Negreanu Versus Ivey and Insane Prop Bets
Written by Tom L | Monday, October 6th, 2008
 Prop bets are nor uncommon in poker. The poker world has certainly seen some crazy ones this year.
Mike Matusow won $100,000 from Ted Forrest for losing 60lb in one year. Phil Ivey lost $500,000 to Barry Greenstein for the latter’s performance on Guitar Hero!
Ivey has had a bad year on prop bets because he turned out a loser to Daniel Negreanu as well. The deal was that for every bracelet won by one player the other will pay up $200,000. This set up a duel between the two that spanned 4 months.
The action started in June at the 39th Annual World Series of Poker (WSOP) in June at Las Vegas. Negreanu was the first to cash, which he did in Event 5, but was far from the winning place. Event 14, the $10,000 but-in Seven Card Stud saw both Ivey and Negreanu running neck to neck. Though Negreanu was the first to fall Ivey fell soon after and neither won the bracelet. Then Negreanu hit pay dirt in Event 20, the $2000 buy-in Limit Hold’em. Along with the bracelet he won $204,874 from WSOP and $200,000 from Ivey. This put the heat on Ivey because more than money was at stake, his reputation for being the “most feared player of all time”. He went all out to win back his $200,000. Meanwhile Negreanu was playing to get another bracelet and put Ivey out of business. Though both players had further cashes no one was anywhere near winning a bracelet.
Then after a break of two months the scene shifted to the World Series of Poker Europe in London. This is a much shorter tournament and hence the opportunities to both players were fewer. In the first event Negreanu cashed but at position number 24. The second event, the £ 2,500 buy-in H.O.R.S.E., saw Ivey going for broke. But Gregorich knocked him out and he had to settle for sixth place. That put an effective end to Ivey’s challenge. Negreanu fared well in the final event winning £217,200 in the fifth place. That was the end of the Ivey – Negreanu showdown with Ivey 0 and Negreanu 1. Incidentally Ivey has more bracelets than Negreanu. Ivey has 5 bracelets to Negreanu’s 4 (including the WSOP 2008 bracelet)
The Ivey versus Negreanu battle was in the open but there is unconfirmed news that Ivey lost further $2 million in other prop bets. He is believed to have wagered with several pros that he would win his sixth bracelet this year. It is said that he lost $500,000 to Eli Elezra alone.
Since then Ivey has been looking for a face saving win somewhere. And he found that place at the $500/$1,000 No Limit Hold’em RailHeaven table on Full Tilt Poker. And what is more, he found himself playing against “lady marmelade”, who is known to be a big and soft touch in online poker circles. In a single pot Ivey won $439,000, more than double of what he had to pay Negreanu for the prop bet, when his pocket aces beat lady marmelade’s pocket kings.
Ivey plays at Full Tilt while Negreanu is a Pokerstars player, but are Mac poker sites online. It was noted that Ivey won over $1 million online in one day at Full Tilt the other day!
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