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Gambling Cons, Scams and Scoundrels Court Overturns Phil Ivey's Borgata Baccarat Decision

Court Overturns Phil Ivey's Borgata Baccarat Decision

Phil Ivey

Back in July 2012, the well-known professional poker player, Phil Ivey, won a grand sum of $4.8 Million, while playing at the baccarat tables of the Atlantic City’s Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa for 17 hours. That had not been his biggest win at the Borgata. On a previous occasion, he left with a whooping total of £9 Million in his pocket.

That could have been simply unbelievable luck. But on this occasion, Lady Luck had nothing to do with it. The ingredients for this remarkable success were Gemaco Borgata cards that had minute asymmetries in their back patterns and the incredible skill of someone like Cheng Yin Sun, Ivey’s partner, who taught herself how to recognize each card by its imperfections.

Sun bought some souvenir playing cards from the Borgata (identical to those used in the casino) and realised that the patterns on the back were not perfectly symmetrical. That meant, she was able to learn how to identify the cards depending on the errors in the pattern along the left or right margins (not wider than 1/32 of an inch).

At the baccarat table, Sun kept asking for the cards to be turned upside down. Without questioning, the dealer agreed to her request. Working as a dealer in a casino, one gets used to all the superstitions players entertain in the hope of a big win. Little did he know that Sun was tracking the cards as they were moving through the deck and therefore enabling Ivey to cash in win after win, million after million.

Sun’s mental acumen in distinguishing the minute differences in the patterns on the back of the playing cards is remarkable.

Hillman

Brought in front of a low court judge, the ruling went in favour of Ivey and Sun, but a higher court of law has recently ordered Phil Ivey to return his winnings, though without granting $250,000 in compensation to the casino. Ivey is appealing.

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