History Made at WPT

Author: Simon Dexter

Phil Ivey has now ended his drought on the World Poker Tour after winning the LA Poker Classic, while Van Nguyen made history by becoming the first woman to win a WPT title with victory in the Celebrity Invitational.

Ivey has been no stranger to the final tables on the WPT, having made seven of them previously, but he finally broke his duck at his record-breaking eighth, outlasting 655 players to scoop $1,596,100.

The money itself of course doesn’t matter too much for a man who has already achieved so much in the game, but he has now moved up to sixth in the all-time money list with tournament earnings of $9,605,908.

Not a bad figure, you’ll have to admit I am sure but it is made all the more impressive by the fact that he is only 32.

Add to the mix that Ivey doesn’t compete in as many tournaments as other poker pros, regularly playing in the high stakes cash games at the Bellagio hotel in Las Vegas (the ‘Big Game’) and we are taking about one of the best if not THE best players of all time.

Perhaps the only surprise is it has taken him so long to win a WPT event but now he has finally cracked it, he is gunning for more.

Ivey told worldpokertour.com: “I just decided to bear down and give myself the maximum chance of winning.”

“I guess now I have to try and catch Gus (Hansen), he’s won three events, and Daniel (Negreanu) has won two, so I’ve got to try and get some more wins.”

One of the leading online poker lobbying groups, the Poker Player’s Alliance (PPA) is trying to cash in on Ivey’s brilliance by hiring him to use his trademark stare on Congress.

PPA president Michael Bolcerek said: “We thought we were on the right track, what with raising money and hiring insiders like (PPA Chairman) Alfonse D’Amato. And, don’t get me wrong, those were all good steps.

“But then I saw one of those Full Tilt ads where Ivey’s just staring you down and I thought, now there’s a guy who can make you crap your pants with a single glare.”

Meanwhile, Nguyen - wife of Men ‘The Master’ Nguyen’ - saw off 445 other poker pros and celebrities to become the first female winner on the Tour.

She came out on top on the five-seat final table - to land top prize and a seat at the WPT Championship - unusually short-seated because two players went out on the bubble.

Don’t forget to keep visiting the Littlewoods Poker Lounge for all the latest news on the WPT.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, March 13th, 2008 at 5:06 pm and is filed under General Poker, News & Promotions Blog, Poker Tournaments, Tournaments. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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