Despite being massively short stacked against the tournament's chip leader, poker pro Phil Ivey has moved into outright favoritism to win the WSOP with some bookies.
A press release from Gibraltar based online bookmaker Party Bets, has revealed that Ivey has drifted in to 7/2, while ship leader Darvin Moon has moved out to 4/1. This is despite Moon holding a massive chip lead, equal to around a third of all chips in play between the final 9. Ivey, by comparison is short stacked with only 5% of chips in play, or in 7th place.
It's a big vote of confidence from punters in the ability of Ivey to outplay 6 other players who all take more chips to the final table than him. PartyPoker's Mike Sexton said of Ivey's move to favoritism that,
'Phil Ivey is the most well known pro to the public and this has to be a sentimental bet for action on the tournament. It is hard to imagine, more astonishing, that a player can be favourite with just 5% of the chips in play. I regard Ivey as the best player in the world and it would be nice to see him win but as everyone knows chips are power.'
There will be plenty of punters glued to their television screens hoping Ivey can make some big plays early so that he has a chance to mix it with the leaders before he gets swamped by the blinds.
Also sweating on the result will be bookmakers who are always loath to see a big name take out the tournament. Money for Ivey, and many of the other big names of the game has come thick and fast since odds of 175/1 were posted at the tournament's start.
While 175/1 may seem long, in a field of almost 7,000 starters it is actually short. His odds have understandably plummeted as he has progressed to where they stand now at 7/2 favorite - but average odds booked for Ivey will much longer than this!
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