It was the oracle Kevin Garnett who once said, “Anything is possiblllllle!!!”*
On Sunday, self-described “washed-up poker pro” and founder of the Run It Once online poker room, Phil Galfond, completed his comeback in the first match-up of the Galfond Challenge. Down €900,240.17 after the February 9th session, Galfond nailed down the win with fewer than 100 of the 25,000 hands remaining, providing 2020 with its best poker story so far.
There was no way Galfond could recover
To recap: Galfond and VeniVidi1993 played heads-up €100/€200 Pot-Limit Omaha on Run It Once starting on January 22nd. The match was to span 25,000 total hands. In addition to any winnings earned over the course of the challenge, the player who came out ahead, by no matter what amount, also won a side bet. For this side bet, Galfond put up €200,000 against VeniVidi1993’s €100,000.
To say it was a struggle from the start for Galfond is to put it as mildly as possible. He lost the first 11 sessions and 14 of the first 15 to fall behind by an unthinkable €900k.
At that point, Galfond’s mind was spinning. He took a break from the challenge to think over his options, not sure if he could even continue. The problem with quitting – even if it was the prudent decision – was that he would lose the side bet. Of course, he would also have no chance to cut into the deficit.
He posted a lengthy essay on Twitter, explaining that he was at the point where he “couldn’t seem to gather my thoughts coherently, or to make reads like I normally do.” Galfond wasn’t sure if he was out of his depth or if it was just the most insane downswing the world has ever seen.
Not so fast, my friend
After a chance to take a breath, Galfond decided to continue in early March and it was like night and day. He won nearly €200,000 in the very first session after the break and though VeniVidi1993 won the next match, Galfond won at least two in a row from that point forward.
He finally took the lead overall on April 6th, though he did give it back a couple sessions later.
Going into Sunday’s session, the 39th of the challenge, the two competitors needed 698 hands to get to 25,000. Galfond was behind by €8,171.67, less than half a buy-in. The lead went back and forth a couple times, with VeniVidi1993 extending it enough at one point where it looked like he would take it.
The hand of the series
But with just 75 hands remaining, Galfond was up €1,780.08 and the two players got involved in the deciding hand.
Galfond raised pre-flop and VeniVidi1993 made the call to bring on a flop of 4c-Jd-9d. Galfond then bet pot and VeniVidi1993 called again. On the 4d turn, Galfond put in a half-pot bet, getting another call.
The river is where it all went down. The Ts was dealt and Galfond potted it. VeniVidi1993 dipped into his time bank and ended up calling. The poker client shipped the pot to Galfond has he showed Tc-Td-Qs-8d. He had turned a flush and rivered a full house.
That pot gave Galfond a €12,571.08 overall lead in the series and with 74 hands remaining, he was able to fold the rest of the way and still come out €1,671.58 ahead.
In his interview with the Twitch stream commentators afterward, Galfond said that he found out that VeniVidi1993 had a 9-4-x-x in the clinching hand for a worse full house. He also said that as the hands ticked away, he was getting into situations where he would do the math hand-to-hand and realized that there were certain situations in which he could not fold if the pot got big enough. It was an unusual situation for a cash game, knowing that he had to try to control the pot size, else get to a point of no return, even if he didn’t like his hand.
Up next for Galfond is Bill Perkins and “The Thirst Lounge.” He said on Sunday that he wanted to get going as early as Tuesday, but the schedule was still in the works.
*I was going to go with the obvious Easter “resurrection” joke, but I decided the fruit was too low-hanging.
