Phil Galfond (born January 16, 1985) is an American professional poker player. Galfond won three World Series of Poker bracelets, in the $5,000 buy-in pot-limit Omaha with rebuys event in 2008, the $10,000 no-limit 2-7 single draw championship in 2015 and the $10,000 Pot Limit Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better Championship in 2018.

1. Female Poker Player Galfond
2. Phil Galfond Twitter Page

Kornuth waved the white flag

• Hands Played: 500 Results: Phil Galfond +$90,000 Full session video Sharelines A losing streak buried Phil Galfond a bit, but he came up with a W on Tuesday to get back on track.
• 22.3k Followers, 120 Following, 110 Posts - See Instagram photos and videos from Phil Galfond (@phil.galfond).
• An epic showdown between Phil Galfond and 'Venividi1993' came down to a final €100/€200 Pot-Limit Omaha session. Twitter Tracker Tana Karn @tkarn421 13 mins.

There was much uncertainty from both Phil Galfond and the poker community as a whole when Galfond embarked on his “Galfond Challenge” a year ago. Once one of the best poker players in the world, Galfond had effectively retired from competitive poker to launch his very own online poker room, Run It Once. The Challenge was more or less a marketing tool, but in boosting traffic to his site, Galfond was risking his own money. No doubt he also wanted to see how his skills still stacked up to some of the world’s best, but it certainly felt like it was either a terrible idea or a genius one. Well, so far it has been the latter, as over the weekend, Galfond clinched his third match in as many tries when Chance Kornuth conceded his Challenge before reaching the predetermined hand limit.

The two men had agreed to play 35,000 hands of $100/$200 Pot-Limit Omaha. The player in the black at the end of the match would not only keep his winnings, but also nab a side bet from his opponent. Galfond risked a cool million for the side bet, versus Kornuth’s $250,000.

After a terrible downswing of more than two and a half months, Kornuth decided to cut his losses on Saturday, sacrifice the $250,000 side bet, and just call it a day. After 25,400 hands, Phil Galfond won $726,500, not counting the side bet.

The Galfond/Kornuth match got started in late September 2020 and it was Galfond who got out to a nice lead by early October. Kornuth went on a tremendous run into mid-November, however, building a lead of $344,500. From there, however, it was nothing but a struggle for Kornuth. On December 9, Galfond got out of the red for good, edging up to $28,500 to the positive. He won almost every session thereafter, profiting another $700,000 through this past Saturday.

Apparently, Kornuth had seen enough. They had fewer than 10,000 hands remaining, but it looks like Kornuth just didn’t see a path to profitability, so rather than trying to at least make back some of the money he had lost, he decided to just not risk getting into a deeper hole, shake his opponent’s virtual hand, and move on.

For his part, Galfond had nothing but praise for Kornuth, saying, “He tested my game in ways no other opponents had, exposing weaknesses I wasn’t aware of, and I’m stronger now for it.”

Insane comebacks are possible

Galfond himself is no stranger to massive deficits in these challenges. In his first one last year against VeniVidi1993, he was down nearly $1m. It was so bad that he decided to pause the challenge, even paying his opponent for each scheduled day they missed. He posted a long essay on Twitter, explaining that he had some soul searching to do, not sure if he was just having a ridiculous string of bad luck or if he was just honestly not as good as VeniVidi1993.

Galfond came close to quitting, but he decided to press on. It turned out it was the right decision, as he made a gigantic comeback, clinching the victory with just 75 hands remaining.

In his second challenge, Phil Galfond bested Ioannis “ActionFreak” Kontonatsios.

I’m not saying that Phil Galfond is burning at a quarter-candle while everyone else is an electric lightbulb, but by his admission, he hasn’t been playing a bunch of poker lately.

Wives.

Children.

Beard manicures.

Online Poker Rooms.

So much to do, and so little time.

Let’s say, his white glove slap across the face of the poker community in the form of the ‘Galfond Challenge’, is likely to be returned with a few baseball mitts. HighStakesDB even led with an article entitled: Why The Galfond Challenge is Becoming a Disaster For Phil.

But is it?

RIO Poker’s success is everything to Galfond.

A mistake that business owners make is persuading people to buy their product through the means of logical and rational thought, and there’s a lot of that flying around the trapezes of the poker circus.

However, the messages that get goosebumps pimpling don’t ambush the brain; they attack the heart.

Feelings.

You can’t change a mind without first winning their hearts.

If you love poker, then it’s hard not to respect Phil Galfond and what he’s trying to do at RIO Poker. How will it make you feel to see him battling against so many diverse characters across different stakes and platforms with millions of dollars on the line?

Will a few hearts flutter?

Will a few hairs stand on end?

Will one or ten of you choose to compete on the site after seeing the silky software?

It’s hard to persuade people to do things they don’t want to do — what better way than showing them how exhilarating it can be.

And the poker community needs this challenge after the ‘Durrrr Challenge’ debacle. Coincidentally, Phil Galfond was the only player banned from challenging Dwan when the challenge first got off the ground. Galfond chose to allow all-comers into his home, but who are the ones he’s secretly hoping he doesn’t have to ask to leave their shoes at the door?

“There are some players that I am thinking, ‘Man that would be a challenge,’” admits Galfond before continuing. “If only the top players had taken on the challenge, I would have had to have taken some on. But I have too many challengers, so I don’t have to play the toughest. I still might, and I will play more tougher players than I need to, so I can challenge myself, and for publicity for the site – but I do have my pick.”

Future thinking or dwelling on the past is the primary cause of our anxiety because the brain doesn’t know the difference between our mental models and reality. In the spirit, of using this knowledge to his advantage, and priming the pump ready for an injection of poker fairy dust, I ask him to reminisce over his fiercest battles.

“My most famous battles have been against Isildur,” said Galfond. “My biggest winning day was against Viktor when I won $1.6m. We started at $300/$600 PLO and moved on to $500/$1k PLO at some point during the session. I’ve also had a million-dollar losing day against him.

Female Poker Player Galfond

“Back in the day, I also used to play a lot with David Benyamine and Gus Hansen. Gus had that heads-up PLO table that had one seat reserved for him, with one open, and I played him quite a bit. This one time, Gus asked Full Tilt to create a $2k/$4k O8 table for him, and instead, they made a $2k/$4k PLO table. I might have been the only one to play him there, and won small. That’s the highest stakes I have ever played.

“I mainly played Benyamine at NLHE. It may have been before my PLO days. I’ve had at least three seven-figure losses playing online within 24-hours, and I think one was largely against him, but I can’t say that with certainty, because it’s been so long.”

Galfond has seen it all, and also has the perspective of his perch on the throne of RIO’s online training site – so what are the skills and abilities that make a world-class heads-up player?

“What makes a world-class heads-up player are the attributes that surround reading your opponent,” says Galfond. “Reads on game flow, their mood and the way they play as the match progresses and getting a feel for that and staying one step ahead. Or making reads based on stats or showdowns about some leaks that they have. The next step is being able to logically determine the correct counter strategy to take advantage of that.

“As poker progresses, people are becoming more proficient with solvers, and are approaching optimal play a little bit more. At the highest level, the best player is the one that’s super closest to optimal play, but I don’t think anyone is close enough right now for that to be the most important attribute. I think we’re still quite a ways off that, and everyone has enough leaks that if you’re able to identify them and combat them, then these are the most important skills.”

With so much money on the line; reputation, and the profitability of RIO Poker also in the lens – what are the unhelpful thoughts that go through Galfond’s head when it comes to achieving his goals?

“It’s a strange combination of having a lot of doubts in myself and yet being very determined to achieve my goals,” says Galfond. “I have never been a hard studier in poker, but in business, I have found a work ethic that I didn’t have before. I am hoping, as I focus on poker more these next months because of the challenge that my business work ethics rubs off on my poker one.

“I also have unhelpful thoughts around the belief that I am not good at studying or learning from the available new tools. I fear that I can’t digest the information, and it will end up hurting my game more than helping it. Fear of failure is a common problem, and in Elliot Roe’s Run It Once course, which I’ve been taking, I identified that as a big leak of mine. He has an exercise where you go through a fear like that and determine what you’re really afraid of and what you can do to combat the fear, which I found very helpful

The interest in the ‘Galfond Challenge’ has been phenomenal, prompting the thought – could RIO Poker be the new Rail Heaven?

“We have thought a lot about elevating RIO to the Rail Heaven of the past,” admits Galfond. “It’s always been a part of our plans, and we have changes planned in our software development to accommodate the high stakes playing and railing experience. The idea for this challenge happened pretty quickly, so the full experience that we have planned for the future is not available for this challenge.”

Phil Galfond Twitter Page

And who would Galfond like in a Rail Heaven cast?

“I want great players, but you need to give them an incentive to play with each other. Some of that comes from us, and some of that comes through recruiting non-pros, preferably those that are well known, to make the games better, and hopefully, we can offer something to them to make it worthwhile.

“If I had to give you names then I like to watch guys like Sauce battle. I like watching Berri Sweet, Ike Haxton, Trueteller – but I also think the fans would like to see guys like Ivey, Antonius; some of the old school high stakes players. Those are the names that immediately spring to mind, and now I am doing this high stakes challenge I will include myself in that cast.”

Now go and trim that beard, you’ve got hearts to win, Mr G.

Phil Galfond Challenge Lineup (Subject to Change)

VeniVidi1993 – €100/€200 PLO over 25k hands
ActionFreak – €150/€300 PLO over 15k hands.
Jungleman – €100/€200 PLO over 7.5k hands
Brandon Adams – $100/$200 PLO over 40hrs of live poker
Chance Kornuth – €100/€200 PLO over 25k hands
Bill Perkins & The Thirst Lounge – €100/€200 PLO over 50k hands or a €400k loss

*Rob Yong has also accepting the challenge, and negotiations have begun.

Side Bet Info

VeniVidi1993 – Side bet of Phil’s €200k to VeniVidi’s €100k
ActionFreak – Side bet of Phil’s €150k to ActionFreak’s €150k
Jungleman – TBD
Brandon Adams – Side Bet of Phil’s $150k to Brandon’s $100k
Chance Kornuth – Side Bet of Phil’s €1m to Chance’s €250k
Bill Perkins & The Thirst Lounge – Side Bet of Phil’s $800k to Bill’s $200k

PokerShares Odds

Galfond (2.16) v VeniVidi1993 (1.73)
Galfond (2.25) v ActionFreak (1.66)
Galfond (1.91) v Jungleman (1.95)
Galfond (1.60) v Adams (2.40)