Phil Ivey, one of the most famous poker players in the world, won around £7.7 million, then roughly $11.5 million, playing punto banco baccarat at Crockfords, an exclusive casino club in London's Mayfair, in August 2012. Weeks later he still had not been paid, because the casino had launched an investigation.
What happened
According to reports at the time, Ivey played for many hours over two days. He lost heavily at first, then won his money back and went on to win the huge sum. Crockfords initially indicated it would transfer the winnings to his bank account, but the payment never arrived. Instead, the casino hired investigators to review its video footage and determine whether he had won fairly.
The decision drew criticism from many in the poker world, who pointed out that Ivey's reputation for skill and integrity at the poker table was second to none. Reports suggested the casino's suspicions focused partly on a companion who had played with him. Some commentators argued that withholding a high roller's winnings would damage the casino's own reputation, because players stop playing where they fear they will not be paid.
Edge sorting explained
Punto banco is a game of pure chance with a small house edge, so how could anyone gain an advantage? The answer that emerged was edge sorting. Some decks of cards are printed with a pattern on the back that is not perfectly symmetrical, so a card rotated 180 degrees looks very slightly different from one that is not. Ivey's companion asked the dealer to turn certain high-value cards, which they described as superstitious requests. Once those cards were rotated, the players could recognise them from the back as they came out of the shoe, which turned the house's edge into a player's edge.
What the courts decided
Update (October 2026): Ivey sued for his winnings. In 2014 the High Court in London ruled for the casino, and in 2017 the UK Supreme Court unanimously agreed in Ivey v Genting Casinos, holding that edge sorting amounted to cheating even though Ivey sincerely believed it was legitimate advantage play. The judgment also changed the legal test for dishonesty in English law. In a separate case in the US, a court found that Ivey's edge-sorting wins at the Borgata in Atlantic City breached his contract with the casino, and the dispute was later settled. Ivey remains a celebrated poker player.
The lesson for students
The Ivey case is a brilliant real-life lesson in probability and in where the line sits between skill and cheating. Casino games are designed so the house keeps a small mathematical edge on every bet. Players can legally reduce or even reverse that edge in a few games, most famously by counting cards at blackjack, but using information the casino did not intend players to have can land on the wrong side of the law. We look at the most famous legal example, the MIT blackjack team, in card counting as applied statistics, and at the maths every casino relies on in house edge explained.