It has again been shown–marriage and poker do not mix.

The latest casualty?

Poker icon Phil “Poison” Ivey.

Apparently, marriage was poison to his poker game.

Or is it the other way around?

His poker game was poison to his marriage?

Celebrity gossip website TMZ (www.tmz.com) reported Tuesday that Ivey, 33, of Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, has ended his seven-year marriage.

He and wife Luciaetta, whom he married in 2002, applied for the divorce in a Las Vegas court on December 22 and it was granted on December 28.

It was the first marriage for Ivey, who was born in California and grew up in New Jersey.

The couple have no children.

Initial reaction throughout the poker world to the breakup focused on money, as in how much of Ivey’s gambling fortune will his wife get.

According to official tournament records, Ivey, who won two championship gold bracelets at this year’s World Series of Poker (WSOP) and finished seventh in the ‘09 WSOP Main Event, has won more than $12 million in his career playing tourney poker.

There are no records of how much he has won playing in cash games or online, but it’s reportedly millions of dollars more.

Close observers of Ivey will not be totally surprised by his divorce, as inklings something was afoot have been evident of late.

A few weeks ago, Ivey was interviewed at length by the ESPN program “E-60,” in an effort to promote the upcoming WSOP final table telecast on ESPN.

But as an ESPN camera crew followed Ivey on an excursion to Connecticut, Canada, Amsterdam and Austria, Ivey’s wife was nowhere in sight.

Not only wasn’t she interviewed on the show, she wasn’t shown once during the entire telecast and she wasn’t mentioned either.

It was if she didn’t exist.

Now the world knows why.

As for big-time poker and wedded bliss, the two concepts apparently are about as compatible as oil and vinegar–many major poker pros find it hard to stay married.

In addition to Ivey, other top pros who’ve gone through divorces after achieving poker success include Daniel “Kid Poker” Negreanu, Annie Duke, Clonie Gowan and Chris Moneymaker.

(E-mail Tom Somach at tomsomach@yahoo.com.)