In August 2012, Phil Ivey won a massive £7.7 million playing Punto Banco at Crockford's. The 10-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner asked to have his winnings wired, but the London-based casino only transferred his initial £1m stake as they suspected him of cheating by using an edge-sorting technique (exploited errors in a deck of playing cards in order to gain an advantage against the house). Ivey admitted that he had used the strategy and said that it wasn't cheating.
The poker star is currently in High Court in London in an attempt to sue the owners and get his winnings. According to bbc news, he told the court that his edge-sorting technique is perfectly legitimate.
Ivey said: "I consider that I would not be doing my job very well if I did not seek to use to my benefit weaknesses that I identify in the way that casinos set up or offer particular casino games"
"I use a variety of strategies whilst playing in casinos. No system is fail-safe and each time I play I risk failing to execute the strategy properly - some of these are very complex or difficult to execute - which usually results in me losing a lot of money.
Ivey claims he has been unfairly treated...
"I consider all the strategies I use to be lawful and I would never cheat in a casino. It is not in my nature to cheat and nor would I risk my reputation by acting unlawfully in any manner."
"We observe the unwritten doctrine: how do I find a legal way to beat the house? Any method that could amount to cheating would breach the doctrine and cause you to be ostracised by your fellow players - we are all very careful to stay the right side of the line and we discuss advantage play strategies at length."
Mr Ivey told the court that he also used the technique in Australia and the United States together with his friend Cheung Yin Sun, who taught him the strategy in 2012.
He said: "We won substantial sums of money doing so and we also lost substantial sums along the way when we got the strategy wrong or were not able to execute the sorts because of effective casino game protection methods."
"At all times when edge-sorting, I considered that Kelly and I were playing lawfully and it never occurred to me that edge sorting could ever be viewed as an unlawful strategy. I continue to believe that it is lawful."
If everything goes according to the plans, this case will finish sometime this week. Stay tuned for more update!
