How Phil Ivey scalped the legendary Amarillo Slim....
SHOOTING BIG GAME In the year 2000, the Game didn’t get any bigger than going heads up with the one and only Amarillo Slim. This was especially true if you were just a 23-year-old poker gunslinger with the beginnings of a reputation. The youngster in question was Phil Ivey, now probably the most feared poker player on earth. Phil flat out refused to be drawn into Slim’s notorious table banter and just sat silently, short stacked and uncomfortable. Within less than half a dozen hands, Ivey had a pile of chips the size of Slim’s ego in front of him and not long after that he won the entire $195,000 purse. Even the likes of Doyle Brunson, Johnny Moss, Johnny “Orient Express” Chan and Phil Hellmuth had failed to take Slim down in such a fashion. Phil has always maintained, “That was my most important win!” He readily confesses it wasn’t an act of brilliance on his behalf. “I just won three or four hands and it was all over. Sometimes it happens like that in poker.”
SECRET OF IVEY’S WIN? Simple really. Always try and take away from your opponent their most important asset. In Slim’s case his table banter always gave him a “fix” on his opponent. He was probably the best “reader” of a fellow poker player in the game. Ivey knew that because Amarillo was a legend and Phil had read everything there was to read about him as a small boy. People invited to a table with Amarillo Slim probably only got to sit with the great man once in a lifetime and they naturally welcomed the opportunity to chat with him. Big mistake. Ivey didn’t make it. He shut up shop and opened up his aggression. If your opponent likes to talk or use the chat box: Don’t! If your opponent likes quick decisions, slow the game down. You get the idea.
THE HIGH STAKES CREW In an interesting insight into what it means to reach the very highest levels of the poker elite, Phil Ivey makes a telling observation, “Among all the top players, maybe the top five or ten, there’s a shared love of gambling tonnes and tonnes of money, and taking risks. It’s that little something extra that the really successful poker players seem to have.”
BACKING TRACK I was recently asked by a very cultured lady what background music I would like to a poker game her husband was hosting. I suggested a recording of money being counted out, chips chattering on a table, swearing and oafish, tasteless jokes. We ended up with Dave Gilmour and the Floyd cruising through “Money” at a muted volume and I don’t expect to be invited again. Music and poker? I don’t think so and I’m a huge Floyd fan.
