According to chatter on HighStakesDB, Full Tilt Poker pro Phil Ivey (pictured), who formerly filed suit against his employerreportedly in order to get out of his non-compete clause, could be back playing online at PokerStars. HighStakesDB wrote, “The player known as RaiseOnceis widely rumored to be the Las Vegas based superstar, although on PokerStars, this name is showing as being in Mexico, where Ivey is known to have a holiday home in Cabo.”

Over on TwoPlusTwo, posters were busy following RaiseOnce’s progress on December 31st, when the poker player was seated at $200/$400 Pot Limit Omaha, $400/$800 Eight-Game, and $1,000/$2,000 HORSE tables on PokerStars. He lacked opponents at all three games as of 1:50am ET.

The debate quickly began as to whether RaiseOnce was indeed the former Poker Hall of Fame nominee that sat out the entire 2011 World Series of Poker. One TwoPlusTwo member reminisced, “My favorite evidence that it’s Ivey was when all the railbirds went crazy when Phil disconnected on FTP and RaiseOnce disconnected at the same time on PokerStars. [They] obviously reconnected at the same time as well.”

Phil Galfond (pictured), who plays on PokerStars under the screen name MrSweets28, ultimately sat down with RaiseOnce at a $200/$400 Pot Limit Omaha table and profited $200,000. On the rocky session for RaiseOnce, one TwoPlusTwo poster contended, “Looks like hiding out and not playing for awhile has really hurt Ivey. Gotta wonder if he’ll ever be able to compete at the highest level again.”

After dropping several buy-ins, RaiseOnce typed in the PokerStars table chat, “too good gg” and departed. The three-word comment prompted one member of the community to speculate that perhaps RaiseOnce was not actually Ivey: “It’s definitely Ivey’s style to leave after having lost a couple BIs… On the other hand, self-pity is definitely not his style. That guy’s a warrior and I can’t imagine him saying that.” Galfond simply responded with “gg” and “gl.”

In one pot worth $193,000, RaiseOnce raised it up to $1,200 pre-flop and Galfond popped it to $3,760. RaiseOnce responded by raising to $11,440 and Galfond called to bring a flop of 5-8-2 rainbow. After a check by Galfond, RaiseOnce fired out a bet of $23,038, Galfond pushed it to $92,152, and RaiseOnce called all-in for $85,099. The turn and river came the deuce of clubs and nine of clubs, respectively, pairing the board and putting three clubs out as well. Galfond showed 7s-Qc-As-6c for a flush, while RaiseOnce’s cards were not shown.

Back in September 2010, RaiseOnce took down a PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker bracelet in a $25,500 No Limit Hold’em High Roller Heads-Up tournament and came away with $348,000. He defeated PokerStars player SkaiWalkurrrheads-up.

Meanwhile, the discussion critiqued whether Ivey should be playing high-stakes games on PokerStars (if RaiseOnce is indeed him) after Full Tilt Poker, former top competitor for PokerStars and the site Ivey was known to promote for several years, was declared a “global Ponzi scheme” by the U.S. Department of Justice and still owes players nearly $400 million. To that end, one poster asserted, “People have every right to be angry over Ivey playing. The specifics of who knew what are far from certain, but many people lost life-altering money on that damn site.”

Sparking even more ire against Ivey was a recent Las Vegas Review-Journal articleabout the fallout from his divorce. Included in the piece was word that Ivey’s ex-wife received about $180,000 a month as taxable alimony from Ivey’s deal with Full Tilt, while the poker pro received another $740,000 from Full Tilt. Added together, that means Ivey was pulling in about $920,000 per month from Full Tilt, or over $11 million annually.

Ivey’s lawyer referred to his client’s interest in Full Tilt’s parent company, Tiltware, as “passive.” His wife received these payments, according to the Las Vegas news outlet, from January 2010 until Black Friday in April of last year.

What do you think? Is RaiseOnce really Ivey? If so, is it morally correct for the eight-time bracelet winner to be playing on PokerStars?