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Long before Phil Ivey was regarded as one of the greatest poker players of all time, his mom knew he was gifted. Pamela Ivey realized this 25 years ago when her son won a $500 buy-in event at the First Annual Jack Binion World Poker Open in Mississippi for $53,297 — more than her yearly salary working in insurance.

The April 2000 event was 23-year-old Ivey’s second-ever Hendon Mob result and featured a final table that included 1983 WSOP Main Event runner-up Rod Peate and eventual 2021 WSOP Player of the Year Josh Arieh. He won his first WSOP bracelet just a month later and soon after became the poker icon he’s known as today.

“I didn’t think it was a good idea for him to play poker,” Pamela Ivey told PokerNews in an interview, “but when he won fifty-something thousand dollars, and at the time I think I was making close to 50, and I’m like, wow, he did that in one game? And it takes me the whole year? I thought, maybe it’s okay.”

Raising Poker Greatness

In his 2019 Masterclass, Phil revealed that he first learned poker from his grandfather, who cheated him in five-card Stud with hopes that young Ivey would lose interest in poker. But Pamela, who spoke to PokerNews during a Feb. 12 Charity Series of Poker (CSOP) event in Las Vegas, said her son got his poker talents from another family member.

We come from a driven family, basically."

“My dad didn’t really play, but he knew how to play,” she said. “My dad was a police commissioner, and he did a lot of (things). He owned his own business. He didn’t play poker. He didn’t gamble. My uncle was the gambler, my dad’s brother.”

“Probably it was, like, inherited (by) him. My uncle never told Phil about playing poker.”

Phil’s sister, Cheyanne, is successful in another realm. The University of Miami School of Law graduate operates the Las Vegas-based consulting firm Ivey Solutions, a new presenting sponsor of the CSOP.

Did the Ivey children get their competitive drive from Mom?

“Well, I am very driven and they just, I don’t know. I don’t know where they got it. We come from a driven family, basically. Whenever we want to do something, we just go at it 100%.”

Mom Plays Different Stakes

Phil regularly plays high-stakes poker tournaments around the world that cost six or seven figures to enter. Just as regularly, Pamela plays in a women’s group game in Las Vegas for a fraction of the cost.

“I’m very, very frugal. My kids call me cheap, but I’m just frugal.”

“But it’s only a $10 buy-in,” Pamela said. “We’re not high-stakes.”

To put the stakes in perspective, Pamela would have to win 100,000 buy-ins to put up the $1 million her son used to fire two bullets into December 2024’s WSOP Paradise Triton Million.

“I’m very, very frugal. My kids call me cheap, but I’m just frugal.”

In last week’s CSOP event, Pamela played alongside Joey Ingram, one of the few content creators who has interviewed the reclusive Ivey. But Pamela said poker fans shouldn’t let her son’s quiet and cold demeanor fool them.

“He’s very good to his mother,” she said.

So good to his mother that he gifted her a $1 million condo.

Connor Richards is an Editor & Live Reporter for PokerNews and host of the Life Outside Poker podcast. Connor has been nominated for two Global Poker Awards for his writing.

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