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Phil Ivey is simply on fire

As Marv Albert would say, Phil Ivey is absolutely "on fire" at the World Series of Poker.

The man considered by many to be the game's best player won his second gold bracelet of the year in Event 25, the $2,500 Omaha High-Low / Seven-Card Stud High-Low split tournament.

Ivey now has seven WSOP titles and, according to him, is "one closer to Erik (Seidel)."

Phil Ivey scooped up his seventh bracelet with his win at the $2,500 Omaha High-Low / Seven-Card Stud High-Low split event.

He joins Billy Baxter in sixth place on the all-time wins list. The five players ahead of him are Phil Hellmuth (11), Doyle Brunson (10), Johnny Moss (10), Johnny Chan (10) and Seidel (8).

Brock Partner is the only player besides Ivey to win multiple gold bracelets this year.

Ivey has put more of an emphasis on the WSOP this year after coming home empty-handed last year.

"Well, before last year I pretty (much) skipped a couple of years at the World Series," he said. "I didn't play in as many tournaments as I used to because I figured, it's doesn't really make much difference, you know.

"But then, as I started getting older I started to realize this does matter. Winning bracelets, it does matter. Just having the chance to put myself in poker history and I know I have the chance to win and be the all-time bracelet leader if I can continue at this pace."

Ivey also won a bracelet in the $2,500 Deuce-to-Seven No-Limit Lowball event two weeks ago.

Ivey outlasted a field of 376 the Omaha 8/Seven-Card-Stud 8 event to take home a first place prize of $220,538. The runner-up was Ming Lee, a native of Natick, Mass. It was Lee's second WSOP final table appearance.

The final table included two other former gold bracelet winners, Carlos Mortensen and Dutch Boyd. Mortensen finished in third place and Boyd finished in fourth.

Ivey says that he is a better tournament player this year than he was last year.

"I think I am a little more patient," he said. "I take my time. I'm trying in every pot. I'm trying to stay focused and recognize that every pot does matter. I think (before) I was making major mistakes than ended up costing me the tournament. It would cost me chips in a tournament. This year I am not making as many mistakes."

After his win, he was asked what the over/under was for his next bracelet.

"Tomorrow" was the reply.

Seidel also reported on his Twitter account that Ivey won over six figures on Full Tilt over the weekend.

Ivey wasn't the only big pro to make news at the Rio over the weekend. Roland de Wolfe picked up his first gold bracelet in Event 27, the $5,000 Omaha High-Low event.

With the win, de Wolfe became the second winner of poker's version of the Triple Crown. He previously won an EPT title and a WPT title. The other player to accomplish this feat is Gavin Griffin.

The 29-year-old Briton is a professional player who previously wrote for "Inside Poker" magazine. He collected $246,616 for his win.

"Ever since I won the event in Dublin at the EPT, I have been wanting the bracelet, which is the missing link," he said. "Three years I have been here at the finals, and today I finally got a few breaks. I am vey much aware of the history behind this, and the best thing of all is to win all three (major poker titles)."

Pete "the Greek" Vilandos also etched his name into the record book with his win in Event 24, the $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em event. Vilandos' first prize of $607,276 made him the 127th career millionaire at the WSOP.

Vilandos picked up his second career bracelet with the win. He won a Pot-Limit Hold'em event in 1995.

The 69-year-old also finished second in the $1,000 buy-in "Stimulus Special" earlier in the WSOP. He earned $473,282 with that finish.

There was also some serious firepower at table 248 of Event 23, the No-Limit Deuce to Seven Draw event. At one point in the tournament (which was won by Nick Schulman) there were a total of 34 braclets at that table: Doyle Brunson (10), Johnny Chan (10), Phil Ivey (6), Allen Cunningham (5), David Grey (2) and Villie Wahlbeck (1).

Ivey adds sixth bracelet to collection

The stars are out at the WSOP

First week of WSOP breaking records

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