Phil Galfond: PLO King
Phil Galfond announced the "Galfond Challenge" as a marketing strategy to promote his poker site — Run It Once Poker —, with the main goal to prove that online poker was still alive. One year later, the industry is in great shape, and, undoubtedly, the challenge had had its impact on the results.
Clash of the Coaches was perhaps the most exciting match for the fans, as it would match famous poker school owners' skills. The only one that agreed to compete against Galfond was Chance Kornuth, founder of Chip Leader Coaching (CLC).
"I would be surprised if he quit at this point," Galfond said in a post-game interview after the 45th session; but, Kornuth shocked his fans with an announcement yesterday:
Chance Kornuth accepted his defeat yesterday and conceded the challenge to Galfond. Both players battled for almost 5 months, in which they played 25,400 hands, resulting in a $726,500 profit for Phil.
| Session | Winner | Result |
| 44 (January 7) | Phil Galfond | $80,000 |
| 45 (January 8) | Phil Galfond | $192,000 |
| 46 (January 12) | Chance Kornuth | $76,000 |
| 47 (January 13) | Phil Galfond | $46,000 |
| 48 (January 14) | Phil Galfond | $40,000 |
| 49 (January 22) | Phil Galfond | $126,000 |
| 50 (January 23) | Phil Galfond | $46,000 |
| WINNER / TOTAL | PHIL GALFOND | $726,500 |
Galfond remains unbeatable on his challenge with this victory: he already won against VeniVidi1993 and ActionFreak, and his match against Bill Perkins seems to be stopped for good. Phil acknowledged that Chance tested his game in ways no other opponents had, exposed weaknesses, and as a result, he is a better player now.
Besides congratulating Galfond for scoring another victory, many players highlighted Kornuth's courage in accepting his defeat in public. Phil is building an impressive reputation among the poker community. His influence has grown that much that even he served as a judge in a discussion between Negreanu and Polk.
Daniel Negreanu is in the other corner
Another challenge has drawn the attention of the community during the past two months. Doug Polk and Daniel Negreanu have played 18,878 hands, and the American is currently in the lead by $622,000, although he was winning over 1 million last week.
Phil Galfond has been in the same situation as Daniel, but he has taken a very different approach:
- He requested a time out of the tables to revisit his strategy.
- He focused on his game and learned how to play against his particular opponent, rather than following GTO theory.
- Overall, he has remained calm with a professional attitude towards the game.
However, Daniel, a player with 28 years of experience, over 40 million dollars in profit, and six WSOP bracelets, constantly blames on bad luck his results and seems to be devoting more time to play chess than improving his game.
Phil Galfond is now waiting for the other two opponents to complete his challenge: Jungleman and Brandon Adams. Will he be able to score a perfect result?
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