Popular poker pro Daniel Negreanu stated Phil Ivey is the greatest poker player of all time. The Canadian player told NBC Sports Chicago and made it certain that Ivey is the most well-rounded grinder poker has ever witnessed.
There are more popular games than No-Limit Hold’em in the poker industry, and Negreanu stated that Ivey is a champ in all.
“So for me, it’s always going to be Phil Ivey until otherwise stated. When you say ‘poker’, I think of all poker games. I think of Stud, Omaha, Triple Draw, Short Deck, everything… and Phil Ivey plays them all.”
With so many poker games in the scene, it takes talent and skill to be successful and play them all.
Many poker games have very little instructions to understand them better; thus ensuring players work everything out by themselves, which can be very difficult for mere rollers.
With that in mind, there is no doubt that new players nowadays only specialize in one game. Many of them will pick a single type of game and master it.
Those who want to partake in different games can no longer compete at the highest level, especially in online poker where there are lots of specialized software to use.
“There are certainly going to be some players who play just No-Limit Hold’em, the most famous game, better than Phil Ivey right now because people have worked hard on it. But as far as I’m concerned, Phil Ivey is the GOAT,” Negreanu stated.
He also added: “I have competed against Phil as tournament reporter, and worked for him. In that time, he has always been a champion. There have been downturns, but in almost every instance, he has managed to bounce back.”
Ivey – often called “The Tiger Woods of Poker” – has had an astonishing poker career. To date, he has accumulated more than $23 million from live tournaments alone. He has won the World Poker Tour title and also 10 World Series of Poker gold bracelets. It is no surprise that people consider him to be the “Greatest Poker Player of all Time.” Ivey has also been tipped to overtake Phil Helmuth, who is the current holder of the WSOP bracelet. There are no doubts that recent years, however, have seen Ivey take his eye off poker as a result of the infamous edge-sorting scandal that resulted to legal action.
Negreanu also closed his remark on Ivey saying: “His legal troubles of the last few years impacted his poker, but he has remained relevant. He has also shown recent flashes of greatness again and I believe that is the start of big things for him now that he has moved past his legal battles. In my opinion, there are no players in the poker world that can top Phil in all-around ability and I don’t see that happening anytime soon. Should Ivey return to his previous form as I expect, we will probably never have a true debate on the GOAT in poker.”
