News / Matthew Pitt / 04 August 2009 / Leave a comment

Everyone knows poker players love to make proposition bets or prop bets are they are more commonly known. Players will bet on anything from who will last longer in a specific tournament to who can eat the most beef jerky in five minutes. One man who is always involved in prop bets is November Nine finalist, Phil Ivey.

Ivey, who until this year's World Series of Poker had not won a bracelet since he took down the $5,000 Pot-limit Omaha Event back in 2005, is rumoured to booked action of around $10,000,000 on him winning the Main Even when it restarts on November 9.

It was well documented that when Ivey won the $2,500 Deuce-to-seven Lowball event worth $96,367 he actually took home closer to $2,700,000 due to bets with Eli Elezra and Daniel Negreanu and others, though figures of up to $12,000,000 were initially reported on various forums.

However, his prop bet for winning the Main Event could even dwarf the $8,500,000 first prize! He initially made a bet with Andy Bloch, when there were still 2,400 players remaining, that he would win the Main Event. Obvioulsy, the chances of this were very slim so he offered odds of 99-1, which Andy Bloch bet $20,000 on, meaning if Ivey win the Big Dnace, he will owe close to $2,000,000!

Add to this the fact Tom Dwan ($1,000,000), Daniel Negreanu ($200,000), Mike Matusow ($100,000), Phil Gordon ($100,000) and David Oppenheim ($100,000) amongst others are in on the action then the money really starts to add up.

Howard Lederer could be forced to payout $5,000,000 to Ivey if he wins the Main Event thanks to a bet made during this World Series. Lederer bet Ivey the huge sum of money that he could not win two bracelets within three years. He made this bet after Ivey won his first bracelet for four years but since then Ivey won another bracelet in the $2,500 Omaha Hi/low Stud Hi/low Mixed Event meaning a win would make it two bracelets in less than six months, never mind three years.

The exact amounts wagered have not entirely been verified, with some betters preferring to stay anonymous but one thing that is for certain is that there will not be many big name professionals cheering on Phil Ivey when the Main Event restarts on November Nine!