Is the greatest of all time no longer able to beat the nosebleed online games?

Phil Ivey

I made a pretty controversial prediction at the start of this year that Phil Ivey would be the biggest losing online player of 2015. In poker terms this almost seems like betting that Real Madrid will get relegated, however two months in and my bet is looking good.

He is the biggest loser of last month and 2015 so far, with nearly $1.3 million in losses at the time of writing. More significantly he is the second biggest online loser post-Black Friday with over $6 million in losses since 2012.

He remains the biggest all-time winner since records began, back when he was with Team Full Tilt. However, that record is slipping every day. The only reason his losses have not commanded more attention is because Gus Hansen has always had the limelight for that dubious honour. Now that Gus potentially has given up the online game, Ivey is the biggest loser right now.

Specialists vs jack-of-all-trades

Gus Hansen

So is Phil Ivey suddenly terrible, despite being considered by almost everyone to be the best player in the world? Of course not. The problem is the same one that Hansen faced - game selection. The standard in the nosebleed games is just so incredibly high.

Of course both Hansen and Ivey have poker talents that can be transferred from live to online. However, they both are clearly much better live players and their poker instincts alone are not enough to beat these games. The players they are competing with have simply worked so much harder at getting good at online poker specifically. They are specialists when you could argue Ivey is more a jack-of-all-trades.

The intimidation factor

The Phil Ivey staredown doesn't work online

Just like Tiger Woods, the superstar he often gets compared with, Phil Ivey has probably lost some of the fear he struck into his opponents. In live tournaments players crumble when they share a table with Ivey, his reputation is so strong. However, the nosebleed regulars are so solid that the same mind tricks wont work against them.

In fact, if anything his reputation could be used against him. I’ve spoken to people who have played with Ivey, including our very own Pleno1, and there seems to be a consensus that they have an informational advantage over him, even if he enjoys the overall edge. This is because everyone knows who Phil Ivey is and how he plays, but Phil himself doesn’t have anywhere near as much information on his opponents.

Phil Ivey is still very much in my opinion the best all around player in the world. However, his biggest skill advantage comes face-to-face when his technical ability, his nonverbal reading ability and his intimidation factor come into play. I can't help but think that the high stakes online game has become too specialised for him.

Have the online game got too tough for Phil? Is he still the best all around player in the world? Let us know in the comments.

2015 TOP WINNER Ilari Sahamies Profit: $1,054,154 'JayP-AA' $767,577 'Crazy Elior' $342,571 2015 TOP LOSERS Phil Ivey

Loss: $1,288,207 'Sanlker' $410,546 Viktor Blom $365,358

Barry Carter Barry Carter is the editor of PokerStrategy.com and the co-author of The Mental Game of Poker 1 & 2. Twitter

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