So we have had our eyes literally glued to our screen lately with the end of Phil Galfond’s first heads up challenge almost at a close, with only just over 2,000 hands remaining left to be played against VeniVidi who was once up over €900,000 on Galfond.
Phil has managed to pull ahead after a huge winning session on April 6th which saw him take just over €121k from his tough opponent in a series of coolers for the main. The graph shows an almost perfect arc of downswing turned into an upswing.
VeniVidi did pull some of his previous day’s loss back on April 7th, booking a fairly small win of €34k. Which at these stakes is not even 2 buy-ins. To put that into equivalents, if you play a $5NL game, it’s the same as you losing around $9!
Let’s get the lowdown on how Galfond put this win together
Things got off to a good start with this action Turn card giving both players three nines, but Phil holding the better kicker, Veni moved all-in on the River for value, but Phil made the call and beat him with a King High kicker to go with his three nines.
Veni bricks out again
When all the money went in on this action board, with Veni holding a wrap straight draw and King high flush draw and Phil having middle set and a straight draw himself, but more importantly it turns out, blockers to Veni making his hand. The board ran out clean for Phil and that saw him grab another buy-in from Veni.
Veni hit back with this €63k Flush over Flush pot
Phil potted the River and ended up getting bad news in the way of an All-in from Veni. Phil’s hand is nearly always a loser here, but he was getting such a good price that it was nearly impossible for him to make the laydown. He made the crying call and saw the hand he is going to see around 99% of the time there, the Nuts.
Bad run-out for Veni
This was a tough one indeed, with Phil’s broadway draw getting there on the Turn things were bad enough, but when the board paired on the River Veni should nearly always be good with Jacks full of Queens, however, this was not one of those times, with Phil having hit Queens full of Fours! A truly brutal hit for Veni.
Hero call is good
This hand was never really looking like a full house for Phil, flopping not just one but two sets! Whilst it gave him two draws at making quads it also limits his chances of filling up.
The nightmare card on the Turn hits, the spade which completes the flush and straight draw from the Flop, Veni pulled on the pressure and moved all-in by the River, Phil not buying anything he was selling made the good call and scooped the pot with three Kings against Veni’s Queen of Spades nut-flush blocker.
As this challenge nears completion, who do you think will take it down? Our bet is on Phil holding out after such a huge rebound, but anything can happen, this is PLO!
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