Phil Ivey is one of the most respected poker players both online and off. And it seems that even though in the past he threatened Full Tilt Poker with a $150 million lawsuit, the respected young professional poker player is happy to be back on the site and playing online poker. When the Black Friday federal indictment from the United States Department of Justice shut down Full Tilt Poker last April, Ivey had a rather substantial amount of money frozen in his account. He eventually ended up over at the PokerStars cash tables, where he rocketed up to $629,000 in profit.

However, the PokerStars virtual felt was not as friendly to Phil Ivey as were the Full Tilt Poker tables, and he eventually cashed out in the red, losing more than $57,000 over 62,411 hands played. Ironically enough, it was PokerStars who bought out the defunct Full Tilt Poker brand, agreeing with the DOJ to repay over $700 million in frozen account holders money. Now the 36-year-old is back on familiar felt, having changed his screen name to “Polarizing”. Poker players are by nature a superstitious bunch, and you cannot convince Phil Ivey that the Full Tilt Poker tables are not good luck to him.

The 8 time WSOP bracelet winner is currently sitting on top of a $114,000 profit since returning to the Full Tilt tables online, that account status reported recently by online poker tracking site HighstakesDB. If you include everything that Phil Ivey has won and lost on the Full Tilt tables, his efforts on their virtual felt have been ridiculously successful, as he stands at $19 million to the positive on that website. That far and away makes him online poker’s biggest winner ever, so you can understand why he was ecstatic to get back to the tables which have treated him so well.

The popular professional’s return to Full Tilt has drawn plenty of railbirds looking forward to possibly locking horns with the richest online poker player of all time. Certainly, other poker professionals are happy to see Ivey return to Full Tilt, as he will no doubt attract donkeys and punters by the droves. The Full Tilt Poker website is also sponsored by well-known professionals Gus Hansen, Viktor Blom and Tom Dwan. Full Tilt specifically, as well as the entire online poker community in general, has seen a recent increase in both low and high stakes action. And the return of both the well known and recently vilified Full Tilt site as well as the positively regarded Ivey certainly play a large part in attracting online poker players to the many casinos, poker rooms and sportsbooks currently offering access to US players and global players as well.

In other poker news, Ivey recently opened the virtual doors to Iveypoker.com, a site where he says he hopes to be able to give back to the poker community by offering his unique insights into the game. The site functions as an online training portal, and he stated that even though learning to read other players online and off comes with experience, the online poker vehicle offers certain situations where reading players is easier than in the “real world.” With the recent legalization of online poker in Nevada and Delaware in the US, and the reopening of the Full Tilt Poker website, online poker has seen a recent resurgence at online poker rooms throughout the virtual gaming community.