- Home
- Latest poker news
- Phil Galfond loses Heads-Up to Phil Hellmuth
Phil Galfond loses Heads-Up to Phil Hellmuth
The new online poker room from Pennsylvania, BetRivers Poker, hosted the first duel between two very famous players: Phil Hellmuth and Phil Galfond. In this article, we tell you all the details of this confrontation.
Two Phils, one poker room
On March 2-3, 2025, a heads-up game was played at BetRivers Poker between two famous American players: Phil Hellmuth and Phil Galfond.
Until recently, the chances of seeing both players at the same table were very low, as Hellmuth mainly plays live tournaments while Galfond prefers to play HU Omaha.
The two Phils were brought together by the launch of the new online poker room in Pennsylvania: BetRivers Poker, which opened its doors in 2024. The site uses the app that Galfond's team developed on the Run It Once project.
Hellmuth is friends with Greg Carlin, founder of Rush Street Interactive (BetRivers owner), and previously invested $300,000 in the company's stock. In January of this year, the Poker Brat joined the room as an ambassador.
Match results
The heads-up match had the following format:
- Stake $25/$50
- 100BB buy-in with no re-entry
- Must play until one of the players wins twice
1 heads-up
Right at the start of the game, Hellmuth won $1.5k with 88 against A3, and it took his opponent over an hour to recover and take the lead. Literally, within minutes, the hand that left Galfond with less than $500 was played.
Hellmuth 3-bet with K8 and hit two pairs on the flop. Galfond called the continuation bet on the flop, and the 2 on the turn also gave him two pairs. Both players ended up all-in, and the 17-time WSOP bracelet winner took the hand.
Galfond lost all his chips in the first heads-up with 43s against AJ.
2 heads-up
The second heads-up started with a $2.2k pot in which Hellmuth did not fold 66 even though there was an ace and two higher cards on the flop. The “Poker Brat” won all his chips back in a preflop all-in AJ vs. AQ when he hit a jack.
The larger pot faced a full house from both opponents but Hellmuth’s combination was stronger.
Galfond lost his last $300 with A7 against TT.
Phil Hellmuth's stream:
Phil Galfond's stream:
Phil Galfond and Rush Street Interactive launched their new online poker room, BetRivers Poker, i...
The largest prize pool ever on the High Stakes Duel went to the West Virginia native poker pro.
Scott Seiver dropped out of the largest High Stakes Duel match ever.
...Meanwhile, Phil Hellmuth fell just short of his 17th gold bracelet.
...