People

On February 1, 1977, Phillip Dennis Ivey Junior was born in Riverside, California. He has won 10 World Series of Poker (W.S.O.P.) bracelets and one World Poker Tour (WPT).

As one of the world’s best poker players, he has reached the finals of nine World Poker Tour tables. He is often referred to as the “Tiger Woods” of Poker by his fellow players.

Phil Ivey won over $26 million in tournament winnings during 2018. The W.S.O.P provided a total of $6.66 million.

The World Series of Poker

Ivey beat fellow American Professional gambler Amarillo Slim for his first W.S.O.P. bracelet when he was 23 years old.

In 2002, Ivey played Split Poker, Limit Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo, Limit Seven Card Stud, and Limit Seven Card Stud. He also came 23rd in the W.S.O.P. main event.

As of 2009, Ivey had already won 8 bracelets, and in the 2010 World Series of Poker Tournament, he received the most votes for Tournament of Champions. Phil Ivey won ten World Series of Poker bracelets in only 14 years, making him the youngest player ever to win so many bracelets so quickly.

What is he doing now?

In the past, Ivey faced several lawsuits, including one from Borgata Casino, which claimed he cheated with a technique called Edge Sorting. On June 27, 2019, the U.S. Marshals served a writ of execution on Phil Ivey at the 2019 W.S.O.P. Tournament and seized his winnings to pay the Borgata.

A messy divorce followed, as well as lawsuits with Full Tilt Poker for breach of contract.

He took quite a few years off from playing Poker Professionally as he felt he had lost his passion for Poker. However, he announced his return in November 2020 and is back to playing Poker Professionally.

Thomas Glenn Carmichael was born on May 7, 1950, in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

A casino group led by Carmichael cheated millions of dollars from casinos worldwide with their slot machine cheating.

In the Early Years

Carmichael was working at a television repair shop called Ace TV and Sales in 1980 when a friend of his named Ray Ming approached him.

He showed him a slot machine cheating tool called a top-bottom joint. The device was a simple metal and string piece that went into a corner of the machine adjacent to the circuit board and sent a low-wattage electric current to hotwire the hopper where coins are kept.

Having heard about this device, Carmichael moved to Las Vegas immediately to test it out.

The Strip

It was first tested out on a five-cent machine at a Las Vegas casino, and he won $35 worth of nickels. Additionally, he used the tool to win significant amounts of money on many other slot machines.

However, the casinos became suspicious, and when he was eating lunch at Denny’s, police officers broke in to search his car and found the cheating tool. Despite being sentenced to five years in jail, he only served two years.

The invention of more cheating devices

He invented even more sophisticated cheating devices and cheated casinos out of thousands of dollars on his release from jail.

One of his devices was the ‘slider’, or ‘monkey paw,’ which could be inserted into the payout chute of a slot machine and tripped the microswitch to release coins illegally.

In addition to the ‘light wand,’ he invented the ‘blinding light’ that blinded payout sensors, causing coin releases. He was caught again by the casinos, and he was sentenced to more jail time.

Where is he now?

As soon as Carmichael was released, he spent his time developing an anti-cheating device called “The Protector” that he hoped would pardon him for his past mistakes. On February 1 2019, he died in Oklahoma.

 

 

Michael David Mizrachi is a US professional poker player who started playing at 13 and is better known as “The Grinder”. This nickname signifies his determination and fiercely competitive spirit when sitting at a poker table and the fact that he keeps grinding out results. He has won the 2010, 2012 and 2018 WSOP and two World Poker Tour Titles.

Personal Life

Mizrachi was born in Miami, Florida, on the 5^th January 1981 and has a fraternal twin named Eric, a poker player, and an older brother, Robert Mizrachi, who has numerous WSOP and World Poker Tour finishes. Mizrachi is fluent in Hebrew, and growing up, he wanted to become a doctor but instead left college to play poker full time.

Poker Career

In 2005 Michael made a name for himself in the WSOP, with seven money finishes in a single year, going on to winning the Card Player of the Year Award in 2006. Michael then finished third in the 2008 World Series of Poker playing the $10000 Pot-Limit Omaha World Championship and won his first bracelet Poker Players Championship, defeating Vladimir Schemelev.

His brother Robert finished 5^th in the same event. Even though Mizrachi’s performance was strong at the 2010 WSOP Frank Kassela received the Player of the Year Award. In 2011 Mizrachi just missed winning his second bracelet when he took second place; however, at the 2011 WSOP he defeated Shawn Buchanan in a heads up play and won his second bracelet. He continued grinding out results, and in 2019 Mizrachi won his fifth bracelet in event #27, beating a field of 460 players for $142 801.

As of January 2020, Michael Mizrachi’s live Tournament winnings exceed $17 million, with his 64 WSOP cashes making up for $9,169 857 of those earnings. It seems there is no stopping “The Grinder.”

Doyle Brunson was born on August 10 1933, in Longworth, Fisher County, Texas, USA. He is a well-known poker player that was known as Texas Dolly. His poker career lasted for 50 years until he decided to retire.

He won the well-known World Series of Poker ( WSOP ) twice and was also the first poker player to win $1 million in a poker tournament. He is also a well-known poker writer with many books to his name. Furthermore, he is also an inductee in the Poker Hall of Fame.

How his Poker Career Started

When Doyle Brunson was young, he loved playing basketball, and his main goal was to play in the NBA. However, this dashed all hopes of pursuing his promising NBA career when he sustained a knee injury.

He then went on to study and got himself a Bachelors and master’s degree in administrative education.

In between his studies, he also learned how to play 5 card draw poker, became quite good at it, and beat many fellow students at the game.

After completing his studies, he got a job as a Salesman, and during his first day with his workmates, he played a game of seven-card stud poker. He won over one months salary in this game, which got him even more interested in playing poker professionally. This is exactly what he did when he left the Company within a few months of commencing his employment.

Doyle Brunson Playing Poker

Brunson and his friend Dwayne Hamilton initially played poker in Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana at illegal poker houses run by organized crime syndicates.

They eventually parted ways, and Brunson moved to Las Vegas, where he won 10 World Series of Poker bracelets during his poker days.

Retired

Doyle Brunson eventually retired in June 2018 to spend more time with his wife, who was sick.

The 7th best gambler in the world is Dominic LoRiggio, a professional craps player. His nickname is ‘The Dominator’ or ‘The Golden Arm Man’.

He uses “Dice Control”, which means that you can win if you release the dice in a certain way. This method of gaining an advantage in the game is similar to counting cards in the game of Blackjack.

Early Childhood

Almost nothing is known about LoRiggio’s early years, except that he was born in the 1960s in the United States, where he completed his studies. After his studies, he initially worked as an Office Clerk. Eventually, he became intrigued with the game of Craps, which he taught himself while he was studying.

Dice rolling techniques

According to LoRiggio, he was able to drop out many combinations by using various dice throwing techniques. Changing hand movements and throwing movements to alter odds in his favour allowed him to get the desired result he sought. Further to this, he also used controlled shooting, which he also taught to friend Frank Skoblete.

In Vegas, playing Craps

Skoblete and LoRiggio played craps at casinos in Las Vegas until the casinos banned them from their premises.

Despite this, they did manage to amass some large sums of money before the ban.

What is Dominic LoRiggio doing now?

Currently, LoRiggio has a website called goldentouchcraps.com, where he promotes his Golden Touch Craps DVD. He also writes for gaming magazines, conducts training seminars, and gives private lessons to people searching for Dice-Control.

The Dice Dominator was the subject of an episode of Breaking Vegas on The History Channel in which his life story was told.

Recently, LoRiggio demonstrated how to control dice rolling on National Geographic. He also significantly impacted casino craps gambling with his Golden TouchTM CrapsTM dice control and Golden TouchTM Blackjack classes and seminars, which he teaches across the country.