Phil Ivey Gossip

[Flacks]

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For that kind of money you are playing off of an established official HC card. Not that those can't be [censored] with but it's a big step towards legitimacy. If their card reads 83, 88, 85, 92, 82, and they come out and throw up a 74 I am gonna call BS. But at least you have a reference. I do not know the structure of their bet (stroke/match/wolf etc.) but I guarantee you for that kind of bank we are playing it by PGA rules. No improving your lie, mulligan, grounding your club, stroke+distance etc. A developing player will still struggle w/these and bunker shots, up/downhill lies, hardpan, etc. are huge assets to the scratch golfer in these situations of having to give up a lot of strokes. I would love to know the structure of the bets.

You can also adjust after so many holes in cases where an unknown or unestablished HC is at play, but this is stated before tee off.

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Do you think these guys have established handicaps? A golf handicap is nothing but a lie on paper for most people. 95% of the people who do have a handicap have a false one because about 5% of the golfing public actually know and follow the rules.

Professional gamblers more than anyone else are the last to have a handicap.

As far as PGA rules go ( actually it's USGA rules) again you will find less than 5% of the public actually know the rules and you can be damn sure that high stakes gamblers have their own rules. The rules are layed out clearly before you go out and i can guarantee you that they dont resemble the rules that casual golfers play by. The best high stakes golfers are very good at getting even a scratch golfer off of their game by reworking the rules. It is usually more than just giving strokes.

There is almost always a provison if someone completely sandbags and above all else you will never get any action if you pull this stunt just once. Everyone has a good round occasionally but for the numbers the OP put out there Ivey would have had to have Tiger step in and play his ball or the other players had inflated their handicaps and have made a moronic bet. Both of which I doubt especially given the dollar amounts going back and forth.

Just as an example a bet between gamblers may have one guy playing the ball as it lies , no matter where it lies ( no OB etc) while another player in the same group may get to tee it up in the fairway. Whatever it takes to get the proper action. It usually revolves around nullifying the players strength. ( Read the book "Who's your caddy" for some great examples) Do you really think that Doyle plays bunker shots while using his crutch? There are provisions made in order for both him and his competitors to feel like they are getting the best possible chance to make money. It's a gigantic bargaining session before they tee off.

All of that being said, if Phils competiton got smoked that bad they have no one to blame but themselves for not getting a little backround info. I think the whole story is highly suspect.

I watched Phil play a year ago and I don't see this happening unless the other golfers were complete idiots (which I dont beleive) Could he have improved that much in a year? Doubtful even though I know he has friends who are great golfers and coach him.(All of the coaching and money in the world wont hit the ball for you.) Three hours a day for three months is not that much practice in the grand scheme of things. If he followed it up with about 54-72 holes a week then maybe but that would be info that ANYONE playing against him could get by talking to people around town.

On top of all that there probably would have been a provision if he did exactly what was described and the bet would have been reworked after X amount of holes.