Phil Ivey has fallen out of love with teaching people how to be winning poker players after announcing plans to close his training site The Ivey League on May 1.
Phil Ivey versus Phil Galfond…now that’s a poker game I wouldn’t want to call. But when it comes to running an online training site, my money is on Galfond all day long.
Online poker training site, The Ivey League, formed by Mr Ivey himself, is shutting up shop on May 1st with the team behind the project citing the current state of online poker as the main crux of the problem.
I’m not so sure.
Phil Galfond recently stated that he hadn’t made any money from the online poker training site RunItOnce, but that’s because Galfond had reinvested profits within the brand and its many projects. There is money to be made if you do it right – online poker in America or no online poker in America.
It all began in 2012 when Ivey made most poker players cream in their pants when he launched the free to play poker game IveyPoker with a plan to transition into a real money project once the time was right.
Speaking at the time of the launch, Ivey told his fans that IveyPoker would be the only place where you can play with the best players in the world who will teach you how to become a better poker player and winning poker player.
And he was true to his word.
Ivey and his team of ambassadors hit the toilets outside poker rooms and started to slap Ivey Poker badges, baseball caps, and hoodies on every pro who stepped out of the khazi. It was a stampede that reminded you of the days of Full Tilt Poker and the avalanche of Red Pros that would invade our cash game tables on a daily basis.
In February 2013, IveyPoker acquired the online poker training site LeggoPoker and in 2014 LeggoPoker was dismantled to make way for the launch of The Ivey League.
At the time of the launch of Ivey’s new training site, there was a lot of hysteria. Ivey is a man you want to work with, and he quickly assembled a team of coaches of top quality status including his old friend and sparring partner Patrik Antonius.
I always believed the success or failure of the site would lie with the presence of Ivey. The man is a huge brand in poker and right up there with the likes of the World Series of Poker (WSOP), PokerStars and the World Poker Tour (WPT).
In the ensuing three years, Ivey created 31 videos and not all of them were educational, and it’s not enough to keep people interested. To me, it showed that his focus was elsewhere. Compare that to the hard graft put in by Galfond, who created four videos in March despite trying to launch RunItOnce Poker and there is no comparison.
I guess the reaction to the closure says it all.
We would like to thank everyone who was a part of Ivey League and wish everyone the best with their poker journey’s going forward.
— Ivey League (@IveyLeague) April 13, 2017
The only person to respond was ShareMyPair owner, Steve Miller, encouraging former Ivey League students to emigrate to his brand. Other than that there was nothing but tumbleweed.
