Poker legend Phil Ivey has made an appearance on the DAT Podcast alongside Daniel Negreanu to give an update on his life and answer some questions about his early career. The all-time great hasn’t been heard from so much in recent times due to the pandemic but he sounds ready to mount a challenge for more high stakes glory when the live poker scene is back up and running again.
Phil Ivey Taking a Different Approach to Life
The Phil Ivey we see in this interview is far from the intense character players have learned to fear at the table. He is now old enough to have a different perspective on life which seems to have mellowed him somewhat.
What does day to day life look like now?
PI: Pretty boring; working on myself…yoga, meditating, golfing. Spending time with family. Looking forward to poker coming back and getting back out there again.
What about Macau?
PI: There’s no travel. I haven’t been over there in about 18 months.
I’m curious about the progression of those games. The games must have been just fantastic.
PI: Now it’s mostly short deck over there because inexperienced players have much better chances.
When I first went over to Macau players were just playing pretty big while learning how to play…It was incredible: some of the players didn’t even know the rules.
There was one guy asking if a flush beats a straight! I couldn’t believe it. He was playing baccarat and saw there was a poker game and came over and asked the rules.
Phil Ivey Plays Poker for Four Days Straight
I remember you did an interview and was amazed at how those guys could play for three days straight, or four days.
PI: I’ve been lucky my whole life that I’ve been able to stay up a long time…but yeah it was amazing to me the stamina that these guys had: it was nothing for them to play for three or four days.
I found out the secret later that they had this tea…I drank this tea and felt I was going to have a heart attack.
When you went broke in those big games[referring to when he was moving up the stakes for the first time] did you get staked back..people recognised you were pretty good?
PI: I usually kept a little bit..say I built up a bankroll of $50,000 I would keep a bankroll of five to ten thousand and just play smaller.
I did get some help along the way…I didn’t really mind going broke; it never really bothered me…I was always so incredibly grateful I was playing poker for a living.
Is Phil Ivey Better than Phil Hellmuth?
DN: [Paraphrasing Phil Hellmuth] If you ask Phil Ivey who’s a better NL hold’em player…he’ll tell you that I’m better than him.
PI: I don’t know! I would have to play him…I’ve never really played Phil Helmuth; I’ve only really played him in tournaments. Would I bet on myself versus him in a tournament: yes I would.
DN: I’m glad to see with all the changes in your life you’ve still got the hustle in you!
You’re famous for reading people; that tends to make people scared of you. You’ve crafted this intimidating presence. How much was this something you tried to work on?
PI: I never even gave it a thought of being scary or intimidating People tell me this and I’m like whoa wait a second. When I first heard it I’m like really?
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