He's a force to reckon with when it comes to playing poker and other types of card games, but it looks like American poker pro Phil Ivey's good fortune did not work at Britain's Supreme Court - he lost a huge case this Wednesday (October 25) that rendered him unable from cashing in.
The British Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling that Phil Ivey had managed to employ illegitimate methods to acquire £7.7 million in winnings while at the baccarat table in 2012.
He and a companion were discovered to have utilized a technique called "edge sorting" in order to gain an unfair advantage whilst gambling at the Crockfords casino located in London's classy Mayfair district.
Even though they did not personally touch the cards being dealt, they asked the croupier to arrange the cards in a certain fashion that enabled them to determine, in some parts, which cards were being dealt, and that allowed them to bet accordingly in their favor.
Crockfords learned about this and refused to pay his winnings, prompting Ivey to bring the matter to court.
Supreme Court Judge Anthony Hughes stated the integrity of baccarat, Punto Banco, mainly depends on the cards being dealt at random without the gamblers (and even dealers themselves) knowing their face value. He said, "What Mr. Ivey did was to stage a carefully planned and executed sting." He also said that Ivey took "positive steps to fix the deck" by tricking the dealer. He concluded that "is inevitably cheating."
Ivey, who is considered to be one of the best players in international poker, said otherwise, stressing that his winnings were obtained in an honest manner. After the ruling, he said, "At the time I played at Crockfords, I believed that edge-sorting was a legitimate Advantage Play technique and I believe that more passionately than ever today."
Phil Ivey, who has won at multiple WSOP competitions and has reportedly won $16 million after playing for three straight days against Texan billionaire Andy Beal, remarked that he brought the case to Britain's highest court out of a sense of honor, "As a professional gambler, my integrity is everything to me."
The president of Genting Casinos UK (that operates Crockfords) said that the ruling ‘vindicates' the company's decision of refusing to pay Ivey his winnings from those baccarat sessions. He said, "We are delighted that the High Court, the Court of Appeal and now the Supreme Court have all found in Genting's favor, confirming that we acted fairly and properly at all times and that Mr. Ivey's conduct did indeed amount to cheating."
With this final decision, Phil Ivey has been branded a cheat by the UK court.
Now that this multi-million dollar lawsuit is all over, what do you think?
Source:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-41751208
thats why he decided and announced his return,
