Amidst the din of hysterically angry commentators and the shocked buzz that ran through the WSOP, one unbelievable snippet of truth came out: Phil Ivey mucked a winning hand. It’s almost a paradox, how can a demigod of poker make such a blaring mistake? The answer: simple, he’s human too. The only difference is that this mistake will go down in the annals of history and it will say: Phil Ivey and that fateful eight of spades.
Everybody Makes Mistakes
There are mistakes that you can brush off and there are mistakes that you will remember for the rest of your life. For Phil Ivey, this mistake is certainly one of the latter. It wasn’t a very good day for him, what with his chip stack steadily dwindling throughout the event. He managed to hang on simply through his skills, but it was obvious that luck had deserted him. Then, just when it seemed like things wouldn’t be getting any better, fate handed Ivey a pair of 8’s, the 8 of spades and the 8 of diamonds. Most of the other players decided not to play their hand, all of them except for Smith. Smith held an Ace of Diamonds and a 9 of clubs. Already, Ivey was on the winning side. The board came out as 5S, QH, 10S. Still, Ivey had the better hand. Then, the turn came out and it was a Queen of Spades. Smith checked and the game went on. Finally, at the river, an ace of spades was revealed. Smith’s hand improved considerably, with his ace high turning into a pair of aces. But still, Ivey held the winning hand. He had a flush, all five spades lined up to give him the victory. Then, the unthinkable happened. Ivey folded the winning hand in a pot with a whopping 2.5 million worth of chips. It was a classic case of mucking the winning hand. The commentators of the WSOP were in an uproar. The whole event was simply unbelievable. Ivey, possibly the greatest poker player of all time, mucked a winning hand! The lesson to be learned here is to always – without fail – check your hand.
Can a Day Get any Worse?
Lady Luck was probably pissed off at Ivey’s gargantuan mistake and chose to leave him alone for the rest of the day. He lost a boatload of chips against George Caragiogias, when he called an all-in with his A-T against George’s pocket deuces. That cost him another million right there. His luck simply would not hold out. Now, with just 19 players left in the main event, Ivey ranks 15th in terms of chip count. That’s hardly impressive. But then again, anything can happen. Who knows, Ivey might just make a miraculous comeback. Until then, though, people will remember his 8 of spades and they will remember it well.
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