WHY You Keep Losing at Poker – Phil Ivey Reveals the Truth

29 May 2025

Intermediate

This material is for medium-skilled players

Want to think like a poker legend? In this article, we will analyze key poker tips and strategies inspired by the playing style of Phil Ivey. You will learn the subtle techniques, mindset changes, and tactical approaches that made Phil Ivey one of the greatest players of all time. Regardless of whether you are a casual player or a budding pro, these ideas can change the way you approach the game.

So, today you will learn 5 main differences between you and Phil Ivey and get ways to fix your leaks. So, if you're tired of guessing and still losing, let's finally look at the game through Phil Ivey's eyes and find out why your biggest leaks have nothing to do with how you're dealt.

When the game is going on, most players think they're focused. Phil knows - they're not. They look at their cards, they count their chips (live), they look at the flop cards, but they miss a lot of other things that are intangible. Ivey sees more than that.

From the moment he sits down at the table, he's fully present and studying. Not just the cards and betting patterns, but the entire table in its entirety: every movement, every glance and blink of an eye, every posture and every breath. This isn't just another cliche about «just» being completely focused on the game - no, it's a full-time job. And if a player wants it to be productive, he's going to have to work at it.

Ivey said that early in his career, he trained himself to watch every hand as if his life depended on it. Whether he played a hand or not, it made no difference - he read people, tried to build their thought processes and learned to understand what motivated them.

Many people think they have this kind of attention span, but they don't because they only really focus when they're involved in the hand. Phil is totally in the game in any hand. One of his quotes goes like this:

If you want an edge, watch what others aren't interested in. Remember the hands they showed at showdown. Notice when they hesitate, and when they get their chips in fast. Pay attention to the spots they feel uncomfortable in.

This isn't some sixth sense. - It's repetition. It's paying attention. And it's something you can develop and build into a good habit. Next time you sit down at the table, test yourself. Can you remember that the BU showed two hands back? Can you show someone who limped and called UTG and then check-raised the flop? If not, you're leaving money at the table.

Phil Ivey's edge is not that he reads your soul, but that he constantly watches others and himself. While the average regular plays his hand, Phil plays all the space-time. 

In other words, you have a fixed style of play and you don't want to change it.

You've heard it many times: play tight and aggressive, stick to your strategy, and don't show off. But every time you play a rigid and inflexible style, you're missing out on a ton of +EV from bad adjustments to your opponents.

Ivey would laugh at players like that. He's not playing his game, he's playing against his opponent's game, and ultimately taking all his chips away. He never comes to the table with a rigid mindset like, «I'm going to play tight today. Or loose.» Ivey adapts on the fly to what he sees in his opponents:

• Is your opponent afraid to play big pots? => Hero will put the opponent in big pots and force him to fold there,
• Is your opponent a calling station and he hates to fold? => Exploiting with the thinnest value bets as a crude example.
• Is the opponent on tilt? Throwing chips around? => It's time to wait for the moment to call him down for a stack.

Phil plays exactly the counterplay to the opponent's current play and re-adjusts immediately upon new information. He will play every hand if it looks optimal. He will sit back, wait by the sea weather, and allow himself to be bluffed if the best play at the moment is this.

Every opponent is a mystery, and every hand is a test. And no fixed style of play is the key to all the clues and solutions. This is where most people fail. Because they stick to clear and familiar game tracks, strictly follow them in any situation and do not even realize that they are very easy to exploit.

Meanwhile, Ivey can change gears right in the middle of the hand he is playing. He understands perfectly well what image he has created in the eyes of his opponent and uses it against him. Play like a nit for two hours and not get to the flop without a big combination, and then in the next hand pull off a huge bluff for double the stack? - Absolutely no problem. - Because the opponent here will not dare to open it with a bluffcatcher.

This is exactly what Phil Ivey thinks. And if you consider yourself an avid TAG, LAG, a nit who crushes fishes, or even if you have given yourself the label «completely GTO-balanced regular», then it is better to forget about this rigidity. You are not playing chess and you are not solving mathematical equations, but playing a game called poker. And

Solvers tell you what to do postflop. Charts tell you what to do preflop. You think that most decisions are calculated in advance and for centuries, but you still lose money. Phil Ivey thinks differently. And in general, he is an anti-solver.

Ivey studied the work in solvers, he respects them and recognizes their benefits. He even once vowed to grind 6 hours in a row in such a program, but still has not done it.

And yet he continues to destroy opponents in the toughest games of our time, which have attracted many solver fans. Why does he still manage to do this? - Because Phil does not remember solutions, but reads the energy in the game between players and everything that happens in the space above the dealt cards. He senses the discomfort of others and senses the slightest doubt in the current opponent that no software can detect. And exploit it. In the right way. And to the right extent.

He calls it intangible. And most don't even know what that means. They've been conditioned to think that poker is just data and that every hand is a formula waiting to be solved.

He regularly calls opponents on a hint from the inside: from an inner voice, from intuition, and even from something external. That's how much he believes in intuition. While you are preoccupied with balance and compliance with GTO frequencies, Phil monitors completely different things: the tension in the opponent, his body position, the speed of action, energy. These are not guesses or superstitions. - This is a skill, and it is deadly.

If you study only the solver results, then you will never see the real picture from the foundation to the roof. Because poker is, first of all, living people of flesh and blood, and not numbers in a tricky formula. If you do not understand this or do not admit it, then you are playing only half the game. The success of a legend is not only logic. - It is an instinct honed by vast experience.

So keep learning poker strategy, learn to understand ranges and pick bet sizes, but remember that the biggest edge at the table can come from something that can't be described by a formula or a number.

You lose a big hand, blame it on the cooler, and forget about it. The next session, you lose another big pot, and forget about it again. Phil doesn't lose a ton of money the same way twice. It doesn't matter how big the pot was - he'll immediately start analyzing the hand:

• What did my opponent bet?
• What did he probably think about my range?
• How could I have played it differently?

This isn't an ego exercise, it's a process of self-improvement. The best poker player in the world doesn't just want to feel better - he intends to play better. He makes it clear that most of his learning happens away from the tables, and specifically by working on his game on his own: analyzing hands and finding the best solutions for when a similar spot happens again. And other thoughts. He'll be prepared for it.

And the average regular isn't interested in that. It's easier for him to blame the variance for another set-up for the entire stack, laugh at the bad call of the opponent, and then repeat it again, hoping that the distance will return to him. - With interest.

Regarding live poker, Phil even advised writing down interesting hands in words on paper, and then studying them thoroughly: what Hero did not see and what could have been done better? You do not need to memorize hundreds of GTO solutions and frequencies to develop. The most important thing you need is to be honest with yourself and gradually cut off the excess from your block like a sculptor. And build muscle where it is still lacking.

Players protect their ego. Ivey protects his edges over others. Poker is not about perfection, and even Ivey said he never played a 100% perfect session in his life. However, if you never learn from your mistakes, you are destined to repeat them over and over again. So when you notice a systematic leak in your game, work to eliminate it as soon as possible.

In many ways, from the choice of the game you enter to the fight with a specific opponent, until one of you either leaves the table, «admitting defeat», or until he runs out of money on his balance. Or not only in it.

Because the exploits of competent opponents against you already work much more often than a random drunk fish tried to exploit you, and because when the edges between opponents are very small, then in many situations chance begins to decide. Sometimes there may be at stake a huge pot with a double stack ...

Phil Ivey has long since learned and accepted that poker is not about beating the pants of an offender. Poker... is about survival. Therefore, he has trained himself to avoid tables with bad player compositions that do not promise good profits either now or in the long run. Otherwise, the rake will kill all potential profit, and even drive a Hero into losses.

But most people strive to play with worthy opponents at least because this is supposedly a good experience. And Phil plays not to spoil the mood of a regular opponent, but to take chips from anyone. Preferably with minimal bloodshed. And how exactly this will be done is generally the tenth question. Here is another quote from him:

When someone wins well, they can leave this table soon. But when someone loses and is seriously tilted, they will play here for two days in a row.

As they say: «Nothing personal - it is just the way the game works.» A player who plays for money should not be interested in defeating every serious opponent or forcing him to leave the table. If profit is important for you, then you should choose tables with the best conditions for playing.

This is exactly how professionals act: they hunt for value, save their bankroll, press the pedal to the metal when the lineup is excellent and refrain from playing with five other high-stakes crushers. Money does not care how brave you are. It loves cold rationalism and flows to someone who reciprocates their feelings. Therefore, you should regularly ask yourself: «Why am I playing here now: for money or to amuse my ego?»

One of the legends learned this very early and then followed this instruction. - This is one of the main reasons why he lasted in poker for so long (and still plays). Poker is not only about being able to play well, but also about choosing the best conditions for the game. The best players in the world do not let their pride cost them big losses in money (and in anything). If you are inherent in fighting like a lion in poker, then you are already doing something that world-class professionals do not do - because it will not lead you to long-term success in terms of money.

• And of course, you should keep track of your emotions.