Phil Ivey edge-sorting pal Cheng Yin Sun is one of three gamblers suing Foxwoods Casino Resort for over $3 million in withheld winnings. Although Ivey is in a roundabout way associated with the Foxwoods case, Sun and Ivey are both currently the subject of a court case brought by the Borgata in Atlantic City, which is wanting to recover $9.6 million it paid out to the pair carrying out a stint at the mini-baccarat tables in 2012.

Both instances involve the usage of edge-sorting, and the debate over its legality, or absence thereof; a presssing issue that is fifty shades of grey, so far as what the law states is worried. The Borgata says the practice is cheating and is illegal under state video gaming law; Sun and Ivey state it’s not.

Edge-sorting is a technique when the gambler is able to determine the value of a card by observing simple manufacturing flaws and asymmetries in the pattern on the trunk, and the skilled edge-sorter can turn the chances in their or her favor towards the tune of six or seven percent.

Is it cheating? Well, there ‘s the sc rub, so we’re likely to find out soon, since the theories of both ongoing parties are tested in courts on both sides of the Atlantic. The gamblers claim that these are typically utilizing pure skill to caress the chances inside their favor (and edge-sorting is no mean feat, requiring freakish abilities of observance), while the casinos are claiming it is fraud, pure and easy.

$1.6 Million in Stakes Held Right Back

Because well once the Foxwoods and Borgata cases, Ivey normally suing London’s Crockford’s Casino, that has withheld $12.1 million following Ivey and Sun’s visit here, additionally in 2012. The case that is latest makes no mention of Ivey, however, and is brought by Sun and two associates, Long Mei Fan and Zong Yang Li. The trio claims that the bad debts for them by Foxwoods comprises $1.1 million in winnings and their $1.6 million in stakes.

‘Basically, edge-sorting is possible because some brands of handmade cards are not cut symmetrically across their backs plus some players are gifted with eyesight keen enough to tell the difference,’ says the suit. ‘If Foxwoods and Foxwoods management knew that plaintiffs were edge-sorting and let them practice their form of advantage play anyway, intending to help keep their losses if they won, this would be intentional fraud. when they destroyed although not honor their winnings’

Unprecedented

The cases are fascinating as they are entirely without precedent, as expert in gaming legislation Maurice VerStandig underlined recently.

‘Edge sorting falls somewhere between card counting and weighted eyes that are snake and what the law states is yet to figure out just where,’ he said. ‘There is no precedent that is real cases like this, and when the judicial system cannot find precedent, it goes in search of analogy, something that does not much help here, either, because edge sorting is maybe not certainly analogous to anything…’

A lawyer representing the Foxwoods plaintiffs, has confirmed they are one and the same while Sun’s name differs on the court documents from the Foxwoods case to those of the Borgata, here spelled Cheung Yin Sun instead of Cheng Yin Sun, Marvin Vining.

‘I am able to confirm that Cheung Yin Sun was additionally Phil Ivey’s playing partner in mini-baccarat sessions that gave rise to the Borgata lawsuit in nj plus the Crockfords lawsuit in London,’ said Vining. ‘She used different playing partners at Foxwoods, and the circumstances of most three lawsuits are somewhat various. However the Foxwoods plaintiffs did employ essentially the type that is same of strategy as taking part in the other two lawsuits.’