Over the past few months, Phil Ivey has been a popular name in the news due to his ongoing fight with Crockford’s Casino, located in London. Ivey visited the casino last year and earned $12.1 million while playing Punto Banco a baccarat style game. Ivey was never paid his winnings as Crockford’s suspected shenanigans. It appears the casino is right as Ivey has now admitted that he used an advantage to win the large amount of cash from the casino.
According to a report by The Daily Mail, documents from the case of Ivey and Crockfords’ states that Ivey admitted that he was able to read the cards that were used in the Punto Banco game. However, he still believes that it is the casino’s fault for allowing the flaws in the cards and he does not consider his actions a form of cheating. Ivey still wants to be paid.
Apparently the flaws in the cards were due to manufacturing and both Ivey and a woman playing against Ivey never touched the playing cards. It was apparently the companion of Ivey, named Kelly, that noticed the flaw and she told him of the advantage.
According to the report by The Daily Mail, the records state:
‘During the second session on August 20 [Mr. Ivey] made various requests for decks of cards to be changed at the end of hands with which [Crockfords] chose to comply.
This continued until Kelly identified a deck or decks of cards where the pattern on the reverse side of the cards was asymmetrical (in that one “long’’ side was different from the opposite side).’
The report states that the two players were able to ‘edge sort’ the playing deck. Kelly then asked the dealer if he would show every card in turn by the edge which was furthest away from the game dealer. This would allow Kelly to tell what the card was. A 7, 8 or 9 is the best of the best in this game. These three cards are the key components of the Punto Banco game.
Kelly then had the dealer rotate these cards in the opposite direction of the other cards and the dealer did so. Because of this, the edges of the seven, eight and nine cards were distinguishable from the rest, giving the advantage.
When playing, Ivey began wagering only £50,000 each hand and once the advantage was discovered, Ivey asked to have his wagers bumped up to £150,000 a hand. This would raise the maximum bet that the casino offered considerably. This is how Ivey was able to earn the $12.1 million from the casino.
Ivey states that he does not feel as though he is a cheater. What do you think? Was this an unfair advantage?
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