Phil Galfond: PLO challenge updates!

puzzlefish

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Good for Phil. He is not a quitter.
 
vokrugdookola

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In his room he played with his money. A win-win option. Especially if his opp leaves bankroll in the Galfond room. So, drove back and forth free mani, advertising, marketing
 
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valeski 28

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Good morning here.I think this first challenge is over.Galfond has no chance at all for a comeback.Against Perkins will be a different story ,I guess.
 
TeUnit

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Where did VeniVidi1993 come from, have not heard of him before?
 
antonis32123

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This challenge has started very bad for Galfond , I want to see how it will end , some matches vs other players yet to come . , Generally I find these challenges made by very good players , provocative for the rest . These challenges '' me against the world , me against everyone else '' are exaggerated ,regardless how good this player is , there will always be some other players in the world , the same as good like him , or even better . Also a less experienced player might strike the better one , due to bad run/variance , even in a not small amount of hands played . Tom Dwan's failed not completed challenge in the past is remarkable .


For Galfond's challenge , despite what I said before in this post , I initially thought he would win in the end , when I first read the news , because he's far , way far imo too good and better than the rest . So I thought , although I said I wish Jungleman defeats him . Who knows , maybe they 'll all defeat Galfond in his own challenge . Perhaps (improbable to me ) he 'll be forced to quit , that will be an example of a challenge not to be repeated again in the future by other pros , hopefully .
 
GIRFIED

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Galfond is currently a great example for players, despite the losses, he has shown an attitude that many of us should imitate, despite the results, he decided to extract positive learning, that is, he prefers to use this opportunity to teach and show others how to handle downswing.

The Best of luck to Galfond.
 
Tunkki

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Where did VeniVidi1993 come from, have not heard of him before?

He is good PLO HU payer but there isn't that running anymore so just few people know who is the end boss
 
vokrugdookola

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The essence of this challenge was not to make money, but to attract people to your room. Plus, Phil understood that there was a chance to draw a round sum. And he was ready for this. Again, this is only the first opponent.
 
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Richard Grant

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Seems like he is a getting a right hiding. Can variance explain it or is he up against a better player?
 
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Seems like he is a getting a right hiding. Can variance explain it or is he up against a better player?


Worst case scenario, I believe.

Veni Vidi is unquestionably one of the world's best and Phil has not be getting the best cards (and at times playing poorly). As I noted elsewhere, he admitted just prior to the challenge he had not prepped and speculated he could study and learn as the challenge was launched...yikes.
 
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Its getting painful to watch. Now down almost 800k with 1/3 of the challenge complete. Phil had a nice win a couple days ago but was crushed a quarter mil yesterday. I thought there was a cap but I guess not.
 
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I think the problem is Galfond is on the brink of potentially losing a lot of credibility both for himself and the site.

It would appear like the only way he can extricate himself from the hole he has dug with Veni Vidi would be via a massive run of good luck. Then we have Perkins who I am not sure anyone takes that seriously as a poker player, period, let alone a PLO specialist. So even if Galfond pounds him, few will care and I can't imagine many will watch (well maybe if its a train wreck for Perkins).

Then we have Kornuth and Jungleman who are both competent players (though not renowned for PLO) and I am sure they will want to prove themselves. Next Actionfreak, who is a PLO specialist and could provide another banana skin for Galfond. Then finally Brandon Adams, competent as well, and I believe will be very prepared by the time his challenge arrives.

The issue, however, is I think people are going to start to lose interest unless Galfond can make a remarkable comeback against Veni Vidi. He should have scheduled Perkins first, but then who knows the sequence of how the contracts were signed/scheduled...
 
Shells

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I think the problem is Galfond is on the brink of potentially losing a lot of credibility both for himself and the site.

The issue, however, is I think people are going to start to lose interest unless Galfond can make a remarkable comeback against Veni Vidi. He should have scheduled Perkins first, but then who knows the sequence of how the contracts were signed/scheduled...


I am hoping Phil can make a comeback at least come back some - it seems nearly improbable that he will make a complete recovery. We all know Phil is very well known for his PLO prowess but this latest endeavour shows just how human he really is trying to survive the downswing or maybe he has met more than his match with Veni Vidi?
 
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Before the challenge, I can't remember anyone wishing anything but the best for Galfond...but, even if I was curious as to whether Galfond could sweep all before him, I did not expect this.

This is where I think we have a conjunction of bad ideas. The first would be launching the site without a thorough grasp of what it would take to make it viable/profitable (Galfond has admitted as much).

The second would be to issue a blanket challenge to all and anyone in an attempt to draw eyes and traffic to the site. The announcement of the challenge drew new players to the site but specifically that meant a handful up to two handfuls per day (in comparison to the established sites). In terms of current stream watchers (Twitch) the figure appears to have averaged around 3,000- even with all the discussion/headlines amongst the poker community. Jamie Staples draws on average double the amount of viewers for every one of his streams. So the notion this was a great promotion/marketing scheme in real world terms is questionable.

The third appears to have been the happenstance of scheduling Veni Vidi first. Even if there is a huge swing in variance back towards Galfond his credibility has been given a black eye. As detailed above, Perkins is not to be taken seriously, but all the other players could give Galfond a serious match. Kornuth has been given silly odds (4 to1 I believe) and then we have actionfreak, who many say could prove as difficult as Veni Vidi.

Galfond did not prep for the match prior to playing Veni Vidi. The result is, as someone succinctly put it, 'a world class PLO heads up specialist from 2010 sitting down with a world class PLO heads up specialist from 2020'.

So will this be enough to draw traffic to Run It Once? That remains debatable. But I imagine every time Galfond faces a losing session from here on out, it will lose Galfond (therefore the site) more credibility. As for any financial hit Galfond personally is taking - I presume he is wealthy enough to afford the losses (for the time being at least). However, that has nothing to do with the financial viability of Run It Once. Galfond has discussed backers and the pressing need to drive revenue to the site otherwise they would have to review where they stood.

Unless he can start playing like a boss against Veni Vidi immediately, Run It once will remain languishing in the doldrums, as I don't think the Perkins match will inject much enthusiasm. I then would speculate if the Galfond Challenge started off on the wrong foot, subsequently meandered along for several more months, people are generally going to lose interest.

If this is peak 'Galfond Challenge' and the interest in real world, commercial terms is fairly insignificant, I can't say I am optimistic in the longer term.
 
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Yikes- day 15 over and although swingy in places, Veni Vidi went another $100,000 ahead so over all he is now S898, 440 in front.
 
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DAVID KEHRER

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hope he can get back some before its over
 
Vilgeoforc

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500 thousand is a serious loss. It seems Galfond is not as good at PLO as many people think.
 
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Shells

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500 thousand is a serious loss. It seems Galfond is not as good at PLO as many people think.


I can see how some people wouldn't think Phil was as good as thought, but could this also be a serious downswing?

In his defence, good players have downswings too.
 
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Vlad Nesterenko

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it will be very interesting to see how Phil handles this loss, whether he can return to the game after such a failure
 
jsnake716

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The challenge will resume on Wed. March 4 , check out Run it Once Poker for more details.

I am a fan of Phil's, I was sort of hoping he would pay this one off and move on, BUT -Phil did not become successful in life by giving up. I have thought about how I reacted to the people who are Phil Haters for whatever reason, and sadly, this is the "nature" of online commentary. Many people who have never risked anything will never understand a person who makes a decision and will follow it through. Phil is obviously not going to go broke from these challenges and his wife is supporting him so go ahead and hate if you must. Phil is doing exactly what he wants to do and that is a beautiful thing.
 
Shells

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The challenge will resume on Wed. March 4 , check out Run it Once Poker for more details.

I am a fan of Phil's, I was sort of hoping he would pay this one off and move on, BUT -Phil did not become successful in life by giving up. I have thought about how I reacted to the people who are Phil Haters for whatever reason, and sadly, this is the "nature" of online commentary. Many people who have never risked anything will never understand a person who makes a decision and will follow it through. Phil is obviously not going to go broke from these challenges and his wife is supporting him so go ahead and hate if you must. Phil is doing exactly what he wants to do and that is a beautiful thing.



That's awesome he will resume his challenge! (he just needed to regroup - I guess he's human after all! :))

I don't think there are as many haters as you may have stated though - sometimes it's easier for some to be a bit more critical than Phil's diehard fans and some words can hurt. Try to be objective and know some days are just better than others therefore jumping on criticism may sound like hate, but in fact, it's not.

Eventually, those who are 'haters' quit hating because the cream rises to the top, right?! - given there is just not as much to hate on. :)
 
Vilgeoforc

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I can see how some people wouldn't think Phil was as good as thought, but could this also be a serious downswing?

In his defence, good players have downswings too.

I think this is a consequence of the fact that Galfond did not play for a long time, and VeniVidi is a player equal to him in strength. If it's really downswing, then the situation should level out, and the game will go with varying success.
 
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