Phil Ivey is boycotting the 2011 World Series of Poker as he pursues a lawsuit against the site for which he was once a leading team member, Full Tilt Poker.

With the coming of this year’s World Series of Poker, players can look forward to seeing many family faces on the felt. One familiar face they won’t be seeing, however is that of Team Full Tilt Poker pro Phil Ivey. Actually, make that former Team FullTilt pro, as Phil Ivey has hung up his FullTilt visor and replaced it with a big fat lawsuit. The charge? That Full Tilt Poker is unnecessarily lagging in giving U.S. players back access to their money held up following the raids of Black Friday.

For many players, not being able to access their own money is a considerable hardship. While Phil Ivey may or may not be one of those individuals, he is most certainly in more of a position than many to take Full Tilt Poker to task for this delay. And take them to task he is doing, with possible damages coming out of this of up to $150 million.

Phil Ivey lambasted Full Tilt Poker on his website, after a few weeks prior having done exact opposite: asking affected players to be patient with the site as it tries to figure things out. But now, it seems the delay has gone on long enough, even for Phil Ivey, and he came out saying he was “embarrassed” by the way Full Tilt Poker was treating its loyal former players in the U.S..