Coming into the 2009 WSOP, Phil Ivey was already considered by some as the best all-around poker player in the world. Ivey consistently crushes competition in high stakes games at Full Tilt and Bobby’s Room at the Bellagio leaving no doubt that he is in fact a great player. However, his WSOP bracelet total was not quite up there with fellow top poker players like Erik Seidel, Johnny Moss, Johnny Chan, Doyle Brunson, and Phil Hellmuth. 5 gold bracelets is definitely a solid total, but it is far cry from 9, 10, or 11 bracelets which had people writing him off in the race to catch all-time leader Phil Hellmuth
But that has all changed since Ivey has already won two bracelets in this WSOP. Ivey’s winning ways started with Event #8 when he took down the Deuce to Seven Lowball Draw tournament. Not yet satisfied, Ivey went on to claim victory in the Event #25 Mixed Omaha/Seven Card Stud tournament. This is where talks got serious about him possibly catching Phil Hellmuth in the future.
However, I think people are jumping the gun a bit since he’s still one behind Erik Seidel who is very active right now in the WSOP. Of course there’s the all-time leader Phil Hellmuth who will no doubt add another bracelet someday (if not this year) to his total; Hellmuth has just been playing too good in recent years not to add another. I don’t see Brunson or Chan ever grabbing #11, but that’s my opinion.
Getting back to Ivey, he’s definitely proved his all-around skills by picking up two more bracelets which is very impressive for somebody who plays so many cash games now. But he’ll have to keep up his impressive play if he’s ever to catch a streaking Phil Hellmuth.