Phil Ivey cashes in on Cardinals

The Arizona Cardinals may have lost on Sunday, but they performed just well enough to put Phil Ivey ahead in his $1 million Super Bowl bet.

On Tuesday, Ivey did his regular Tuesdays with Ivey radio show with Barry Greenstein on PokerRoad.com and finally revealed which side he'd picked for the Super Bowl.

Greenstein said he'd expected Ivey to put his money on the Pittsburgh Steelers, but the high-stakes grinder actually put a big bet on the Cardinals +3.5 for the first half and another bet on the Cardinals for the win as well.

Hearing that, Greenstein launched into a spiel about how they don't know how to coach in the NFL, and how that meant a coaching error cost Ivey his first-half bet.

In the final minutes of the first half, the Cardinals were down 10-7, but they'd just driven the length of the field to put themselves fingertips away from a touchdown, or at least in prime position for a field goal to tie it up.

Instead of getting the touchdown, or a field goal, Kurt Warner threw an end-zone pass that was intercepted by James Harrison and run back for a 100-yard touchdown return.

"The point is it was a 14-point coaching error, and it cost me about 800," Ivey told Greenstein.

In Ivey's case, 800 is not simply $800, but more likely $800,000, as the Steelers ended the half up 17-7.

That just left his bet on the Cardinals to win it all, or at least beat the point spread. Despite some penalties, they were looking primed for the win when they were able to add 16 more points in the fourth quarter after holding the Steelers to just a field goal in the third quarter.

With little more than two and a half minutes remaining in the game, the Cardinals had a 23-20 lead on the Steelers, and then Ben Roethlisberger went to work. He marched his team right back down the field and threw an end-zone pass that connected with Santonio Holmes to win the game.

For Ivey, though, it was still somewhat of a win as the final score of 27-23 was enough to keep his team within the point spread. Greenstein asked him if that meant he broke even or won a little money.

"Broke even or won about 800 total - what's the difference?" Ivey responded.

That's the difference between the "Average Joe" bettor and a baller in the class of Ivey.

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