Photo courtesy of Bluff Magazine	Born :	Feburary, 1 1976 in Riverside, California
	Residence :	U.S.A, Las Vegas NV
	Nick Name:	"Tiger Woods of Poker"
	Career Highlights:	Considered to be one of the best young players in the game today, Phil has won over 6 million dollars in tournament play and millions more in Vegas cash games. He has won 5 WSOP bracelets and was the 2005 Bluff Magazine player of the year.

Phil Ivey Facts:

• Phil Ivey is the youngest player to win five WSOP bracelets.
• Phil Ivey is one of only three other players to have won 3 WSOP bracelets in one year.
• Phil started playing in Atlantic City card rooms when he was only 18 by using a fake ID.
• In 2005, Phil won 1.6 million by winning the Monty Carlo Millions and 4 days later the FullTiltPoker.com invitational.

WSOP Tournament Wins
Year	Buyin	Game	Winnings
2000	$2,500	Pot Limit Omaha	$195,000
2002	$2,500	7 Card Stud Hi/Lo	$118,440
2002	$2,000	S.H.O.E.	$107,540
2002	$1,500	7 Card Stud	$132,000
2005	$5,000	Pot Limit Omaha	$635,603

BIO

If Doyle Brunson is the Arnold Palmer of poker than calling Phil Ivey "the Tiger Woods of Poker" is more than a little appropriate. Although Phil isn't a fan of the nickname, it's easy to understand where many of the similarities stem from. Both are considered young phenoms who are playing at the top of their games. They are both respected and feared by their opponents. Both are African Americans playing in what many would consider a historically white man's sport. Both have made millions and millions of dollars in tournament winnings and endorsement deals.

Before Phil was called the Tiger Woods of poker, he was known as "No Home Jerome" because he spent so much time in the Atlantic City poker rooms with a fake ID baring the name Jerome Graham. The real Jerome Graham was a co-worker of Phil's at a New Jersey telemarketing company. The No Home Jerome was a struggling 18-year-old New Jersey native card player who was working to improve upon the poker lessons his father had taught him a decade earlier. It wasn't until Ivey turned 20 that he started to become a consistent winner and finally moved to Atlantic City. When he turned 21 he told the pitt boss at the Tropicana that he had been playing with a fake Id, but he was 21, his name was Phil Ivey, and there was nothing they could do now. The pitt boss said "OK, Phil" and found him a seat.

Soon after turning 21 Phil moved to Las Vegas where the competition was tougher, the stakes were higher, and the casino staff was more thorough in checking a player's age. In his first year at the World Series of Poker, Ivey won the $2,500 Pot-Limit Omaha championship. Two years later Phil Ivey tied a WSOP record by winning 3 bracelets in one year, netting him over $300,000 in tournament winnings. Not only was Phil becoming an excellent tournament player, he was also becoming a feared and respected cash game player who could often be found at the Bellagio's "Big Game", which regularly hosts $4,000 - $8,000 blinds. In 2005 Phil decided to spend more time on tournament poker and won the Monte Carlo Millions, the FullTiltPoker.com invitational, and the WSOP $5,000 WSOP Pot-Limit Omaha event.

His recent refocus on tournament poker hasn't kept him out of the richest cash games in the world however. In February of 2006 Phil was the lone representative when the collection of professional poker players known as "The Corporation" took on banking billionaire Andy Beal. Just a week before; Andy had busted the corporation for 10 million dollars playing $30,000 - $60,000 heads up limit Hold'em against the likes of Ted Forrest, Jennifer Harmon, and Todd Brunson. In the course of 3 days Phil single handedly won $16 million off of the gracious Andy Beal who has since announced his retirement from poker.

When Ivey isn't playing poker, he can usually be found either playing video games at home or out on the links practicing his new hobby. Phil is also one of the contract players for FullTiltPoker.com, and is often used as a spokesperson in their print and TV ads. Currently he lives in Las Vegas with Luciaetta, his high school sweetheart turned wife, who has been supportive ever since his underage play in Atlantic City. Well the days of No Home Jerome are over, and he doesn't like the Tiger Woods of poker moniker, so that's why many people have started to refer to him by a more appropriate title; "Phenom".