather, Ivey then looked to study the game from a distance, taking a table side seat at the home poker events that his grandfather used to have with friends.
Knowing that to be able to be the best in the world he would have to study the game, Ivey did just that, watching the games and looking out for tells and trying to form conclusions on betting patterns of players seated around the table.

The players new found knowledge and insight further increase his desire to become a professional poker player, and with that his passion and determination push the player to study for a number more years.
Hitting the legal age to break into the poker action himself, Ivey heads off into nearby Atlantic City, spending hours within the casinos and looking to gain playing experience.

At this point Ivey found out the hard way that playing poker is a learning curve, losing more money than he won with each and every visit that the player had to the casino.

It was at this point that Ivey decided that it was time to step up the learning and continued to visit the casinos, this time armed with newly researched strategy and methodology.

Since this moment, Phillip D. Ivey has rocketed to become the best poker player in the world, beating out a number of the biggest names within the poker circuit in the industry.

During his raise to the top, Ivey made sure that he was going to make a name for himself in a big way, earning his first World Series of Poker winners bracelet back in June 2000.

Following the addition of the World Series of Poker winners bracelet, Ivey has proven himself to be a premium poker player, offering a stone called poker face that leaves players unable to take any read on the player and the hand that he could possibly be representing.