Phil Ivey: ESPN Cover Boy
February 3, 2010
When people think of cover boys for magazines, they think of Patrick
Dempsey, Will Smith, Kevin McKidd, etc. Not many people are going to think
of Phil Ivey in those same terms – yet here he is on the cover of ESPN: The
Magazine.
The cover story is going to be an expose of Ivey, following him around as he
jets from craps tables in casinos around the world. It is aptly names “4
Days, 3 Nights, $1 Million” and should prove to be very enlightening as to
what it is really like to be a professional poker player. Reporter Chad
Millman said that he had the honor of following him around for the couple of
days and said that it was “eye opening.”
Millman said that to call Ivey a poker pro “limits the scope of his game.
It’s like saying Jay-Z is just a rapper.” He said that to see him in action
was unlike anything he had seen before. He followed him from Foxwoods to
Austria and saw him earn every bit of the title o 2009 World Series of Poker
November Niner.
He said that although Ivey is an amazing poker player, he also bets on
sports, craps and his own golf game. Because he does so much traveling as a
poker professional he has his own jet, that gets grounded from time to time
as officials try and figure out why he is flying as many places as he is. He
simply tries to explain that he is a poker player – this is what he does.
