Quote:
Originally Posted by TCG1009
He states he thinks he can get 30 by the time he's done. That's insane. 30 freakin' bracelets. I mean, with the rate he's going at that doesn't seem too far out of reach, but wow the guy has high hopes, that's for sure. If he can reach 30 he'll go down as the best to ever play the game (he may have already gotten this status), and I have a hard time imagining somebody else coming close to his results.
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Thirty would be a helluva feat. Ivey won seven bracelets during his first decade at the WSOP (2000-2009) at the age of 24. Assuming he continues at the same pace (seven per 10 years), he will be 67 when he reaches No. 30.
Some considerations:
1.
Ivey has been relatively immune to exploding field sizes in the post-Moneymaker era. All eight of his bracelets have been in smaller although tougher fields. (Helping his cause is that he plays all of the games well.)
2. Somewhat hand-in-hand with field size is field strength.
Of the guys who seemed to score bracelets on an annual basis in the early 2000s, Ivey is the only one who has continued bringing them in during the latter half of the decade.
Compare his bracelet count to contemporaries Ferguson, Juanda, Negreanu, Flack and Cunningham. That fivesome took down 19 bracelets from 2000-2005, but five in the five years since.
2010 $3,000 H.O.R.S.E. - 478 entries
2009 $2,500 Omaha8/Stud8 - 376
2009 $2,500 Kansas City Lowball - 147
2005 $5,000 PLO - 134
2002 $2,000 S.H.O.E. - 143
2002 $2,500 Stud Hi/Lo - 126
2002 $1,500 Stud Hi - 253
2000 $2,500 PLO - 100
He also manages to get close: in addition to the three bracelets, Ivey has seven final tables from 2006-10. Cunningham has made one final table since winning the $5K PLO event in 2007. Flack has had a 1st, 7th and 8th in the past five years. Even in Ivey's "off years" of 2006 and 2007, his pedestrian total of five cashes included two seconds, a third and a fourth.
3.
Ivey now has more chances in any given year to win a bracelet. There were 25 events in 2000 and 36 when Moneymaker cracked his nines full in 2003. It wasn't until 2007 that the WSOP went to 50-plus events plus the handful of tournaments across the pond.
Anyway, 30 is a tall order. But you'd think by now, people would be wise enough not to bet against him.
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