The $1.6 Million Dollar Man

It is November, 2005.

Phil Ivey is having one hell of a year. He has already made two World Poker Tour final tables, two World Series of Poker Circuit event final tables and won his fifth WSOP bracelet.

But none of that compares to Monte Carlo.

Just 24 hours earlier, Phil took down the Monte Carlo Millions for a cool $1,000,000 payday, defeating a stacked field of 112 players in the exclusive $25K buy-in tournament.

Now, he’s staring at a line up of the world’s best poker players in the FullTiltPoker.net Invitational Live from Monaco. A winner-take-all $600K prize is up for grabs. Chris Ferguson, John Juanda, Gus Hansen and Mike Matusow all stand in his way. That’s a murderer’s row to the average player, but this is just another day at the office to Ivey.

The action is tight at first; nobody wants to be the first player to bust out. Ivey waits, searching for the right moment to make his move. Players get short and start falling by the wayside. Suddenly, it’s just Ivey and Juanda. The former bible salesman has got plenty of moves, but not enough cards to take down Phil. Mr. Ivey pads his bankroll with another $600K.

That makes $1.6 million in the span of 24 hours.

The Big Game