I am watching the replay of the Saturday stream and am about half-way through. You are totally right. It's total bullshit, he leaves again just like he did on Friday and it seems like he has been gone for 2 hours or so. I know Ivey at 1 time was considered the GOAT but a lot has changed in the past 10 years. No full tilt gravy train easy money, this current Phil Ivey gives no action and even though he knows he was considered the star attraction he just leaves.

He isn't even fun to watch now. I hope Hustler never invites him back.

This is definitely right. Turning up but not engaging in the game properly and leaving at the earliest opportunity is actually worse than just not agreeing to do it. But probably just wanted appearance fee!

ECB, you need to let your anger over this go. It was over a decade ago. You will never heal until you forgive Lederer, Bitar, Fergy and the rest of the crew

Yup. I could be wrong of course but he is probably staked now in these kinds of games and wantes that nice appearance fee. Since he knew Larry and Liz I'm sure he got a nice chunk of change to come. But seriously thia dude is a shell of his former self playing. No aggression at all and no interest at all. Friday night Nick and Bsrt were making excuses for Ivey leaving, claiming he was probably tired and would be fresh and ready to go for Saturday. Obv that was total bull and interestingly they haven't really mentioned or given any excuses on the stream for his latest disappearing act.

This guy is a complete dud, probably has very little money compared to his glory days when full tilt handed him close to $10 million a year and to me has no interest in the game anymore.

By the way on a completely different note, what's up with Ivey and Dwan yawning without covering their mouths? I mean didn't everyone's mom teach us that when we were 6 years old? Basic manners out the window I guess.

Ivey flatting w/AK was the end of an era.

I will never forgive them. They don't deserve forgiveness. But I do admit being giddy when I see all their "stars" disappear and or have to play small stakes now. It makes me feel good.

I've said this a lot since black friday but I don't think ANY of those individuals should be considered some of the best all time. People like Ferguson, Ivey, Lindgren, Lederer, etc...They had free money, huge amts of money given to them. So it's easy to 5 bet bluff all in over and over and scare normal players away that didn't have unlimited money. Take the tightest player you can think of, give them hundreds and hundreds of thousands a month and tell them to play any cash game and tournament thsy want and believe me, their style will change.

Sure most of them were solid players. Give them loads of free money and you created imo a huge unfair advantage.

On the button no less. And he did it again soon after.

then you will never heal

Ferguson and 5 bet bluff has never been used in the same sentence.

I think at this point there are just way too many shady people and scammers in the gambling environment in general. Big name pros, small time regs and everybody in between. Nobody seems to care anymore if they even did, except for a few people like us that post on a message board. Hell the creator of the stream Nick V has a shady scammy past flipping houses. It's on the internet. So why would he care if this Lucky dude was arrested a few years ago? He doesn't.

The only thing that gets other poker players to really take a stand against is cheating. Like Postle and Russ Hamilton. As for scammers? They're a dime a dozen.

None of the former owners has to play small stakes now. They play poker for fun these days (Federer, Lederer) or because they're getting paid for it (Ivey).

99% of people who show up somewhere for an appearance fee actually have to do something for their money. At the very least they have to engage with people and act friendly and interested.

Ivey is in a position where he can sit down, eat dinner and watch Dodgers - Braves while barely acknowledging the people talking to/at him. Not sure how that would make any Ivey hater feel good?

Ivey is gone. Has been for a long time. I suppose when you run sorta bad for extended periods of time (not on stream, I’m just guessing he’s run bad at poker for a while) when you’re used to running like god, have a costly divorce, lose millions in lawsuits/legals, don’t keep up with the new whizz kids/play a lot and lose fortune betting nfl - you’re gonna lose your mojo. Sad to see, he played as bad as his mood, miserably.

I'm not sure if your post is trying to defend Phil Ivey or not. Again my point is that it was ridiculous he was given an appearance fee and he did not engage, he left hours early both nights and had very little interest in playing hands. I'm pretty sure that's not what Nick and Bart and Ryan F expected. How could they be okay with this?

As for your point about the owners. I really wasn't talking primarily about them. I was mainly pointing out that a lot of their top pros who were given loads of cash per month for years have either disappeared and or play a lot lower stakes. What's Clonie Gowen up to these days? Haven't seen Edog play too many 10k's over the past 9 years have you?

Spot on.

Unfortunately I'd say this about sums it up. Got the feeling he is battling some mega-demons underneath the surface. He seemed distracted, agitated, and not particularly pleasant.

On the bright side, it was cool to see Dwan do his thing and chat it up/be engaged.

I have no strong feelings towards Ivey. Certainly not defending him. But also not sure what people expected from him, everybody knows he has no interest in talking to strangers or media.

Just wanted to point out that if I was a hater I would be pretty upset to see that he's not only able to charge an appearance fee (not many people can do that) but also doesn't even have to act like he cares.

I didn't watch much of the stream but one hand I saw happened while the Braves had two on in the bottom of the 6th (?). He folded a couple hands pre including KQs where I wasn't sure if he even looked at the cards before tossing them.

That's the way he's always been. During the poker boom / FTP years he occasionally faked being interested because that was necessary for business. Apparently he's a pretty cool dude if you're able to get to know him better, at least that what others say. I still remember getting introduced to him and immediately knowing he doesn't care at all.

Yeah, Ivey was always the most boring guy at the table, personality wise. He presaged the online generation of boring people. The appeal of Ivey was that he was the best player and could crush the table. If he's not doing that anymore, then...

Whales do want to sit with those guys, though. At least in theory. They know they will lose, that's not the point. if Ivey and Dwan are still a big deal, whales should show up.

Fair point about the WSOP though. If you had this same game right now, but in Vegas, might be a different story?

Nick mentioned that Ivey would be back sometime but during the week next time, maybe to avoid the major sports betting days so Ivey can be more dialed in...

Haha that's a great comment

OT but you keep picking the worst FTP examples.

Clonie got screwed and never was on the FTP money train in any significant way. She ended up suing them for not paying her. Annie Duke hated her for some reason (maybe jealous because Clonie did not have a tramp stamp) and maybe Annie had something to do with FTP not paying Clonie what she believed she was owed.

I would take the under on that. Getting Ivey for anything seems like a monumental ask.

Clonie still waiting on that transfer.

Wasn't Annie Duke Team UB? Or are you saying she was using her influence through Howard

just want to echo how great the production was in case any of the team reads this

lineup itself was a very fun watch

What really irked me was after Ivey left again Saturday and they eventually picked up his chips, Nick V says on the broadcast that Ivey is known for doing this and its "pretty beast". He said it twice like he's trying to put some joke positive spin on the fact that the dude left the game 2 days in a row after only a couple of hours.

I'm sorry but trying to insult the viewers intelligence just annoyed me even more about the whole thing. Imo Ivey added nothing to the game at all and he should never be invited back. Lol at calling what he did beast smh.