Why Phil Ivey did not cheat
In his Community Round-up Barry Carter dismisses the recent news of the Borgata suing Phil Ivey for alleged cheating.
Over the weekend it was revealed that Phil Ivey was being sued by the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa for $9.62 million for using the same 'edge-sorting' techniques that got around $12 million of his winnings confiscated by Crockfords Casino in London.
The Borgata is also suing his female companion (Rumoured to be the same person who joined him at Crockfords) as well as the card manufacturer Gemaco.
Just like in the Crockfords case, what Ivey is alleged to have done is to have spotted very small design flaws on the back edge of particular sets of cards, that let him know what the card was. Back with the Crockfords case, Ivey admitted to using this technique, but pointed out that it was not a breach of the rules. He was so confident of this, in fact, that he started legal proceedings against the casino.
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| Edge-sorting explained by the Daily Mail |
I've already written about this at length at the time of the Crockfords case. Although it does perhaps make Phil Ivey seem a little shady in my book, there is no way he cheated. He didn't even touch the deck, everything was controlled by the Casino. It was their deck, they were supervising the game, they were privy to the exact same information and you would think with millions of dollars on the line they would have done better due diligence.
The fact that the Borgata are suing both Ivey AND the card manufacturer completely undermines their argument. Unless they were implying that the two parties were working together, they are blaming two completely separate and independent reasons for their losses.
Knowing that the cards were flawed, they seem to think that Ivey should have used boy scouts honour and told them. However casinos like the Borgata have no problem allowing (and encouraging) drunks and gambling addicts to play at their tables. Why should Ivey be held to such a high standard when they are infinitely more guilty of exploiting vulnerability?
It confirms what I have always suspected in these instances, the casino is attempting to freeroll on Ivey and the card company. If a player loses money, they would have not said a thing. However if the player wins, they will try every trick in the book to get their money back.
The Borgata already has bad press this year after the chip smuggling scandal at the Winter Poker Open. Now this case is doing them no favours, because it sends a message that winners are not welcome in their casino. The majority of their revenue probably comes from fools who think they have a 'system', but penalising one of the few guys that manages to find a winning one is very bad for business.
Do you think Phil Ivey did anything wrong? Do you think the Borgata have a case here? Let me know in the comments box.
Thread of the week
For months and months I have tried to avoid it, but now I am really starting to take notice of Bitcoin.
I must admit I still barely understand what the hell it is all about, but I feel that I need to catch up.
Thankfully vorpalf2f started a discussion about Bitcoin and how it relates to poker last year, and that discussion is still going strong.
Luckily there are quite a few people in that thread that know a damn sight more than I do about the topic, if you have an opinion, please join in and enlighten us.
LOL of the week
I miss seeing Tony G and Phil Hellmuth goading each other, as this video reminded me this week from our Daily Rewind:
Running hot
Last week was a week like any other, except for:
• A new $10,000 Depositor freeroll on April 27 from Poker770.
• Oops! I charted five big live poker mistakes caught on camera.
• I love that our Poker School use video games to make poker points - what would Duke Nukem do with a set?
• I spoke to German PokerStars pro and PokerStrategist Felix 'xflixx' Schneiders.
• We learned a lot more about NoteCaddy from the man behind it.
• Learn more about how our live coaching webinars have vastly improved.
Coming up
A big week ahead, including:
• The live stream from EPT Sanremo, which starts on Day 2 of the Main Event, from Wednesday.
• I interviewed one of the biggest names in poker today, in what was a pretty funny discussion, which you will see tomorrow.
• Live coaching from 
akrammon, UriPeleg and Unam.
• New videos from oblioo, TomSom87 and Skodlijivec.
 Barry Carter is the editor of PokerStrategy.com and the co-author of The Mental Game of Poker 1 & 2. He has been working in the poker industry for nine years and in 2013 won the APAT Award for Best Poker Media Provider. You can learn more about his work here.
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