Phil Galfond - Ask Me Anything!

Hey, everyone! I'm new to CardsChat, but I've long been familiar with your community.

I did an interview based on your questions, which I really enjoyed, a few years ago: https://www.cardschat.com/forum/poker-news-events-63/

I've been a poker pro for 15 years, and have played everything from small stakes online SNGs to high roller MTTs, but my expertise is mostly in high stakes cash games, both online and live.

For the past six years, I've also been trying my hand at some business ventures.

I founded Run It Once Training, which has been the leading poker training site for the overwhelming majority of those six years. More recently, we launched Draftboard, a Daily Fantasy Sports site, and have been working hard on launching Run It Once Poker, an online poker site.

Also launching a baby in December

Ask me anything!

Also, I wanted to throw in a Run It Once offer for CardsChat members:

If you're a new user and Sign up for a month of either our Essential plan ($24.99/mo) or our Elite plan ($99.99/mo), you'll get the 2nd month of that plan on us.

• Use this Run It Once link
• Sign up for either the Essential or Elite plan.
• Post your Run It Once username in this thread & we’ll credit you with your free 2nd month.

Please feel free to email support@runitonce.com with anything and we'll be happy to help.

I'm looking forward to answering your questions and getting to know you!

Phil I loved your videos on youtube "DonkPlay". They taught me a lot. In on this thread first. Will your poker room offer games to USA residents soon like ACR? Are you Mr. Sweets on ACR?

Have you ever played against Brazilian Gabriel Goffi? if so, what did you think of his game, is it a disperdicio that he retired from Poker:!?

playinggameswithu said:

Phil I loved your videos on youtube "DonkPlay". They taught me a lot. In on this thread first. Will your poker room offer games to USA residents soon like ACR? Are you Mr. Sweets on ACR?

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I'm glad you like the videos but FYI DonkPlay pirated all those videos from the training site that I used to work with before 2012. I don't work with them anymore, so I can't stop him.

We'd love to offer games to US residents, but unfortunately, the laws won't cooperate yet. I'm hopeful that things will keep moving in the right direction. There was a big victory recently for sports betting in the US, which I'm hoping will pave the way for poker.

I'm not Mr. Sweets on ACR but I bet I'd like him!

Thanks for the questions!

Hi Phil! This is amazing! Thanks for stopping by the forum and creating an AMA thread! Really excited to have you here.

rafffinamore said:

Have you ever played against Brazilian Gabriel Goffi? if so, what did you think of his game, is it a disperdicio that he retired from Poker:!?

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Gabriel played as verve.oasis on pokerstars, right?

I don't believe I've played with him live, but we played a whole lot of online PLO together in the range of like 3-6 years ago. From what I could tell, he was a winning regular in a lot of tough games back then. I don't know much about what he's up to now or if he's kept on top of his game.

It gets hard to keep up with the top tier guys when you're busy with other things. I know from experience!

Tammy said:

Hi Phil! This is amazing! Thanks for stopping by the forum and creating an AMA thread! Really excited to have you here.

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Thank you for the warm welcome, Tammy . This should be fun!

Who do you think the best PLO player is?

WHO DO YOU THINK THE BEST all around PLO player is online rn?

xRanieri said:

WHO DO YOU THINK THE BEST all around PLO player is online rn?

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I can't decide between Ben Sulsky (sauce123) and BERRI SWEET. I guess I should probably pick Ben because he's a Run It Once Pro

Hello Phil,

Thanks for taking some time to talk to us and answer our questions.

How many hours, or how much time do you think you put in to playing and studying the game before you had your first real big win/realized you could potentially make this a career?

Did you start getting serious about the game with cash games, MTT, or all of it at the same time? For instance, did you build up your first big bankroll from cash games or MTT, or both?

How much time did you spend in the micro and low stake games before you built up a big roll and decided to move up to higher stakes? Or did you just skip those micro and low stakes altogether?

Thanks so much for joining and starting this thread! Let me know if you need assistance with anything.

Who are your best poker buddies?

How exciting to have you join us, Phil!

Welcome aboard!

Hi Phil!
Apart from playing poker professionally you have another job?

VMVarga said:

Hello Phil,

Thanks for taking some time to talk to us and answer our questions.

How many hours, or how much time do you think you put in to playing and studying the game before you had your first real big win/realized you could potentially make this a career?

Did you start getting serious about the game with cash games, MTT, or all of it at the same time? For instance, did you build up your first big bankroll from cash games or MTT, or both?

How much time did you spend in the micro and low stake games before you built up a big roll and decided to move up to higher stakes? Or did you just skip those micro and low stakes altogether?

Click to expand...

Hey, you're very welcome and thanks for the questions!

15 years ago was a much different time in online poker, so my journey started a bit easier than most others.

I started by playing 1 table SNGs. That's essentially the only thing I played for the first 1.5yrs.

I started playing $11 and $22 SNGs on party poker with a $50 deposit (bankroll management!). I quickly found some online forums - reading posts, and sometimes books, was how I learned. Lost my $50 and redeposited, and was lucky from there on out.

I wouldn't say that I did a lot of "studying," but reading and absorbing whatever I could. I was fascinated by the game, so it was easy to retain information. Back then, you didn't have to be a great player to beat the games, and I very quickly soon I found myself playing $33 SNGs and averaging something like $25/hr.

I realize I'm not answering your specific questions, but I honestly don't have much of a clue how many hours it took before I was a winning player. I was in school at the time, but I focused a lot on poker. I know that it was 3-6 months into it that I was confident I didn't need a part-time job during college.

I never played small stakes cash games because I first rose to the "top" of online SNGs. I was playing $109s through $1k SNGs, and after advice from a poker friend, jumped into the $5/$10 NL cash games online and never looked back.

Though I've played them for a very long time now, I never played MTTs "professionally" - what I mean by that is that they've never made up more than 5% of my play, and I never relied on them for income or focused on them. Life as an MTT pro sounds stressful!

Debi said:

Thanks so much for joining and starting this thread! Let me know if you need assistance with anything.

Who are your best poker buddies?

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Thank you, Debi! Happy to be here!

Here's a long answer to your very simple question

I've had so many close poker friends, but as I started to reply, I realized how out of touch I've been with some friends I consider very close.

My first summer in Vegas, I lived in a house with several guys from the online SNG community - Andrew Robl, Dan Quinn, Peter Jetten, Max Greenwood, and Alan Sass. I also got close to Dave Benefield, and soon after, through him, Tom Dwan.

I still think of all of these people as good friends, but I've been out of touch with Alan, Max, and Peter for a while, and I'm in touch with but haven't spent much time with Tom these last few years.

I was more or less out of touch with Andrew Robl for a while, as he started playing live cash games in Vegas and I focused on online poker. In the last few years, we've reconnected in Vegas (where I now live) and he's one of my best friends once again.

Dan quickly became my closest poker friend, as we lived in the same town after that summer for many years, and he's also the co-founder of Run It Once and Draftboard, so we still work together nearly every day.

A bit later, I became very good friends with Z and Hac Dang while we were playing nosebleed cash games on Full Tilt... Jason Senti after I met him making training videos for the same site... then Ben Tollerene while I was living in Vancouver and battling him in the big Stars PLO games... and many other great friends along the way - so many that I'm going to stop listing them for fear of making some glaring omissions!

I guess what I'm getting at is that I'm realizing that while I consider myself very good friends with a lot of poker players, the games you've been playing lately have a big impact on who you spend time talking to and seeing, especially in live poker! Though I haven't been spending time with guys like Ben and Z and Hac, I still consider them very good friends, and I'd do anything for them.

I guess that's probably something most everyone can relate to - in poker and outside of it. It just caught me by surprise as I started to list my best poker friends and then think, "wait - I haven't talked to him in years!"

In Vegas these days, I spend the most time with my good friends Jason Koon, and Keith Gipson, who I started hanging out with in the last handful of years, and Andrew Robl and Brian Rast, who I met long ago and reconnected with.

I think Dan Quinn and Jason Senti, who both work with me at RIO, are the two that stand out as poker friends I've always stayed very connected to.

shells_bells_53 said:

How exciting to have you join us, Phil!

Welcome aboard!

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Thank you

mackmasterss said:

Hi Phil!
Apart from playing poker professionally you have another job?

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Hi mackmasterss!

I never had a "real job" after I found poker, but as I mentioned, I've started some businesses. Poker remained my main focus through the first 4 years of Run It Once's existence, but we took on so much in these past couple years that I work on the businesses full-time and try to find room for poker where I can.

Hi Phil,

Thank you so much for your involvement with Cardschat and for your advice.

My question is, when you first started playing live, what tells did you pick up from live play, over 15 years, how has this changed, if at all?

Great to have you on board.

Glenn

PhilGalfond said:

Hey, everyone! I'm new to CardsChat, but I've long been familiar with your community.

I did an interview based on your questions, which I really enjoyed, a few years ago: https://www.cardschat.com/forum/poker-news-events-63/

I've been a poker pro for 15 years, and have played everything from small stakes online SNGs to high roller MTTs, but my expertise is mostly in high stakes cash games, both online and live.

For the past six years, I've also been trying my hand at some business ventures.

I founded Run It Once Training, which has been the leading poker training site for the overwhelming majority of those six years. More recently, we launched Draftboard, a Daily Fantasy Sports site, and have been working hard on launching Run It Once Poker, an online poker site.

Also launching a baby in December

Ask me anything!

Also, I wanted to throw in a Run It Once offer for CardsChat members:

If you're a new user and Sign up for a month of either our Essential plan ($24.99/mo) or our Elite plan ($99.99/mo), you'll get the 2nd month of that plan on us.

To get your free month:​

• Use this Run It Once link
• Sign up for either the Essential or Elite plan.
• Post your Run It Once username in this thread & we’ll credit you with your free 2nd month.

Please feel free to email support@runitonce.com with anything and we'll be happy to help.

I'm looking forward to answering your questions and getting to know you!

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Want play omaha heads up Phil?:boxing:
Just joking:hahaha:
Good luck with the baby in December hope there is not too many teething problems
Awesome welcome to cardschat:top:

pirateglenn said:

Hi Phil,

Thank you so much for your involvement with Cardschat and for your advice.

My question is, when you first started playing live, what tells did you pick up from live play, over 15 years, how has this changed, if at all?

Great to have you on board.

Glenn

Click to expand...

You're very good at the warm welcomes here at Cardschat. Thank you

Honestly, the main thing I learned about live tells over the years are:

1) Most tells are player specific - not universal
2) Focusing on tells takes a lot of mental bandwidth. In games that aren't second nature to me, it's better if I focus fully on strategy than split my focus with tells.
3) It's extremely easy to believe you have a tell and be wrong. I'd say that on average, people who believe they have a tell on someone are wrong over 80% of the time - there is so much noise and randomness, and our brains try to find patterns where there are none.

Tells do exist, though - you just have to be very careful that you're not making big adjustments to perceived tells until you are extremely confident and that you don't get thrown off your game by expending so much effort on reading your opponents.

I know some top live players like to look at the way players put their chips in or hold their cards. I've had no success with that. I prefer to focus on body language and movement, but as I said, there are very few one-size-fits-all tells (in my opinion).

Honestly, the way that I play, it would probably be better if I focused 100% on my strengths and never on tells. My game isn't built on studying and constructing ranges away from the table and making my 'standard' plays at the table. I like to think through a lot of potential options and how I think my specific opponent might respond with different parts of his range, and doing that to the best of my abilities means maxing out my mental bandwidth on it.

Hi Phill, and welcome to our friendly CC forum

Actually, awesome to have you here, lol!
One question only: how much to rely on math in poker compared to other skills - in percentage?

How cool is this?

Welcome my friend and Congrats on an awesome year you are having.


:rock: 3rd bracelet!
PLO H/L8 has always been a favorite game of mine beside holdem.

And also the baby man they are a bundle of joy.
I have a 10 year old son and my wife just had my baby girl earlier this yr.

Uhm ok so ask anything...
I'm gonna go non poker.


Have you ever fished the Potomac?
And if so whats the biggest catch you pulled from there.




:top:Enjoy the forum.

Hi Phil, welcome to CardsChat. I don't have any questions but I look forward to following this and learning more about you

PhilGalfond said:

You're very good at the warm welcomes here at Cardschat. Thank you

Honestly, the main thing I learned about live tells over the years are:

1) Most tells are player specific - not universal
2) Focusing on tells takes a lot of mental bandwidth. In games that aren't second nature to me, it's better if I focus fully on strategy than split my focus with tells.
3) It's extremely easy to believe you have a tell and be wrong. I'd say that on average, people who believe they have a tell on someone are wrong over 80% of the time - there is so much noise and randomness, and our brains try to find patterns where there are none.

Tells do exist, though - you just have to be very careful that you're not making big adjustments to perceived tells until you are extremely confident and that you don't get thrown off your game by expending so much effort on reading your opponents.

I know some top live players like to look at the way players put their chips in or hold their cards. I've had no success with that. I prefer to focus on body language and movement, but as I said, there are very few one-size-fits-all tells (in my opinion).

Honestly, the way that I play, it would probably be better if I focused 100% on my strengths and never on tells. My game isn't built on studying and constructing ranges away from the table and making my 'standard' plays at the table. I like to think through a lot of potential options and how I think my specific opponent might respond with different parts of his range, and doing that to the best of my abilities means maxing out my mental bandwidth on it.

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Great answer! thanks.

Best of luck on your business ventures.... especially the poker site! Wishing you great success with it! (hopefully Cardschat will get a bunch of sign-ups for it..... I for one will be there at the front of the line with credit card in hand (or bitcoin))

mackmasterss said:

Hi Phil!
Apart from playing poker professionally you have another job?

Click to expand...

It's all in his initial post >>>

"For the past six years, I've also been trying my hand at some business ventures.

I founded Run It Once Training, which has been the leading poker training site for the overwhelming majority of those six years. More recently, we launched Draftboard, a Daily Fantasy Sports site, and have been working hard on launching Run It Once Poker, an online poker site."