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Posted: Oct. 27, 2017 - 3:48 AM ET #30

London, England, Wednesday, 25 October 2017

American poker star Phil Ivey lost to Britain's Supreme Court
— a major case Wednesday that keeps him from cashing in.

The British Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling that
Ivey used illegitimate means to amass 7.7 million pounds
($10.2 million) in winnings during a brief stint at the
Baccarat Table 5 years back in 2012.

He and a colleague were found to have used a technique
known as "edge sorting" to gain an unfair advantage
while gambling at the Crockfords Casino in London's posh
Mayfair district.

They did not actually touch the cards being dealt, but did
convince the croupier to arrange the cards in a certain way
that allowed them to determine, in too many cases, just
which cards were going to be dealt, allowing Ivey and his
boyfriend to up their bets accordingly.

Crockfords Casino cried foul, and immediately refused to
pay Ivey his huge winnings, leading Ivey to pursue a
claim in Britain's law courts of justice.

Supreme Court Judge Anthony Hughes said that the very
integrity of Punto Banco Baccarat depends on the cards
being dealt at random — without gamblers knowing their
face value in advance of their draw of the cards.

"What Mr. Ivey did was to stage a carefully planned and
ingenious and deviously executed sting," the judge said,
adding, "Ivey took positive steps to fix the deck" by
tricking the croupier. He said that "is inevitably cheating."

Ivey, long recognized as a Top-5 player in international
poker, said his winnings were honestly obtained: "At the
time I played at Crockfords Casiono, I did believe that
"edge-sorting" was legitimate Advantage Play Technique
and I believe that more passionately than ever today,"
he said after the highest court's ruling.

He said he pursued the case to Britain's highest court
out of a sense of Honor.

"As a professional gambler, my integrity is everything
to me," said Ivey, who has won a number of
World Series of Poker competitions.

The president of Genting Casinos UK, which operates
Crockfords, said the ruling "vindicates" the company's
decision to stiff Ivey & his boyfriend out of his quickly
struck, humongous baccarat winnings.

"We're delighted that the High Court, the Court Of Appeal
and now our very own Supreme Court have all found in Genting's favor, confirming that we acted fairly & properly
at all times and that Mr. Ivey's conduct did indeed
amount to sophisticated American-style cheating," he said.

Posted: Feb. 5, 2018 - 1:17 PM ET #40

Pats won a SB in 2002 & then skipped a year
and won the SB in 2004,
and then beat Philly in 2005's SB
for back-to-back SB's ( & 3 SB's in 4 yrs.)
and looking to repeat the pattern:
2015's SB, skip a yr., return to win 2017 SB,
and then beat Philly in 2018's SB
for back-to-back SB's (& 3 SB's in 4 years)

Pats tried the exact same play they tried
against the Eagles when they last played
against each other in 2015: Pats had a
3rd Down & short yardage to gain:
Direct snap to Wideout J. White, & a pass
to Brady for a 36 yard reception.
And 2o18's was again 3rd & short vs.
the Eagles, w/ a Wideout, D. Amendola,
passing to Tom Brady — ...but
BRADY DROPPED THE BALL.

...thereby making Brady 5-3 in Super Bowls
with all 3 losses inflicted by the NFC East.

(Incidentally, Brady's counterpart, Nick Foles,
caught the pass thrown him for a touchdown,
thereby becoming the only player to have
both thrown and caught a TD-Pass !!)

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