Galfond Challenge: Phil vs. Chance Kornuth

It took almost four months after the end of the second match of the Galfond Challenge to start the third one. Phil is now battling against Chance Kornuth, and after 1,600 hands played, Galfond has a slight advantage of $13,400.

Why is Chance Kornuth a unique contender?

Initially, Phil and Chance agreed to start the match on September 16, but it was postponed for a week. Apparently, both grinders took this challenge seriously. Here is some spice to the story:

Both Galfond and Kornuth are founders of poker schools — Run it Once (RIO) and Chip Leader Coaching (CLC), respectively. Therefore, this is not only a game between two famous American players but also a battle of schools.

Kornuth added a "Galfond Challenge" page on his website to update his followers about the results and updated his Twitter profile with the line "Galfond Challenge UnterTaker." We can conclude that playing against Galfond is a major thing for him.

Chance Kornuth Twitter Profile

Phil Galfond vs. Chance Kornuth: first two days results

The players have agreed on the following terms:

Stake: $100/$200
Length: 35,000 hands
Side bet: €1,000,000 : €250,000 (Galfond/Kornuth)
Site: WSOP.com (both participants are now in Las Vegas)

On the first day, they played precisely 750 hands in more than 5 hours. The highlights can be seen in this video:

As a result, Kornuth won 33 thousand dollars. The biggest pot had $75k in the middle (timeline 29:40). In a 4-bet pot, Phil bet all the way with a low suited board and only a pair of tens. In the river, Galfond bet the pot, and after a few moments, Chance called with pocket aces and won the hand.

Day 2: Highlights

On the second day, Phil recovered the losses and ended with a profit of more than $10k, although in one of the first hands, he lost about $24,000. Galfond won the biggest pot (timeline 15:33) for $53k, with two pairs beating a KK. 900 hands were played during the session.

Such results suggest that this match will be as exciting as the VeniVidi1993 one when Phil snatched a victory for only 8BB.

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