If I just saw my financial life flash before my eyes, I think I would want a few days to chill and decompress before embarking upon another harrowing poker adventure. But then I’m not Phil Galfond and I’ve never played a cash game more expensive than $1/$2.
On Tuesday, Galfond got right back into the Galfond Challenge, taking on his second adversary, hedge fund manager and high stakes amateur poker player, Bill Perkins.
What are the deets?
The basic structure of the match-up is the same as Galfond’s competition with VeniVidi1993, but the details are different. Most notably, he contest is being held on partypoker, rather than on Run It Once, the online poker room founded by Galfond himself. I am not sure why this is the case, but if I had to guess, it is because either a) Perkins doesn’t want Galfond to have “home court advantage,” or b) Perkins is in a jurisdiction that is barred from Run It Once.
With the game on partypoker, the currency is U.S. dollars, though the Euro-to-USD conversion is fairly close to 1:1, so if you don’t want to convert, estimate the Euro being worth a little more than the dollar. The game is $100/$200 Pot-Limit Omaha and the side bets are massive: Galfond is risking $1 million while Perkins is putting up $250,000.
The match will last for 50,000 or until someone loses $400,000, whichever comes first. The winner at the end of the challenge will take the side bet.
Fun first day
The kickoff session on Tuesday was much more entertaining than any of the sessions against VeniVidi1993 (save for the final session). Galfond streamed it on Twitch, as usual, but this time, he turned on his webcam so he could provide commentary to viewers the entire time. His cards were also face-up on the stream (there was a delay to prevent cheating), making it even more interactive for fans.
The session had a much lighter feel, as well, thanks to Perkins and Galfond getting on the phone with each other for the last 40 minutes. It became almost like a weekend poker game between buddies, except that these buddies were trying to take hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars from each other. I mean, I know the pots in my home games are always worth thousands of dollars, but I’m just a schlub.
And because the game was on partypoker rather than Run It Once, there was no live tracking of hand counts and profit totals. Afterward, Galfond guessed he was down less than $6,000 after estimating he was down $50,000 at one point. Checking today, though, the Galfond Challenge website says Perkins is winning by €1,561.86 after 388 hands. The currency differences are a little confusing because Run It Once is putting everything in terms of Euro and both partypoker and the competitors are using dollars. Hopefully that will get straightened out before someone gets close to losing $400,000, as they wouldn’t want the match declared over if it’s not.
At any rate, €1,561.86 is $1,703.69 as of April 15th.
The men only played one table instead of the two Galfond and VeniVidi1993 played, hence the lower number of hands. This match will take a while.
