With 35 of roughly 60 tournaments having been played in the 2012 World Series Of Poker, Phil Ivey making his fifth final table has brought a heap of press, adoration and wonderment his way. Despite that, he exits quietly out a side entrance from the Rio to his private trailer avoiding the public and any interview requests. Ivey is currently first in the Bluff/WSOP Player of the Year race and has over $500,000 in cashes so far. Despite that, I assert he would give it all up if only he could close one out. Because that's what drives Ivey, winning, and he hasn't won yet this year.

The poker world has missed the "best poker player in the world" this past year, much like the PGA suffers when Tiger Woods doesn't compete regularly. Ivey skipped the 2011 WSOP after issuing his famous proclamation "I do not believe it is fair that I compete when others cannot... until a [Full Tilt Poker] solution is reached that cements the security of all players, both US and International, I will, as I have for the last six weeks, dedicate the entirety of my time and efforts to finding a solution for those who have been wronged by the painfully slow process of repayment."

A year later Ivey seems to be focused and determined to make up for lost time in the tournament world. He currently has eight WSOP bracelets to his name, but aspires to win 30 WSOP bracelets by the time he's done with poker. All of his prior bracelets were in relatively smaller field non-hold'em events and while going very deep in large field hold'em events before he has yet to finish on top.

Unlike most players, the money in most WSOP tournaments doesn't motivate Ivey as he can win or lose hundreds of thousands every single night he plays his favored high stakes cash games. To aid his tournament motivation, he often has multiple prop bets/bracelet bets with top players that can dwarf the tournament payouts. The one tournament that I thought would get Ivey's juices flowing is the upcoming $1 million buy-in One Drop event. With a likely sellout of 48 players it would provide the biggest tournament winning payday of over $15 million. Surprisingly, Ivey has chosen not to enter the attention grabbing charity event as of yet.

Everyone admits that Phil Ivey has a mystique about him. He doesn't act like any other highly successful player. He shuns the spotlight and spends most of his time away from the regular poker circles. He seems equally inaccessible both at and away from the poker table. His opponents admit they rarely can pick up any helpful read of his notorious poker face.

On Twitter, @philivey has maintained his aloof approach despite having over 107k followers. He has never bothered to tweet much of interest to his adoring fans. Suddenly this WSOP, the near dormant account started tweeting very generic positive tweets that couldn't sound any more polar opposite to what Ivey would genuinely tweet. People quickly figured someone had been hired to help improve Ivey's PR. Then in a stroke of comic genius on Wednesday Tony "Bond_18" Dunst began a satirical response themed #RealIveyTweets that caught on with poker's elite providing more realistic but hilarious Ivey tweets.

@Bond_18 - "40 min late to my day 3 restart cause being on time is for bitches and mortals"
@Doc_Sands - Some kid whose name might have been Tom asked me to swap in the One Drop. I considered offering 2% of me for 4% of him as a favor
@Doc_Sands - But decided to take the high road and act like I didn't know what swapping was. I think he actually believe me.
@Bond_18 - "Can't believe I forgot to invite my boy Ray Davis to the club last night...PSYCH"
@realcharder30 - at another final table with 8 dudes I have never seen before
@AlCantHang - I won't play in the WSOP until FTP player funds are returned.
@MikeMcDonald89 - "Everyone registering for onedrop mentions how its for such a good cause. Thanks for the support"
@Bond_18 - "I feel like the best place for this huge wad of 100's is on the floor next to my foot."
@MarcKaram - It's so funny watching humans play poker.
@MikeMcDonald89 - Wondering what's my secret? My Klipsch headphones broke 12 days ago and I really don't want to have to talk to any of you
@ScottBHuff - "You may have seen that one painting of me at a final table. It's called "The Last Supper""
@PokerSmell - I'm glad I'm the only one who understands quadruple inverse exponential pot odds. #TheSecretToPoker
@Bond_18 - "Can't wait to win this bracelet so I can attach it to a fishing line and lead @phil_hellmuth around wherever I want"
@RealKidPoker - Yo, anyone looking to do a 100% cross book in the One Drop DM me #sellingpiecesisforpussies
@coryalbertson - Just saw my maid at a BMW dealership. Must have lost a 100k chip in a couch cushion.
@RealKidPoker - Seems like it makes sense for the One Drop to be winner take all.
@Haley_Hintze - If the Rio would just put a craps table next to the ESPN stage, they'd get more of my action.
@KristyArnett - I'm really sick of the creepy Asian girl who always tells her camera guy to film me.
@MikeMcDonald89 - Its been 9 years since I let Greg Moneymaker hit that ace on the river and you guys still think anyone can win
@BryanMicon - Oh that's cute, you use ranges. I just know what you have.
@FrankRusnak - The only flip I've ever lost was to my ex wife. #tosoon?
@GaryWise1 - Meh, let it ride on black five times, I guess. What's the 5 o'clock?
@WiltOnTilt - Only mistake I ever made in a poker hand was thinking I might be wrong about what you had, when I was really right all along
@scott_seiver - I love gummy worms. #oldReferences
@WriterJen - I love the poker media and can't wait for my next interview.
@_tizzle - Its nice of OneDrop to create a million dollar buyin tournament just for me so I can meet my alimony payments requirements
@MikeMcDonald89 - The 2 months of the year that most affect my bottom line are almost over.... #NbaPlayoffsOfCourse
@arfarfhowl - Played some golf with Patrick Antonio and Dur Dwan today. Let's just say we won't be swinging clubs together anytime soon.
@golferjosh - Listen, go interview that other Phil guy, he won a bracelet, right? I don't take breaks. I only got9bbs in that other event

So far Ivey's reticence to engage his fans and the media hasn't hurt his image. It may be the singular focus he needs to keep final tabling so many WSOP events, but until he wins some more bracelets he won't be satisfied with the hoopla his every move brings. Time to win another bracelet, Phil.