Phil Galfond's history for many began in March 2009, when his name was revealed under the online moniker "OMGClayAiken." Just this year, Phil came out of the shadow of his online pseudonym and grabbed his first bracelet at the WSOP along with a prize of $817,781. "I don't think I'm the best player in the world," the then 23-year-old Galfond said in an interview after the win. "Well, I think I have one of the sharpest minds and because of that I could always be successful in poker".
Now, 14 years later, we can say that the father time have polished this diamond and Phil has become an icon of the game in the truest sense of the word. Today, he ranks among the biggest online poker winners of all time, excelling in nosebleed PLO cash games, even appearing in several episodes of High Stakes Poker. He gradually added two more bracelets to his resume and reminded the world by establishing his own site and game room Run It Once. He has recruited greats like Sam Greenwood, Dan Cates, Jason Koon and Ben Sulsky into his training stable, which only increases the credits of this project.
After three years of preparation, in 2019 he launched his game room and chose a challenge as a form of promotion, in which he invited anyone in the world to PLO heads-up battles. His iconic Galfond Challenge has earned him nearly $2 million so far and six valuable scalps, including such names as Dan Cates, Brandon Adams and Chance Kornuth. Galfond's busy schedule is complemented by marriage to actress Farah Fath and raising a 4-year-old son, but despite all that, Phil managed to chat with the editors of Card Player and the following interview is the result!
What motivated you to start your own game room?
„At the time the idea was born, many people were frustrated with PS's approach to players and the changes, which were almost all against the players. A lot of us felt scared about where online poker was going, so I got a few people from the industry together, put our heads together and decided to go for it!“
It is clear what all poker players want, but when you look at the operation of an online gaming room from a legal, economic and business point of view, you will probably find that combining these two points of view is probably not the easiest task.
„Yes, it was definitely a big challenge, much bigger than we originally thought. Every time we solved something, more and more obstacles awaited us.“
Well, after you got through all of this, the news that you are selling your project came out. Why?
„Actually, I've known about it for a long time, it was already an agreed deal during last Christmas, but I was in no rush to publish it. We've built a great product and people love playing on our site. I dare say they love our brand and everything it stands for. We got a lot of things right, but online poker is a huge colossus that you need a lot of power to compete with the biggest. Without a great partnership, we would continue to struggle on our sand and never get the brand everywhere we want.“
In addition to the game room, your training site Run It Once is also well known, which has been successful for over 10 years. You recently released your own comprehensive PLO course there, aren't you afraid to reveal your know-how?
„I have always enjoyed teaching. I think if I didn't get into poker in my life, I would probably be a teacher. Sometime in 2008 I made the first video tutorial and it got really good feedback and I really enjoyed it myself. Plus, I think I'm good at doing fun things and I believe that learning should be fun too. I honestly think Dan Quinn and I do these things better than anyone else, we bring a level of professionalism that didn't exist anywhere else and that's why we quickly became market leaders without much marketing effort.
As for sharing my know-how, I feel very good about it. At first I was afraid of it, but when I realized that I had already released many videos, helped many players and still managed to keep winning, I stopped worrying about everything. Even after playing my HU challenge, I decided to put together everything I learned in them and share it with people. “
I want to ask you alo about the Galfond Challenge, how did this whole idea come about?
„There were more motivations behind it, it probably all started with the fact that I noticed that the views of my videos were gradually decreasing. People didn't want to learn from me like they used to because I don't play poker anymore. I mainly focused on training and videos and had no time for the game. So I had to come out of the shadows and show that I could still do it.“
How do you remember the moment when you were down €900,000 during the game with Venividi?
„I was very frustrated. I came back from "retirement" to get into the game excited, I had worked hard before and felt confident....and I got slapped like that. At first I thought I was just running bad, it also didn't help that a lot of people were happy to bet against me. At the moment when I was minus €900k, I seriously thought about quitting. But even though I decided to finish it with honor, I still didn't believe I could turn it around.
The biggest change I made was that I started acting like my old self. I dusted off my old theory, stopped looking at solvers and other programs, and started reading individual spots and hands more. I still had some GTO basics in my head, but I tried to focus more on my opponent and read his game and his habits. And so, by some miracle, I managed to reverse the situation.“
You are still undefeated in your entire challenge and currently have a plus of almost 2 million dollars. Are there still people interested in the game, or have they all learned their lesson?
„I'm still open to playing with anyone who wants to play $200/$400 PLO, but it's not that easy. These matches take a really long time and it's hard to coordinate the time and terms with someone. That's why I was already thinking about brushing up on my NLH knowledge and declaring some similar smaller challenge in NLH. Even though I play it significantly less, I think I could improve and play it at the highest level, we'll see what I come up with!“
At the end, we have prepared two more short questions for you - what was your longest session in your life and what was your biggest pot?
„Extremely long sessions never go well. I've had about 3-4 sessions that were longer than 24 hours, but they all turned out badly. The longest was something like 33 hours, that was crazy. And as for the biggest pot, it was at the Aria casino, where there was just over $700,000 in the pot. We played a crazy mix of about 12 different games, I think this particular hand was in a 5-card draw. We got into a three-way pot with trips vs trips vs trips and went to a showdown before the last exchange. At that moment I had the best three, but one of the players hit full and it was over.“
Thanks Phil and good luck!
Source: CardPlayer Magazín
