What Is The Edge Of The House And How Did Phil Ivey Use It To Earn $ 20 Million?
Betting on a coin in 96ace casino. This is how your best chances of winning at baccarat are described. Baccarat has one of the smallest edges of the house you will find and does not require any skill. Even if you are a complete novice, as soon as your first hand is dealt, you have the same chances of winning as any veteran. However, as early as 2012, poker icon Phil Ivey amazed the world when he went on a winning streak that amounted to over $ 20 million. He seemed to have managed to beat the odds – but how did he do it? Well … there was a trick.
The story of Ivey’s triumph
He been one of the most prominent poker players since the turn of the century, winning ten World Series of Poker bracelets, a World Poker Tour final and a seat in the world ‘s most famous poker room. At one point, he even joined his infamous corporation in the fights against billionaire Andrew Beal (also known as “The Banker” from Michael Craig’s famous gambling book). The Dallas businessman came out of the game against Ivey with $ 16.6 million more easily, although this did not affect his net worth.
All this means that Phil Ivey is rich. Not very rich, but pretty damn close. He with high stakes – and, as you know, the house always wins in the long run . It’s completely different from playing with the best casino bonuses on online gambling sites, where you must first wager the bonus money, until you can withdraw any winnings.
With that in mind, let’s go back to the gambling sites and, in fact, some of the most popular in the world. When Ivey entered the Borgata Casino in Atalanta City with a mysterious Chinese woman, there must have been a lot of rubbing hands. Highlighting “Tiger Woods of Poker” as a guest is good PR, and when he wants to play baccarat in all games, then there is the potential for a tidy profit .
Casino officials were stunned. You just can’t be so lucky at baccarat – but they haven’t managed to catch any scams in any way! The man has not even tried to touch the cards and, as the royal gambling scandal in the UK has shown, you can’t do anything without interfering with the rules of the game.
True, the casino offered Ivey the mandarin-speaking croupier, which he asked for because of his partner, and listened to all his “good luck” requests, but it is common practice to be less strict with VIP guests .
Once again, its requirements were met, and this time it managed to win £ 7.6 million – but the casino only paid the initial £ 1 million package . When the indignant poker star asked to know what happened to the rest of his winnings, it was later explained that the money would be withheld and thats where the term “edge sorting” came out.
So what is edge sorting?
Nothing new, as it turns out. Sorting the edges is achievable, but it is difficult to master , harder to use and very difficult to catch. Like counting books, it can go under the radar. Before Ivey, most casinos hadn’t even heard of sorting the edges.
The technique is based on small irregularities in the patterns on the back of the books. Don’t expect anything obvious, of course. See the example below. As you will see (maybe), there is a subtle difference between the size of the partial shapes on the edges of the books. They are bigger on one side than the other. You’re probably wondering how this can help. It is not a bookmark that allows you to recognize a particular card, but a common pattern for all deck cards .
The truth is very simple – sorting the edges allows you to recognize the cards that have been rotated. As you well know, there is no top with the cards, they are perfectly symmetrical – or at least their facets are. However, if you manage to spin a book – and you have a very interested eye – you will be able to tell his back apart from the rest. Of course, a single winning card does not win.
Of course, the use of this technique has some very important (and unlikely) requirements. Once you are familiar with the card model, you should find a dealer that will allow you to turn over cards and keep the same bridge between games. Of course, this is almost impossible to achieve … unless you have a strong VIP, such as Phil Ivey.
Phil Ivey and the “Queen of Sorting”
In fact, Phil Ivey couldn’t handle the sorting of the edges. He never trained to do this. The poker star was necessary because he was famous enough to receive favorable treatment from casino officials. As you may have guessed, the mind behind the whole effort was his Chinese companion – Cheung Yin ‘Kelly’ Sun. Heiress to a wealthy Chinese family, she has been a regular customer of US casinos for many years.
After careful study and hard training, Kelly Sun mastered the still obscure technique and started on a baccarat ramp. She made a name for herself in certain circles and quickly became known as the “queen of aprons” . However, for higher awards, he still needed a VIP partner – and Phil Ivey was the perfect candidate.
The poker icon became Kelly’s “big” player, who would take care of the game and make bets. However, it was the skilled Kelly who did the vital sorting of the edges. She would persuade the Mandarin-speaking croupier to spin certain cards “for luck” and then keep track of them . In this way, he would slowly sort all the deck cards into “good” and “bad”, and then give Ivey specific signals to bet on when an advantageous card would be dealt. If you play baccarat like this, accumulating a winning record becomes surprisingly easy.
The result – Is book sorting a scam?
If you’re following gambling news, you may already know what happened after Crockfords refused to pay Ivey’s winnings. Eventually, the world learned about sorting the edges . Phil Ivey was involved in two very complicated cases against Crockfords and Borgata – suing the former for his winnings and suing the latter. Of course, both cases have been dragging on for years.
The problem was that at that time, sorting the edges was not considered a scam – most casinos simply did not know about it. However, because Borgata wanted $ 10 million back and Ivey demanded almost £ 8 million from Crockfords, the authorities had to get involved . The problems were complicated when Ivey directly admitted that he used edge sorting, but called it a “legitimate game.” The main point of his defense was his interpretation of sorting the edge as a “game advantage” technique.
Edge sorting and Blackjack
The main objective of the game of blackjack is to defeat the dealer by going as close as possible to 21, but without exceeding 21. In these terms, the use of edge sorting could be particularly advantageous for the player, because, according to statistics, it would allow the player to earn an edge of over 18% over the house. All the player has to do is master the edge sorting technique and identify the card to be dealt with in the next round of the game. It would be especially beneficial if the player can identify if the next card to be dealt is a 10 or an ace. Thus, sorting the edges can not only help the player decide how much it would be beneficial to bet, but also whether it would be more advantageous to “stand” or be “hit” during a round. However, as we have established, sorting over the edge is now considered a scam in all casinos and the use of such a technique does not guarantee that you will really go richer.…
She was lucky with her first ticket. He dived into posh cars, including a custom Range Rover worth £ 18,000 in purple to pay tribute to his favoriteHiberniens team, expensive designer bags and shoes, a house, frequent exotic vacations and plastic surgery. But then her carefree life began to seem lonely, while her friends returned to school or their jobs and felt abandoned from normal life, wanting not to earn in the first place.