So as you may have heard, Phil Galfond is back on the grind after putting his life on hold to create Run It Once Poker, a new online poker site that has some really innovative features and great player rewards in comparison to most online sites around, their motto is “Long Live Poker” and with the work they have been doing to bring the focus back to the player experience we can see why.
In case this is the first you’ve heard of this Heads Up Challenge you can read our post on it here but the brief summary is that Phil is popping his head out of retirement and back into the shark-infested waters of the live and online felt to play a bunch of elite players and nosebleed stakes with huge side bets on the line!
To get a video walkthrough of the challengers that have accepted this offer take a look at this first five minutes of this update from Marle and Jamie:
Let’s take a look at the lineup
So they have broken down these line ups into a few categories, in the first we have the as seen on TV players that include Bill Perkins and Brandon Adams. These matches are going to be fun to rail for sure with Brandon and Phil’s match going to be played live over 40 hours!
Then we have the Clash of the Coaches that so far includes a huge side bet match with Chance Kornuth who founded Chip Leader Coaching and is a two-time WSOP bracelet winner.
Chance stepped up to the plate after Fernando ‘JNandez’ Habegger who had earlier accepted the terms had to back out, this came as not much of a shock to the Poker world, after all, it’s from the same coach that signed an 18-month contract with Doug Polk at Upswing Poker and then left 3 Months in.
His reasoning was probably pretty honest though, he stated that he didn’t want to go into this with a lacklustre attitude and didn’t really have the time to put in the work that the challenge required, can’t really blame him.
The new challenger Chance will get 4:1 odds for a €250k bet that could net him a Million Euros and his winnings from the match should he outrun Phil. 
Online Superstars
These are going to be mostly unknowns for a lot of us unless you are in the know about who the biggest PLO grinders are out there but we have Venividi1993 and Actionfreak taking up Phil for some healthy side bet action.
Actionfreak took second in last years $5,200 6 Max PLO Scoop game for over $134,000 and Venividi1993’s speciality in the past few years has solely been Heads up PLO crushing cash games and Sit n Go formats alike.
Then we have the infamous Jungleman whilst these terms are being finalised, Phil recently tweeted out a video of Dan Cates in Bobby’s room stating that it’s not even about the money, he just wants to break his will.
So it seems the trash-talking has commenced and I think this out of all the matches is going to be the crowd pleaser!
Unless we get surprised by the last opponent that is to be announced that is!
Who do you think has the edge?
Well, now Poker is just like sports, you can pick your favourite and back them with a bet of your own.
With owner of PokerShares Mike McDonald claiming “these Galfond challenges have more volume in side bets than anything else in poker history”
It’s a great time to know your players skill levels!
Do you believe in @PhilGalfond in the #GalfondChallenge ? Ready to put your money where your mouth is? The odds are moving constantly >>> https://t.co/r1rKsMa8B7 pic.twitter.com/ursEakChQ3
— PokerShares (@pokershares) December 30, 2019
The Trolls are Out
As with anything that is getting a lot of media coverage the trolls always come out of the woodwork, known for his trash talk about a tonne of players in the industry Luke Shwartz has popped up with some criticism on the prop bets, training sites, PLO on the whole and offered Galfond out to some 8Game!
Hi Luke! Happy New Year 🙂
Thanks for your interest in the #GalfondChallenge! What a great idea!!
We can play some 1k/2k 8-game (no pigeon stakes plz) but I‘d feel bad accepting odds from you, so I’ll offer 1.1:1 on a sidebet of $250k for a 15k hand match.
🐦 Flap Flap! https://t.co/LvDvh8Crd2
— Phil Galfond (@PhilGalfond) January 5, 2020
Maybe this will actually happen though! With Luke’s catchphrase being ‘Pigeon’, Phil tweeted this clue to who is going to fill the void in past few days…
With this all but confirming the identity of the last challenger, nothing is ever certain in the Poker world and nothing is in stone until funds are sent, so let’s just keep our fingers crossed that Luke puts his money where his mouth is for once!
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