Borgata use Phil Ivey’s live appearances against him in $10M legal feud

There are few in the poker world who have not heard of the infamous edge-sorting case involving Phil Ivey. Having gone through all the legal avenues in the UK to fight his case against Crockfords Casino, Ivey ultimately lost.

He also lost a similar battle over a $10 million win vs Borgata Casino in the US, and this troubling chapter in Ivey’s professional gambling career has now reared its head once more. His legal team has been successful in postponing the $10.1 million judgment, but Borgata‘s lawyers haven’t said their last words.

Payment dispute

The latest twist in this story has come in the wake of Ivey’s WSOP appearances, in which he bought into a number of events, including the $1 million Big One for One Drop event. Ivey’s legal team have, until now, been delaying payments made to Borgata Casino due to the fact that, according to them, the “enormity of the amount would clearly be of devastating impact”.

Borgata’s legal team have now moved to have this declared invalid, due to the huge buy in amounts paid by Ivey in the live tournaments he has been involved in. They have cited his $2.3 million in cashes at Triton Montenegro, his $26.3 million in live career winnings and his WSOP buy ins this summer as evidence that Ivey would have no problem paying such a huge amount.

Congratulations to Phil Ivey the Triton Poker Series Short Deck Ante only 250K winner! 🎉 🏆🇲🇪👀👏

He’s back! and thanks to @tritonpoker for the photo pic.twitter.com/Scie2oxPE8

— partypokerLIVE (@partypokerlive) May 13, 2018

Pending bond and appeal

Currently, Ivey’s team are arguing that he should be allowed to post a bond while appeals are in progress rather than paying the full amount of $10.1 million. Borgata are attempting to have this argument quashed, arguing that irreparable harm would not be done to Ivey by paying the amount in full, nor would it prevent him from playing poker for a living. They stated that “one can play online poker with initial deposits of under $100. He is not in danger of being prevented from playing poker”.

Where does Ivey go from here?

It is fair to say that anybody standing in Ivey’s shoes right now would be wondering whether playing highly publicised live tournaments over the summer may have been a mistake. The fact that he has put himself back in the public eye is clearly being used against him, which puts forward a clear incentive for him to return to private cash games outside of the spotlight. Whether he will take that option or continue to brave the live tournament spotlight remains to be seen, but poker fans worldwide will surely be hoping that he opts for the latter.

Article by Craig Bradshaw

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