Phil Ivey: The Cristal Balla
Published by: Rod Stirzaker
Posted In: WSOP Blog, Unsubstantiated Rumors
Phil Ivey Hang around Vegas a while and you'll hear many tales of luxurious excess, though few can rival this Phil Ivey anecdote we heard moments ago.
Allegedly a group of businessmen were enjoying dinner at the Wynn when they looked over at one of the nearby tables to see none other than Phil Ivey.
Big fans of the poker superstar, they summoned the waiter and asked him to send Ivey a bottle of Cristal champagne, compliments of their table.
Happy with their deed, they went back to tucking into their top-class steaks.
Twenty minutes later, the waiter came back...armed with five bottles of Cristal!
"These are for you, courtesy of Mr. Ivey."
The businessmen were impressed. These bottles were selling at four or five hundred bucks a pop so $2.5k's worth of top class champagne was a very generous gesture.
They felt like they still wanted to send a message to Ivey that they were big fans of his though and took the waiter aside for a word.
"Would you have twenty bottles of Cristal delivered to Mr Ivey please?"
The waiter raised his eyebrows just a notch but took the order, made arrangements and twenty bottles of Cristal were sent over to the poker legend.
If you four-bet Ivey, don't be suprised if he 5-bet shoves!
The businessmen were satisfied that their point had been made and went back to talking about stocks, shares and of course cracking open a few of the five bottles of champagne stocking their table.
Some time later, they noticed a group of staff approaching their table.
They watched with ever increasing disbelief as bottle after bottle after bottle of Cristal was unloaded until their table and surrounding area were filled with no less than 200 bottles of the vintage champagne - retailing at approximately $100k!
When the delivery had been made the waiter passed the awestruck businessmen a note.
"This is from Mr Ivey sirs."
As the waiter walked away they all crowded round to read the note.
It simply said, "...and I won't stop."
That's why Phil Ivey is the Cristal Balla!
