Mr Ivey admitted that he had used edge sorting, but insisted throughout that it was 'legitimate gamesmanship'. This significantly increased his odds of winning. Due to minute asymmetries in the printed pattern on the reverse of the cards, Mr Ivey was then able to tell when 'good' cards were dealt in later rounds. This meant that all the 'good' cards were rotated in the same way.
He, and his associate, Cheung Yin Sun, claimed they were superstitious, and convinced an unsuspecting croupier to rotate the edges of the 'good' playing cards (claiming they were lucky) before they were returned to the deck. He did so using a technique called 'edge sorting'. Over two days in August 2012, he won £7.7 million playing ' Punto Banco' (a form of Baccarat) at Crockford's Casino in Mayfair. Phil Ivey is one of the world's top poker players. Whilst a welcome clarification, the adoption of the Barlow Clowes standard may mean that professionals may now find themselves at greater risk of findings of dishonesty. Instead, the test in Barlow Clowes, already used in civil cases, should be applied universally. The Supreme Court confirmed that the Ghosh test for dishonesty, used in the assessment of both criminal and professional disciplinary proceedings, is no longer the correct test.
