Field guide

Phil Ivey Edge Sorting Cases (2012-2021)

How it works

High-stakes professional gambler Phil Ivey’s use of edge sorting to win $9.6 million at Borgata and £7.7 million at Crockfords, resulting in landmark legal decisions defining “cheating” in gambling. How It Was Executed: Ivey and accomplice Kelly Sun requested specific conditions: Mandarin-speaking dealers, a guest at the table, automatic shufflers, and Gemaco purple cards. They convinced dealers to rotate cards 180 degrees for “luck.” This sorted the deck into high and low values based on edge asymmetries.

This entry documents the method only. Detection and prevention guidance for this technique is covered under related methods in Historical Famous Cases.

Published as a detection reference for surveillance, compliance and gaming-operations professionals. Thresholds and tuning are set by the property. Nothing here is instruction — the method is described so it can be recognised.