Phil Ivey is a poker pro, but in 2012 he was on a baccarat hot streak, winning $9.6 million over four visits to Atlantic City's Borgota. It's not money he'll keep. A federal judge last week ordered Ivey and companion player Cheng Yin Sun to return $10.1 million to the casino—the baccarat money plus another $500,000 won at craps by spending those baccarat winnings. But as the Washington Post reports, US District Court Judge Noel Hillman didn't find Ivey and Sun had committed fraud as the Borgata alleged. What they did do is breach "their primary obligation to not use marked cards in violation of" New Jersey's Casino Control Act, per Hillman. How the duo did so: edge-sorting. The Post explains that casinos will give "accommodations" to high-rolling players, and Ivey requested five.
The end result is that he played at a private table with his companion, with a dealer who spoke Mandarin Chinese and used purple Gemaco Borgata playing cards that were shuffled with an automatic shuffler. The linchpin was Sun's "impeccable eyesight," as NorthJersey.com reports. A June New York Times Magazine article that featured Sun described how she spent "around a thousand hours" studying nearly unrecognizable differences in the patterns of the cards (this after losing a fortune gambling and spending three weeks in prison over an unpaid debt; read her colorful story here). She would tell the dealer to turn certain cards 180 degrees, and that rotation would be maintained by the automatic shuffler. What they don't have to repay: the $249,199.83 in "comps" provided to them by the Borgota.
Ivey’s attorney Ed Jacobs emphasized that Hillman did not describe the poker player’s actions as fraud. “What this ruling says is a player is prohibited from combining his skill and intellect and visual acuity to beat the casino at its own game,” the lawyer said, according to the Associated Press. “The casino agreed to every single accommodation requested by Phil Ivey in his four visits because they were eager to try to win his money.” The gambler was only using observation, the defense went, and rotating the cards was within the rules of the game. Jacobs added Ivey will appeal the ruling.
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The end result is that he played at a private table with his companion, with a dealer who spoke Mandarin Chinese and used purple Gemaco Borgata playing cards that were shuffled with an automatic shuffler. The linchpin was Sun's "impeccable eyesight," as NorthJersey.com reports. A June New York Times Magazine article that featured Sun described how she spent "around a thousand hours" studying nearly unrecognizable differences in the patterns of the cards (this after losing a fortune gambling and spending three weeks in prison over an unpaid debt; read her colorful story here). She would tell the dealer to turn certain cards 180 degrees, and that rotation would be maintained by the automatic shuffler. What they don't have to repay: the $249,199.83 in "comps" provided to them by the Borgota.
Ivey’s attorney Ed Jacobs emphasized that Hillman did not describe the poker player’s actions as fraud. “What this ruling says is a player is prohibited from combining his skill and intellect and visual acuity to beat the casino at its own game,” the lawyer said, according to the Associated Press. “The casino agreed to every single accommodation requested by Phil Ivey in his four visits because they were eager to try to win his money.” The gambler was only using observation, the defense went, and rotating the cards was within the rules of the game. Jacobs added Ivey will appeal the ruling.
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