Phil Ivey in Legal Dispute with British Casino over Nearly $12 Million

Phil Ivey is suing Crockfords' casino in Mayfair, London, after the casino has refused to pay the poker legend the nearly $12 million he won there over three nights last August. 

The Daily Mail's Ian Gallagher reports of the suit which is over the withheld winnings totaling £7.8 million that the poker legend won while playing punto banco, a baccarat game.

Crockfords is Britain's oldest casino, and you don't last that long by just randomly withholding winnings. The casino has its reasons. As Gallagher reports, Crockfords believes Ivey had an unfair advantage.

Ivey allegedly didn't need a run of good luck to accumulate this massive total of winnings; the cards were giving away all the answers. As Gallagher notes, the belief is that the cards being used had tiny flaws that allowed Ivey to identify them simply by looking at the back.

The cards, according to Gallagher, went through some kind of mistake in the cutting process and the manufacturing plant. This created a flaw that would be unnoticeable to most as it meant that the "geometric pattern was not symmetrical."   

Well, Ivey is certainly not most people, and he did not execute this alleged fleecing by himself. 

The 36-year-old was accompanied by a female companion, and they were the only two going against the croupier when the winnings were accumulated. 

Obviously, Ivey does not feel he is in the wrong here and is taking the casino to court. As a result, the world's most famous poker player is now suing Britain's oldest casino over millions of dollars.

Regardless of the outcome, this is certainly going to be an interesting story.