Second casino in battle with card-reading poker champ who won £7m: Multimillionaire gambler, 38, embroiled in ANOTHER legal fight after being accused of cheating

Phil Ivey's battle with Mayfair club Crockfords hits the High Court tomorrow

As it emerges he is locked in a similar dispute with a casino in Atlantic City

It payed him his earnings in 2012, but is now suing for their return



A gambler who is suing Britain’s oldest gaming club for withholding his £7.3million payout is facing a hefty demand himself – for the return of £5.9million he won at an American casino.



Poker star Phil Ivey’s extraordinary dispute with Mayfair club Crockfords – which accused him of ‘reading’ the cards during a game of punto banco two years ago – reaches the High Court tomorrow.



It has now emerged the 38-year-old multi-millionaire, dubbed the Tiger Woods of poker, is embroiled in an near-identical legal fight with Atlantic City casino Borgata. Unlike Crockfords, Borgata paid him his winnings in 2012, but is now suing for their return, arguing that he cheated. But Mr Ivey’s lawyers say ‘each and every penny’ was the ‘result of sheer skill’.

Controversy: Poker king Phil Ivey is suing Britain's oldest gaming club, Mayfair's Crockfords

Before that case is resolved, however, Mr Ivey is due to give evidence in the High Court in the biggest legal battle in casino history. California-born Ivey is said to be relishing the opportunity to explain to a judge why he deserves his winnings.



Both cases hinge on the use of what many gamblers argue is a legitimate technique called ‘edge sorting’. Mr Ivey says in his claim that it is commonly used by ‘advantage players’ – those who use legal ways to gain a mathematical advantage over a casino.

In London and Atlantic City he was accompanied by a Chinese associate, a poker player now understood to be Cheng Yin Sun, also known as Kelly. Like Mr Ivey, she denies cheating.



She helped Mr Ivey to exploit tiny flaws in the cards’ design – asymmetrical pattern differences on the back that are the result of mistakes during the manufacturing process.



Mr Ivey's disputes hinge on the use of what gamblers argue is a legitimate technique called 'edge sorting'

In his High Court claim, Mr Ivey’s lawyers say: ‘During the second session on August 20 [Mr Ivey] made various requests for decks of cards to be changed at the end of hands with which [Crockfords] chose to comply.



‘This continued until Kelly identified a deck, or decks of cards, where the pattern on the reverse side of the cards was asymmetrical (in that one “long” side was different from the opposite side).



‘Kelly would ask the dealer to reveal each card in turn by lifting the edge furthest from the dealer so Kelly could identify whether the card was a seven, eight or nine – the key cards in punto banco.

