Just when you think Phil Ivey is going to get shut out of the WSOP, that no man can run good enough to consistently win series after series, he proves his dominance by taking down a tournament.

Ivey won a bracelet in a $3,000 HORSE event at the 2010 WSOP for his eighth and third in the last two years. Even as tournament fields are getting larger, Ivey is getting better, and in the process, cementing his legacy as the best poker player in history.

Phil Ivey holds up his eighth bracelet

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After a quiet start to the series with a couple of small cashes in $1,500 events, Ivey made a deep run in Event 33, the $2,500 split pot-limit hold ‘em/pot-limit Omaha event, finishing 12th.

Three days later, having made a great comeback during heads-up play to defeat Bill Chen, Ivey won another bracelet to move to fifth on the all-time list.

Ever since last year, when Ivey upped the prop bets and rededicated himself to chasing bracelets, he’s dominated the WSOP, almost taking home the ultimate prize, finishing seventh in the Main Event. This year, he seems to be even more focused, and you have to think he’s a favorite to get another bracelet, with any deep run.

Speaking of prop bets, the rumors are, Ivey has a $5 million bet with Howard Lederer that he’ll win two bracelets in the next three series.

The talk now is how many Ivey will win in the next three years — another bracelet seems inevitable.

There’s a lot of discussion around the Rio about who will get to No. 13 first — Ivey or Hellmuth, who has 11. My money (about $1,000) is on Ivey.

Though as I was working on this post, Hellmuth made the final table of a pot-limit Omaha Hi-Lo event and gave me a fright.