Phil Ivey Falls Just Short of Ninth WSOP Bracelet Again

With Phil Ivey’s elimination in third place, play has been suspended with Scotty Nguyen and Joe Cassidy set to play heads-up for the WSOP $5,000 Omaha eight-or-better championship title. Thursday’s heads-up match will resume at 2:00 PM PST and will feature a five-time bracelet winner in Nguyen doing battle with a talented high-stakes limit specialist in Cassidy for the gold bracelet and the first-place prize of $294,777.

This final table began with a number of notable players, including Mike Matusow and Bart Hanson, but after only Ivey, Nguyen, and Cassidy remained. After getting down to less than one big bet, Ivey managed to mounted a come back, much to the delight of the crowd, before losing a massive pot to Nguyen. Shortly afterwards he bused in third place for $136,046 and 544 Card Player Player of the Year points, moving him into a tie for 12th place in the POY race.

Ivey has made three final tables in just over the span of a week here at the WSOP, and again came close to winning his ninth bracelet only to fall just short. Just days earlier Ivey lost to Andy Frankenberger heads-up in the WSOP $10,000 pot-limit hold’em championship.

Ivey was looking to tie Johnny Moss with nine bracelets, but was also rumored to have seven-figures worth of additional money in the balance as the result of sizable bracelet bets he had made. Despite making his fifth cash of the series, Ivey had to walk away greatly disappointed with history and his lucrative side bets left unwon.

Jean-Robert Bellande, who was in the commentary booth for the WSOP.com live stream during three-handed play said that Ivey didn’t care about the six-figure payout for third place. “He cares about this bracelet,” said Bellande during the broadcast. “That and the couple million dollars he has in side bets.”

This marks the first time that the hard-stop time has been enacted on a final day so far at the 2012 WSOP. At around 3:00 AM PST tournament director Steve Francis approached the final three players to say that they were supposed to stop for the night, unless they unanimously agreed to play on. Cassidy and Ivey both agreed to continue, but Nguyen expressed interest in stopping. Ivey was severely short-stacked and asked to play on, at least until he busted. Nguyen consented, and only moments later, Ivey was out and play was halted.

Make sure to follow along with Card Player’s live updates as play resumes on Thursday at 2:00 PM PST, with Scotty Nguyen and Joe Cassidy set to face off for the bracelet and $294,777. Here is a look at the chip counts:

Related Articles

Artur Martirosian Nabs Second Triton Monte Carlo Win

Eelis Parssinen Proves PLO Dominance At Triton

'Gambledore' Vanquishes Triton Wizards For $4.3M

Most Viewed Articles