If you have the means to exploit the system and it is only morally wrong, would you take advantage of a situation? Thats fundamental question Phil Ivey had to ask himself as he made off with close to $10 million for knowing an incredible amount about cards.
Ivey is one of the best poker players in the world and apparently is also very good at baccarat considering the large amount he is attempting to win in court. The Borgata casino is suing Ivey for using a technique called “edge sorting” to win the money from the casino in four sessions from 2012.
The technique involves looking for a defect in the brand of cards the casino uses to distinguish if the card in question is a “good” or “bad” card for the game. According to the suit, Ivey and fellow card player Cheng Yin Sun were fixated on the cards and played the flaws to win the money.
Ivey is also involved in another suit from 2012 that is almost identical to the Borgata, but this one is in the UK-based Crockfords Casino
David Hill of Grantland painted the picture of the scene from the latter suit.
The previous night he and his unnamed companion, a Chinese woman from Las Vegas, started with a million-pound stake and played punto banco in a private room until they lost a half million pounds. They asked to raise the stakes, from 50,000 pounds per hand to 150,000. The club agreed. Soon Ivey and company were up almost two million. They agreed to come back and play again the next night only if the club agreed to keep the exact same cards for them to use. "Superstition," the mysterious woman explained. Crockfords agreed.
The next night when Ivey and his friend returned to play, the woman insisted that the dealers turn certain cards 180 degrees before putting them into the shoe to deal. Again, Ivey is superstitious, she explained. He also happened to be a very good tipper. The club again agreed to the unusual request. A few hours later, Ivey and his partner had won more than seven million pounds.
The technique and the way Ivey won the money isn’t cheating in the literal sense of the word, but the Borgata is suing from the standpoint that Ivey was against the game's own rules in which it agrees to honor bets made. Ivey has won nine gold bracelets at the World Series of Poker and has been gambling ever since he was 17 in Atlantic City with a fake ID.
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