Play with Phil Ivey at Full Tilt Poker. Phil Ivey is mainly a cash game player who plays any and every form of poker. His favorite game is the mixed $4000-$8000 mixed game in Las Vegas with the best poker players in the world, usually playing for pots that could buy a house. Poker Hall of Famer Phil Ivey has come to a settlement with Borgata Casino in their long-standing legal battle. While terms have not been made public, what is known is that the July 2 filing in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit stated that the two parties “now reached a settlement.”.

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The long legal battle between poker superstar Phil Ivey and East Coast casino Borgata over nearly $10 million that the former won in baccarat may finally be coming to a close.

NJ Online Gamblingreported Wednesday morning that Ivey and Borgata had reached a settlement, citing a July 2 filing in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

Per usual in these cases, terms were not disclosed.

Ivey initially won the money all the way back in 2012, playing a series of sessions with gambling partner Cheung Yin “Kelly” Sununder agreed-upon conditions that enabled the pair to have a sizable edge on Borgata, unbeknownst to Borgata officials.

Borgata filed suit in 2014 and a legal war ensued for the next half decade.

According to gaming attorney and sometime PokerNews contributorMac VerStandig, the only real surprise is that the two sides took this long to come to terms.

'It's unsurprising to see litigation settled, especially at the appellate stage where both parties have had the opportunity to air respective grievances, and the cost of going forward may outweigh what either party stands to gain,' VerStandig said. 'Cooler heads normally prevail sooner but it's not at all surprising to see it come to pass here.'

History of Legal Back-and-Forth

While the legal war started in 2014, it took until late 2016 for a big inflection point to finally occur. At that point, the judge presiding over the case sided with Borgata and ordered Ivey and Sun to return more than $10 million they'd won — the at-issue baccarat millions plus some craps winnings.

The case continued on appeal, and some sources reported Ivey was in danger of losing tens of millions to Borgata if things continued to go poorly in court.

Further damage against Ivey came when Borgata was granted clearance to seize his Nevada assets early last year. They followed through on that in high-profile fashion, garnishing Ivey's winnings when cashed in the $50,000 Poker Players Championship.

Ivey's Hidden Progress

However, while every turn was seeming to go against Ivey, he was all the while making some small gains in the background, like a poker player stealing enough blinds to stay afloat in a tournament.

'Borgata's case has always had serious vulnerabilities'

The appeals process was apparently going far better for Ivey than the initial case. Of central concern was the issue of whether he had cheated by marking cards. While nobody disputed that he hadn't marked the cards in the traditional sense, Borgata argued that turning the cards in different directions so Ivey and Sun could identify tiny imperfections in them — 'edge sorting' — constituted marking.

NJ Online Gambling reported that Ivey was likely a small favorite on appeal, a sentiment with which VerStandig agreed.

Conclusion Not Thrilling, Not Surprising

If Ivey were to win his appeal, the case would have continued on remand, going back to a lower court for reconsideration.

Borgata would have been forced to return the $124,410 it had already seized from Ivey, and nothing would have been guaranteed going forward. Both sides would have also been on the hook to continue shelling out attorney fees, which have been mounting the entire time in the long-running case.

Phil Ivey Poker Strategy

Furthermore, even if Borgata emerged a winner in court, it's uncertain whether anything but a Pyrrhic victory would have been achieved. A New Jersey search for Ivey's assets only turned up a 'zero-dollar' bank account, and Ivey has been keeping most of his poker-playing activities out of the U.S. and away from Borgata's reach.

NJ Online Gambling also pointed out that ultimately losing the case 'could potentially create a precedent that could harm parent company MGM Resorts International in future cases involving cheating or advantage casino play.'

Given that there appears to have been more downside than upside at this point for Borgata, the settlement seems unlikely to have been very costly for Ivey.

Phil Ivey Poker Online Poker

'Borgata's case has always had serious vulnerabilities and Borgata is certainly justified in getting whatever settlement it can get and not risking those vulnerabilities on a remand,' VerStandig said.

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  Phil Ivey

Also known as the “Tiger Woods of Poker”, Phil Ivey is arguably the best all around poker player on the planet. Is skills stem from pure instincts as Phil Ivey claims to have never read a poker book in his life. Phil Ivey grew up in New Jersey very close to the gambling mecca of Atlantic City. Before he was of age to gamble, Phil Ivey would sneak into casinos using a fake ID and would play hours upon hours of Seven Card Stud at the Taj Mahal resort and casino. This was the start of his poker career and what a career it has been.

Phil Ivey Online Poker Name

Play with Phil Ivey at Full Tilt Poker

Phil Ivey is mainly a cash game player who plays any and every form of poker. His favorite game is the mixed $4000-$8000 mixed game in Las Vegas with the best poker players in the world, usually playing for pots that could buy a house. He is also found playing the same game at stakes of $2k/$4k on Full Tilt Poker, who sponsors Phil Ivey. In the past 2 years, Phil Ivey has won about $10 million dollars on this poker site. Phil Ivey has also made numerous appearances on “High Stakes Poker” and “Poker After Dark”, 2 of the more popular poker television shows on television.

Although Mr. Ivey is mostly a cash game player, this is not to say he has not had success in tournament poker. As a matter of fact, Phil Ivey has one of the best tournament poker resumes out of any professional poker player. All together, Phil Ivey has won a whopping 7 World Series of Poker bracelets. His first bracelet came in 2000, when he won a $2.5k buy in Pot Limit Omaha Event for about $200k. He then won 3 bracelets in 2002, in $2.5k buy in Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo, a 2k buy in SHOE event, and a $1.5k buy in Seven Card Stud event. Those 3 events together were worth a total of a quarter million dollars. Phil continued his WSOP success in 2005 by winning a $5k buy in Pot Limit Omaha event for almost $650. His latest bracelets came this year, by winning a $2.5k buy in 2-7 Lowball event for $100k and another Omaha Hi/Lo / Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo event for over $200k. On top of all of his success, his 2009 WSOP is not over.

Phil Ivey also made the final table of the $10k buy in No Limit Hold Em championship as part of the “November 9”, and will play for the grand prize of over $8 million on November 10th. He is already guaranteed over $1 million for his final table appearance. Phil Ivey also holds the record for the most World Poker Tour final tables ever made, with a grand total of 8. Although he only won 1 of those tournaments, the win was worth $1.5 million. Phil Ivey also has a victory in the Monte Carlo Millions tournament, that earned him a cool $1 million.

Phil is also known for being a very generous player. After winning the 2-7 Lowball bracelet at the WSOP in 2009 for example, Phil Ivey gave his $100k first place prize away to the dealers of the tournament and only took the bracelet. As well, it is speculated that many professional professional poker players including Howard Lederer, Tom Dwan and Andy Bloch are putting up huge side bets against Phil Ivey winning the WSOP Main Event on November 10th. It is being said that Phil stand to win almost double the first place prize if he actually wins.