Poker pro champion Phil Ivey was born 1 February, 1976 in Riverside, California, but was raised in the suburbs of Roselle, New Jersey. He built his great ability to concentrate by playing video games and as a teen Phil was an innovative entrepreneur type. He started on a telemarketing sales project before getting involved in poker. In his late teens, still too young to get into Atlantic City casinos, Phil Ivey used a fake I.D. with the name, Jerome Graham. He was known to play poker up to 12-14 hours a day.

Phil’s grandfather had an ironic role in helping him become a professional poker player because he actually tried to discourage his grandson from the game because of the dangers of professional hustlers. Phil Ivey’s grandfather would demonstrate cheating by dealing from the bottom of the deck. This type of lesson made Phil want to learn the correct ways of poker even more and at the age of fifteen, he was announcing to family, friends and school teachers that he would be a professional poker player when he grew up.

When he turned 21, Ivey told the shift manager at the Tropicana in Atlantic City his real name and apologized for using the false I.D. Phil had played many types of poker including Stud;, Omaha, Limit and No Limit and moved to Las Vegas at age 20. He won his first bracelet at 23 at the Pot Limit Omaha event which paid him $2,500. He climbed limits and became a full time professional poker player by the time he was 24. Ivey won an amazing three bracelets in one year, putting him in the same league as Phil Hellmuth and Ted Forrest.

A firth bracelet was earned by Phil Ivey in 2005. One of his largest wins was in a June 2005 WSOP event where he won $635, 603. During his first televised poker tournament at New York’s Turning Stone Casino, Phil won $500,000. By 2007, Ivey had made over 7 million dollars in major poker tournaments. Phil has mentioned several times that he would love to win 30 bracelets.

Ivey’s poker style is known as aggressive and unreadable with an emotionless, analytical approach to the game. His intense eyes stare down his opponents. He’s definitely not one of those professional poker players you’re likely to see throw a snit fit at the tables as he likes to keep a non-whining attitude. Phil Ivey’s been known to calmly shake an opponent’s hand even after a huge loss.

Phil lives in Las Vegas with his wife and child. He married his high school sweetheart, Luciaetta. Phil Ivey is said to like Apple iPods and Los Angeles basketball teams.

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