Top poker player Phil Ivey has been accused of cheating and is facing a federal lawsuit filed by the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa, which says he cheated on four separate occasions to get away with almost $10 million in winnings while playing baccarat.
The lawsuit alleges that Ivey used a technique called “edge sorting,” which Ivey has said in the past he does not consider to be cheating, to increase his odds from a 1.06 percent house advantage to a 6.765 percent
advantage for the player, Philadelphia Magazine said.
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Edge sorting involves looking at the edge of the playing cards to determine differences, often not seen by an untrained eye but clear to professional poker players, that will help influence the odds in the player’s favor.
Ivey was also accused of cheating in 2011 by a British casino, which withheld part of Ivey’s winnings over the issue. He won $11.5 million there over two days, and the casino said he used imperfections in the cards to win.
Ivey sued the London casino, Crockford’s, to recoup the earnings the casino failed to pay. In that lawsuit, he said he was an
“advantage player,” which means finding legal ways to change the odds, The Bleacher Report said.
The casino wasn’t getting a lot of support from people commenting on the story, many of whom seemed to feel that it wasn’t Ivey’s fault the casino was using flawed decks.
“I believe a casino in London accused him of cheating because he and a partner picked up on the card flaw,”
wrote one man on a New York Daily News article. “That casino refused to pay him too. If the casino used a flawed deck, then that is on them. If you play by the rules, that is not cheating. Pay the man.”
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