Ivey Poker’s poker pro members have been growing numbers since Phil Ivey decided to launch his own free-to-play social poker offering. Last month, it was announced that Ivey had enlisted a number of poker pros to be a part of Team Ivey, including Johnathan Jaffe, Aaron Jones and Christina Lindley. Earlier this week, Team Ivey announced the addition of a new pro it had just signed: Allen “Chainsaw” Kessler.
Though far from a household name, Kessler isn’t a neophyte in the poker scene. He’s accumulated an impressive $2.6 million in live career tournament earnings, including 180 live cashes, 70 final table finishes, 29 cashes at the World Series of Poker, 18 World Poker Tour cashes, and most importantly, 14 first place titles. His biggest claim to fame, though, was when he almost won his first WSOP bracelet in 2010, falling to eventual winner Frank Kassela in the $10,000 Seven-Card Stud Hi/Lo Championships. He may not have come home with the hardware then, but we’re pretty sure that the $276,485 he won was a pretty cool consolation prize.
Kessler joins a list of established poker pros that are now part of Team Ivey. In addition to him, Jaffe, A. Jones, and Lindley, members of Team Ivey also include Patrik Antonius, Jennifer Harman, James Dempsey, Matt Giannetti, Greg Merson, and Dan Shak. Incidentally, both Antonius and Shak made it to the Final Table of the 2013 Aussie Millions Main Event back in January. They didn’t the whole thing – Melvin Chan took down the whole thing – but Antonius and Shak did finish 3rd and 4th, respectively, with the former receiving AUD$600,000 and the latter getting AUD$400,000.
