Poker Pro Phil Ivey To Have Hearing To Appeal Crockfords Decision10-Time Bracelet Winner Has Second Chance In Case |
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Phil Ivey still has some outs.
The poker legend will have a court hearing Dec. 10 after being granted permission to appeal a ruling in the United Kingdom that allowed a London casino to keep the money he won while edge sorting in baccarat, according to a press release from his legal team.
In October of last year, a High Court ruling went in favor of Genting Casinos, the owner of Crockfords London, and the company was allowed to keep the £7.8m he won there in 2012. Ivey’s playing partner in the sessions was Cheung Yin Sun.
“As I said at the time of the London verdict last October, it is not in my nature to cheat which is why I was so bitterly disappointed by the judge’s decision a year ago, even though he said that I was a truthful witness and that he was sure that I didn’t believe that what I was doing was cheating,” Ivey said in a statement. “This wording from the Court of Appeal, that the grounds of our appeal raise an important question of law and have real prospects of success is quite simply the best news I’ve had since I won the £7.8m at Crockfords over three years ago in August 2012.”
Ivey was not originally granted the option to appeal the ruling.
Both players did admit that they were able to notice manufacturing defects on the backs of playing cards and use it to their advantage. Though, Ivey and his partner never touched the cards and thus maintained that their strategy was sheer skill and definitely not cheating. “He gave himself an advantage which the game precludes,” the judge said following a week-long trial.
Edge sorting allows gamblers to exploit a defect on the back of casino playing cards to obtain “first card knowledge” or “first card advantage.” Mathematically, players with first card knowledge have an overall advantage of approximately 6.765 percent over the house.
Ivey is wrapped up in a similar legal battle in New Jersey. Like what happened in London, the Borgata gave Ivey special accommodations to make the edge sorting easier, but actually paid him the $9.6 million he won. It is suing him for it back. Ivey counter-sued the casino in July.
Sun was also Ivey’s playing partner in Atlantic City.
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