Phil Ivey Eliminated in 19th Place (£26,400)
In middle position, Fabrizio Baldassari limped into the pot, and Phil Ivey stuck in a raise to 35,000 next door. In the big blind, Ronald Lee slowly squeezed his hole cards before sticking a chip on top to cap them as he thought it over. After a moment, he reraised it back, making it 101,000 to go and quickly folding Baldassari. Lee had to endure a long gaze from Ivey, and at the end of the staredown, Ivey announced an all in for 444,000 total. Lee double-checked his cards to make sure, and quickly called to put Ivey at risk.
The news was not good for Ivey, or for poker fans:
Ivey:
Lee:
The flop was a big swing and a miss for Ivey as it came , leaving him dead to three outs.
If the flop was a miss, the turn was a disaster. The peeled off to a disappointed chorus of "Awwww" from the entire room. Ivey was drawing dead, his Main Event over. Just for the extra rubdown, the now-useless filled out the board, signaling the end of another impressive run for Ivey. It would be a staggering feat if it weren't Phil Ivey; this sort of performance has almost become expected thanks to the high standard he consistently sets.
Ivey will have to be content with eight bracelets until next summer at least, as his bid for number nine has fallen just short. It's hard to say enough about the show he put on here this week, drawing fans from all across England and media from around the world to come catch a glimpse of his shot at history. It was not meant to be this week, however, but you can be certain that the poker world will be ready for Ivey's next bracelet run.
If he keeps playing as well as he did here in London, and there's no reason to think otherwise, we probably won't have to wait very long for the next one.