Quick answer: "No Home Jerome" is a nickname of Phil Ivey, whose real name is Phillip Dennis Ivey Jr. (born February 1, 1977, in Riverside, California). The nickname comes from a fake ID he got so he could play poker in Atlantic City, New Jersey, as a teenager, before he was old enough to play legally (WSOP profile; Wikipedia). Ivey went on to win 11 World Series of Poker bracelets, the most recent in 2024, and was elected to the Poker Hall of Fame in 2017. As of October 2026, The Hendon Mob lists his total live tournament earnings at over $56 million.
Facts checked Oct 24, 2026. See our short profile: Phil Ivey bio: real name and nicknames.
Phil Ivey at a glance
| | | |---|---| | Known as | Phil Ivey | | Real name | Phillip Dennis Ivey Jr. | | Nicknames | No Home Jerome, The Phenom, "the Tiger Woods of Poker" | | Born | February 1, 1977, Riverside, California | | Grew up | Roselle, New Jersey; graduated from Old Bridge High School | | WSOP bracelets | 11 (first in 2000, latest in 2024) | | WPT titles | 1 (2008 L.A. Poker Classic) | | Poker Hall of Fame | Elected 2017 | | Live tournament earnings | over $56 million (The Hendon Mob, as of Oct 2026) |
Sources: Wikipedia, The Hendon Mob, PokerNews.
Phil Ivey is a rare case on RealNameOf. Most of the people we cover are better known by a stage name, pen name or screen name than by the name on their birth certificate. Ivey is the opposite. He has always competed as Phil Ivey, the short form of his real name. But one of his nicknames started as a different name entirely: the name on a fake ID. That is the story of "No Home Jerome."
Why is Phil Ivey called "No Home Jerome"?
The short version: as a teenager, Ivey wanted to play poker in Atlantic City's casinos before he was legally old enough. New Jersey requires casino players to be 21. He got a fake ID to get in, and the nickname "No Home Jerome" grew out of that period. Ivey's official World Series of Poker profile and Wikipedia both tie the nickname to the fake ID he used to play in Atlantic City in his teens (WSOP profile; Wikipedia). The story also appears in the book Poker Tilt by Dutch Boyd and Laurence Samuels (2014), which Wikipedia cites for the same point.
You will see a few retellings online that add colorful details, such as the exact name printed on the card, how old he was, or which casino he played in. We could not confirm those details in a source we trust, so we've left them out. What the reliable sources agree on is simple:
- The nickname is "No Home Jerome."
- It comes from a fake ID.
- He used the ID to play poker in Atlantic City as a teenager.
That's also why searching for "No Home Jerome" on our site takes you to Phil Ivey. The nickname is an alias in the truest sense: for a while, it was literally the name he played under.
His other nicknames
Ivey has picked up several more nicknames over the years (Wikipedia):
- "The Phenom": a nod to how quickly he rose to the top of the game.
- "The Tiger Woods of Poker": a comparison that stuck in the 2000s, when Ivey was seen as the most dominant player of his era. A 2007 children's biography by Mitch Roycroft was even titled Phil "Tiger Woods of Poker" Ivey.
- "Boba Bet": a playful Star Wars pun that PokerNews used in a 2017 feature.
For more poker nickname stories, see our guide on how poker players got their nicknames.
Early life: from Riverside to New Jersey
Phillip Dennis Ivey Jr. was born on February 1, 1977, in Riverside, California. His family moved to Roselle, New Jersey, when he was three months old, and he later graduated from Old Bridge High School in Old Bridge Township, New Jersey (Wikipedia).
Ivey's first exposure to cards came at home. According to Wikipedia's account, he learned the game as a child by playing five-card stud with his grandfather. That grandfather, Leonard "Bud" Simmons, mattered to him enough that Ivey later named his charity, the Budding Ivey Foundation, in his honor (Wikipedia).
As a young man in the late 1990s, Ivey worked at a telemarketing firm in New Brunswick, New Jersey. He sharpened his poker skills there by playing against co-workers (GamblingSites.org via Wikipedia). With Atlantic City an easy drive away, the casino card rooms were the obvious next step. That's where the fake ID, and "No Home Jerome," come in.
It's worth being clear about what this part of the story is and isn't. Playing underage with a fake ID broke casino rules and New Jersey's age law. It's also a story that's been told openly for decades as part of Ivey's origin, including on his official WSOP profile. We report it as it appears in those sources and don't add to it.
The rise: a first bracelet at 23
Ivey's big breakthrough came at the 2000 World Series of Poker. He won the $2,500 Pot-Limit Omaha event for $195,000, his first bracelet, and beat poker legend Amarillo Slim heads-up to do it. According to Wikipedia, citing a contemporary report and James McManus's history Cowboys Full, Ivey was the first player to beat Amarillo Slim heads-up at a WSOP final table (Wikipedia).
He was 23. In a game where many players don't hit their peak until their 30s or 40s, that early success is where the "Phenom" label came from.
Two years later he proved it was no fluke. At the 2002 WSOP, Ivey won three bracelets in a single year:
- $2,500 7 Card Stud Hi/Lo ($118,440)
- $2,000 S.H.O.E. ($107,540)
- $1,500 7 Card Stud ($132,000)
That tied the record for most WSOP wins in one year, then shared by Phil Hellmuth, Ted Forrest and Puggy Pearson. Jeff Lisandro and George Danzer have since tied it too (Wikipedia; Gutshot Magazine).
The 2003 Main Event and the Moneymaker hand
Ivey's most famous loss also happened early. At the 2003 WSOP Main Event, the year an amateur named Chris Moneymaker kicked off the poker boom, Ivey finished 10th, one spot short of the final table. Moneymaker himself knocked him out, on a hand where Moneymaker made a bigger full house on the river and beat Ivey's full house (Wikipedia). As the TV poker boom took off, plenty of new fans got their first look at Ivey right there.
Ivey went deep in the Main Event several times: 23rd in 2002, 10th in 2003, 20th in 2005, and 7th in 2009. In 2009 he made the "November Nine" final table and won $1,404,002. His run ended when his A-K lost to Darvin Moon's A-Q after a queen came on the flop (Wikipedia).
Phil Ivey's WSOP bracelets: all 11
Phil Ivey has 11 World Series of Poker bracelets, the second-most of all time behind Phil Hellmuth (Wikipedia; PokerNews, checked Oct 24, 2026). His 11th came at the 2024 WSOP, in the $10,000 Limit 2-7 Lowball Triple Draw Championship, where he beat Danny Wong heads-up for $347,440.
| # | Year | Event | Prize | |---|---|---|---| | 1 | 2000 | $2,500 Pot-Limit Omaha | $195,000 | | 2 | 2002 | $2,500 7 Card Stud Hi/Lo | $118,440 | | 3 | 2002 | $2,000 S.H.O.E. | $107,540 | | 4 | 2002 | $1,500 7 Card Stud | $132,000 | | 5 | 2005 | $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha | $635,603 | | 6 | 2009 | $2,500 No-Limit 2-7 Draw Lowball | $96,367 | | 7 | 2009 | $2,500 Omaha Hi/Lo / 7 Card Stud Hi/Lo | $220,538 | | 8 | 2010 | $3,000 H.O.R.S.E. | $329,840 | | 9 | 2013 (WSOP Asia Pacific) | A$2,200 Mixed Event | A$51,840 | | 10 | 2014 | $1,500 Eight Game Mix | $166,986 | | 11 | 2024 | $10,000 Limit 2-7 Lowball Triple Draw Championship | $347,440 |
Source: Wikipedia: Phil Ivey, WSOP bracelets table (checked Oct 24, 2026).
A few records stand out in that list (Wikipedia):
- No hold'em bracelets. All 11 of Ivey's bracelets came in games other than Texas Hold'em, a record for non-hold'em wins. That's unusual for a star of the TV poker boom, when no-limit hold'em was everywhere. It shows how strong he is in mixed games: stud, Omaha, draw and lowball.
- Most mixed-game bracelets. He holds the WSOP record with five mixed-game bracelets (S.H.O.E., Omaha/Stud Hi-Lo, H.O.R.S.E., the WSOP APAC Mixed Event, and Eight Game Mix).
- Youngest to 10. At 38, he was the youngest player ever to win ten bracelets, beating Phil Hellmuth's mark of 42. It also took him just 14 years from his first bracelet to his tenth, faster than anyone else.
Beyond the WSOP: WPT, Aussie Millions and the Big Game
World Poker Tour
For years, Ivey was known for reaching World Poker Tour final tables without winning one. That ended in February 2008, when he won the $10,000 L.A. Poker Classic at the Commerce Casino for $1,596,100, beating a final table that included Phil Hellmuth and Nam Le. It broke a run of seven WPT final tables without a win (World Poker Tour; Card Player).
High rollers
Ivey kept winning as buy-ins grew. He took the 2005 Monte Carlo Millions for $1,000,000. In Melbourne he won the Aussie Millions A$250,000 Challenge three times: in 2012 for A$2,000,000 (beating Patrik Antonius heads-up), in 2014 for A$4,000,000, and in 2015 for A$2,205,000 (Wikipedia; PokerNews). The Hendon Mob lists his best live cash at $3,582,753, which is the 2014 A$4 million win converted to U.S. dollars (The Hendon Mob).
More recently, he has won several events on the Triton Super High Roller Series. Most were Short Deck events, from Montenegro in 2018 to London in 2023 (Wikipedia).
Television and cash games
Many fans know Ivey best from TV. He played in seasons three and six of GSN's High Stakes Poker (Card Player). On a January 2007 episode of NBC's Poker After Dark, he won the $120,000 winner-take-all "Earphones Please" week (Poker Central via Wikipedia).
Away from the cameras, Ivey has long been a regular in the high-stakes mixed "Big Game" at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. In February 2006 he played heads-up Limit Hold'em against Texas billionaire Andy Beal at stakes up to $50,000/$100,000. Ivey played for "The Corporation," a group of pros who pooled their money and took turns against Beal, and won more than $16 million over three days at the Wynn (Wikipedia).
The Full Tilt Poker era
Ivey's online career was closely tied to Full Tilt Poker. According to Wikipedia, he was part of the site's original design team, and he became one of its best-known pros (Wikipedia). Figures from HighStakesDB.com, as cited by Wikipedia, show him winning about $1.99 million on Full Tilt in 2007, $7.34 million in 2008, $6.33 million in 2009 and $3 million in 2010.
Full Tilt was one of the online poker sites shut down for U.S. players in April 2011, in the federal crackdown the poker world calls "Black Friday." In May 2011, Ivey sued Full Tilt in Clark County, Nevada, claiming the company had breached his contract. He sought damages of more than $150 million and asked to be released from his contract. He voluntarily withdrew the suit on June 30, 2011 (Wikipedia).
That's as far as the sources we checked go on Ivey's personal role, so we've kept this section to the documented facts: his ties to the site, his reported results there, and the lawsuit he filed and then dropped.
The Poker Hall of Fame, 2017
In 2017, Phil Ivey was elected to the Poker Hall of Fame, alongside the late British player David "Devilfish" Ulliott (PokerNews, July 21, 2017). He was 40.
By then he had ten bracelets, a WPT title, millions in high-roller wins and a reputation among his peers as the best all-around player of his generation. Wikipedia notes that many observers and fellow pros have described him that way, citing columns by Gary Wise at ESPN and Daniel Negreanu in USA Today (Wikipedia). He was also All In Magazine's Poker Player of the Year in 2005 and 2009.
Phil Ivey's earnings (Hendon Mob)
As of October 2026, The Hendon Mob Poker Database lists Phil Ivey's total live tournament earnings at over $56 million. That ranks him 11th on the all-time money list, 7th among U.S. players and 1st in New Jersey (The Hendon Mob; all-time money list). PokerNews shows the same figure from Hendon Mob data (PokerNews). Hendon Mob also notes that he once ranked 1st on the all-time list.
Two things to keep in mind:
- These are live tournament results only. They don't include cash games such as the Big Game or the Andy Beal match, or most online play. Hendon Mob separately lists about $1.1 million in tracked online earnings.
- They're gross, not net. Tournament earnings don't subtract buy-ins, backing deals or expenses, so they don't measure profit or net worth. Be skeptical of any "Phil Ivey net worth" number you see online. We haven't found one that's verified.
For comparison, the player just ahead of Ivey on the all-time list as of October 2026 is Alex Foxen (listed by Hendon Mob as William Alex Foxen). Foxen's wife, Kristen Foxen, holds the record for most WSOP bracelets won by a woman.
The edge-sorting cases
The most controversial chapter of Ivey's career happened at baccarat tables, not poker tables. In 2012, Ivey won large sums playing baccarat at two casinos: Crockfords in London and the Borgata in Atlantic City. Both wins were later challenged in court because of a technique called edge sorting.
What is edge sorting?
Some decks of playing cards have backs whose pattern is printed slightly off-center. That makes the long edge of some cards look a little different from the other edge. If certain high-value cards can be turned the "other way" from the rest of the deck, a sharp-eyed player can tell what those cards are before they're turned face up. The Borgata court described it as knowingly creating "a set of marked cards and then [using] those marked cards to place bets based on the markings" (D.N.J. opinion, Dec. 2016).
According to the court records, Ivey and his playing partner, Cheng Yin Sun, made specific requests of each casino. These included a certain brand of cards (Gemaco, a U.S. maker), a dealer who spoke Mandarin, and an automatic shuffler. They also asked dealers to rotate certain cards as they were turned over, which Sun asked for in Mandarin. Because the shuffler did not change which way the cards faced, the turned cards stayed turned in later shoes (Wikipedia: Ivey v Genting Casinos; D.N.J. opinion, Oct. 2016).
Ivey never hid how he played. At the London trial he openly admitted how he had won. His position was that he had used skill and observation, not cheating. The courts disagreed.
Crockfords (UK): Ivey v Genting Casinos [2017] UKSC 67
In August 2012, Ivey won about £7.7 million playing Punto Banco, a form of baccarat, at Crockfords, a London casino owned by Genting Casinos (UK) Ltd. Crockfords refused to pay the winnings and returned his £1 million stake. (Early press reports put the win at £7.3 million. The court records use £7.7 million.) Ivey sued to recover the money (Wikipedia: Ivey v Genting Casinos; Wikipedia).
The case went through three levels of the English courts:
- High Court, October 8, 2014: Mr Justice Mitting accepted that Ivey did not believe he was cheating. He still found that what Ivey did was cheating, so Ivey had breached his contract with the casino. Judgment went to Crockfords.
- Court of Appeal, November 3, 2016: Ivey's appeal was dismissed by a 2–1 majority. The court held that dishonesty is not a necessary element of "cheating."
- UK Supreme Court, October 25, 2017: In a unanimous five-justice judgment, Ivey v Genting Casinos (UK) Ltd t/a Crockfords [2017] UKSC 67, the Supreme Court ruled for the casino. It held that Ivey's actions were cheating, and that if a finding on dishonesty had been needed, his "conduct was dishonest" (UK Supreme Court judgment; Wikipedia).
The case became famous far beyond poker. The Supreme Court used it to rewrite the English legal test for dishonesty. It dropped the second, subjective part of the old R v Ghosh test, which asked whether the defendant himself realized ordinary people would see his conduct as dishonest. Law students in England now study "the Ivey test," named after a poker player (Wikipedia: Ivey v Genting Casinos).
Borgata (US): Marina District Development Co. v. Ivey
In April 2014, the company that runs the Borgata, Marina District Development Co., sued Ivey and Sun in federal court in New Jersey. The suit covered his baccarat winnings from four visits in 2012. The Borgata also sued Gemaco, the card maker (Wikipedia).
The U.S. rulings, per the court records:
- October 21, 2016: U.S. District Judge Noel L. Hillman found that Ivey and Sun breached their contract with the Borgata. Under that contract they had agreed to follow New Jersey's Casino Control Act, and the court found they broke it by knowingly creating and using marked cards. The same ruling gave Ivey and Sun summary judgment on the Borgata's fraud and RICO claims, meaning the court threw those claims out. The judge wrote that "fraud is not so easy to prove" (D.N.J. opinion, Oct. 21, 2016).
- December 15, 2016: Judge Hillman ordered the parties returned to where they stood before they played. That meant Ivey and Sun owed the Borgata $10,130,000: the baccarat winnings plus $504,000 Ivey won at craps using baccarat winnings. The court denied the Borgata's request to also recover the value of comps (D.N.J. opinion, Dec. 2016; Courthouse News Service).
- January 2019: A federal judge let the Borgata go after Ivey's assets in Nevada to collect the judgment (Wikipedia).
- June 27, 2019: The U.S. Marshals Service served a writ of execution on the World Series of Poker and seized Ivey's 2019 WSOP winnings to put toward the debt (Wikipedia).
- 2019–2020: Ivey appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. After oral argument on September 17, 2019, the court sent the parties to its mediation program. On July 10, 2020, Card Player reported that Ivey and the Borgata had agreed to a settlement. The terms were not made public (Wikipedia).
In plain terms: courts in both countries ruled against Ivey on the contract question. The UK Supreme Court called it cheating. A U.S. federal court found a breach of contract under New Jersey's casino law but rejected the fraud claims. The U.S. case ended in a private settlement.
Legacy: what "No Home Jerome" became
Look past the nickname and the court cases, and Ivey's career has a few clear themes.
Range. He has 11 bracelets and not one in hold'em. In poker's modern era, no-limit hold'em gets most of the attention and the TV time, yet Ivey built his record on stud, Omaha, draw, lowball and mixed games. Peers and commentators often call him the best all-around player of his generation for that reason.
Longevity. His first bracelet came in 2000 and his 11th in 2024. That's a 24-year span of winning at the top level, through the boom, Black Friday, the high-roller era and the rise of solver-trained players.
Controversy. The edge-sorting cases are part of his record too, and they changed English law along the way. Ivey v Genting is now a leading case on dishonesty.
Ambassador. Ivey is an ambassador for WPT Global, the World Poker Tour's online poker brand (PokerStrategy.com). Over the years he has also founded the Budding Ivey Foundation, a free-to-play poker app called Ivey Poker (2012), and a training site called Ivey League (2014) (Wikipedia).
And "No Home Jerome"? The kid with the fake ID in Atlantic City is now the man at the top of New Jersey's all-time money list, per The Hendon Mob. That's quite an arc for a nickname that started on a fake card.
FAQ
Why is Phil Ivey called "No Home Jerome"?
The nickname comes from a fake ID Ivey used to play poker in Atlantic City as a teenager, before he was legally old enough to gamble. His WSOP profile and Wikipedia both give this origin.
What is Phil Ivey's real name?
Phillip Dennis Ivey Jr. He competes as Phil Ivey. See our Phil Ivey bio.
What are Phil Ivey's nicknames?
"No Home Jerome," "The Phenom," and "the Tiger Woods of Poker." PokerNews has also jokingly called him "Boba Bet."
How many WSOP bracelets does Phil Ivey have?
Eleven, as of October 2026. His first came in 2000 (Pot-Limit Omaha) and his most recent at the 2024 WSOP ($10,000 Limit 2-7 Lowball Triple Draw Championship). Only Phil Hellmuth has more.
Does Phil Ivey have a WSOP bracelet in Texas Hold'em?
No. All 11 of his bracelets came in non-hold'em games, a WSOP record.
When was Phil Ivey inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame?
2017, alongside David "Devilfish" Ulliott.
How much has Phil Ivey won in poker tournaments?
The Hendon Mob lists over $56 million (Hendon Mob, Oct 2026) in live tournament earnings as of October 2026, 11th all-time. That figure doesn't include cash games and doesn't subtract buy-ins.
Did Phil Ivey cheat at Crockfords?
The UK Supreme Court ruled unanimously on October 25, 2017, in Ivey v Genting Casinos [2017] UKSC 67, that his edge-sorting play counted as cheating under his contract with the casino, so Crockfords did not have to pay his roughly £7.7 million win. Ivey has denied wrongdoing and said he used a legitimate advantage. He was not criminally charged.
What happened in the Borgata case?
A federal judge in New Jersey found in October 2016 that Ivey and Cheng Yin Sun breached their contract with the Borgata, but rejected the casino's fraud claims. In December 2016 the court ordered them to return $10.13 million. After the Third Circuit sent the appeal to mediation, the two sides settled in 2020.
Where is Phil Ivey from?
He was born in Riverside, California, grew up in Roselle, New Jersey, and graduated from Old Bridge High School in New Jersey.