Galfond is an extremely successful poker player, winner of three WSOP bracelets and one of the best players in Omaha to whom a lot of news regarding have been devoted. He is known for the fact that during his entire career as a poker player, he made only two deposits of $ 50 each.
Phil was born on January 16, 1985, in North Potomac, Maryland. The spirit of competition, so important in poker, was instilled in him as a teenager when he was fond of football. As Phil admits, the ability to compete was the main reason why he went in for sports.
a college degree in philosophy. He studied at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and already in his first year of studies, he familiarized himself with online poker. interest was caused by his victory in one of the poker tournaments at PartyPoker, which brought him thirty thousand dollars. After that, for Phil Galfond, poker became incredibly interesting.
Galfond’s advanced poker career
The size of Galfond’s first deposit was fifty dollars. Due to ignorance of the fundamentals of bankroll management, the poker player immediately started participating in tournaments worth $10. Thanks to luck, he managed to double his bank and therefore he decided to switch to higher limits – $20. However, this time luck was not on Phil’s side and he soon lost all the money.
Phil used his second and last deposit of the same size – $50 – wisely. Therefore, the amount of his money was only increasing, albeit not as fast as he expected, but stably. As a result, after a year of regular playing, the gambler entered tournaments worth $200- $1,000. Having reached lawful age, Galfond first went to the World Series, as well as to the WPT tournament. To participate in both events, he raised an impressive amount of ten thousand dollars. Investments, however, were not in vain – he returned home with twenty-two thousand dollars.
first performance at the WSOP ended in 18th place. Due to his participation in the World Series, he seriously lagged behind the curriculum, so he had to miss the semester. However, instead of studying, Phil concentrated on poker because he had a lot of free time. At that time, he was already able to fully support himself financially with the help of Texas Hold’em poker.
Soon, the total Galfond’s bankroll reached $80,000, and he decided to try his luck in cash games. Thanks to this, he was able to increase his profit, as well as try out some strategic preparations. The poker player decided to move to Las Vegas to always be in the poker community.
, having believed in himself, began to sharply increase the limits, as a result of which he lost almost half of his bankroll. , such losses did not make the future poker star give up but only threw a new challenge, which he successfully coped with. At first, the player returned to the previous level of limits, and having reached perfection there, he began to gradually rise in limits, reaching the point of $200/400.
At poker tables, Galfond met with the best players in the world: Gus Hansen, Phil Ivey, Tom Dwan, Ilari Sahamis and others. Initially, meetings with such poker players ended in Gallfond’s loosing money. Thus, in January 2011, Galfond lost a total of $1,700,000. At this time, he discovered a new poker discipline – 2-7 triple draw, during the training of which he wasted over $2 million.
In Galfond’s career, there are several high-profile victories over poker stars on a global scale. So, he was able to win about $2.6 million against Victor Bloom and $ 980,000 against Gus Hansen. In 2007, the young poker player met Tom Dwan the World Series. After this meeting, Galfond became interested in learning Omaha. The more he familiarized with the game, the easier it became for him to beat his opponents.
In 2008, Phil Galfond won the WSOP bracelet, leaving behind such players as Phil Hellmuth, Daniel ‘Kid Poker’ Negreanu, Johnny Chan, and others. In total, the participants of the final table had 28 gold bracelets of the World Series, and the number of prizes could not be counted at all. As a result, Galfond got a prize fund of more than 800 000 dollars. When asked what the winning the well-known tournament meant to him, Phil replied that he had been waiting for the bracelet for a long time.
“I felt that I had already proved my worth by winning the most complicated online games, and I did it a long time ago – but only with a bracelet did I prove it to myself personally,” said Phil Galfond. Later, he also added: “For me, this means that I have confirmed my skills in front of everyone else.”
Other Phil Galfond WSOP bracelets were received in 2014 and 2018.
Today, Phil Galfond successfully plays poker, both online and in live tournaments. His preferred discipline is pot-limit Omaha.
The strategies of Phil Galfond – high stakes poker player
who has succeeded in online poker differs from newcomers and those who often fail not only with his impressive also with some good strategies that make it possible for him to occupy leading positions.
Undoubtedly, few people have all the necessary qualities given by nature, but having made certain efforts and spending enough time, the poker player is able to develop in himself/herself those features that invariably allow this player to come much closer to success. It is about Galfond’s strategies in poker and qualities that we will discuss below.
Aggression
You have probably heard the expression that poker money is made thanks to aggression. If you look at Phil’s results in different tournaments, then you will notice that aggressive actions, such as a raise or a 3-bet bring him most of his profit.
Amazing game sense
Due to the fact that the American poker player has an ability to understand his opponents at the table very quickly, he often manages to make the best decisions based on this information.
High discipline
The times when it was possible to earn much money only thanks to the knowledge of a couple of tricks and a bit of luck were left in the past. In poker, success is achieved by those who are able to work on themselves in a disciplined way every day and build their way up. One of such players is certainly Galfond. The well-known American poker player is aware that discipline in poker is needed at almost every turn. This quality has allowed him not only to start playing also to stay at the top for a long time.
The ability to adjust to the opponents
The poker game depends on many different, changing factors: from player’s image at the table, how the opponents participating in the session play, previous hands, similar situations, etc. Phil usually considers all these factors and adjust his game to specific opponents and their game styles, which can also change several times per gaming session.
The champion of balance
The American professional player knows that if he behaves similarly in one situation, he becomes extremely predictable. To cope with this issue, Galfond balances the range of his bets.
Phil Galfond net worth: exact figures
According to numerous sources, Galfond’s net worth is considered to be ten million dollars. It should be mentioned that these figures regard only his poker career revenue. The famous American gambler remains one of the best representatives of this industry so most likely Galfond will manage to increase his net worth in the future, especially if he goes on taking part successfully in diverse poker competitions.
Phil Galfond: training site and poker room
Having achieved success in poker, Phil Galfond needed only one thing – his own business – a project that he would enjoy doing and with which he could be useful for other people. Such a project was the training site Run It Once.
First, Phil asked his poker friends and well-known players such as the Dang brothers, Ben Sulsky and several others to help with the preparation of the material. The videos, where they played and voiced their thoughts, became the first materials of the site. Run It Once has grown rapidly and managed to become one of the most popular poker learning portals over time. It should be noted on the Phil Galfond twitter page, it is possible to find some curious information regarding his training site.
In 2016, Phil decided not to stop and announced the launch of his own poker room. It took three years to develop it, and in February 2019, the first beta version of Run It Once Poker (RIO Poker) became available to everyone.
The main features of RIO Poker are:
- anonymity (everyone at the table is given a random name);
- changing avatars depending on the style of the game;
- bonuses for streamers;
- of auxiliary software like trackers.
Like the owners of many other rooms, Phil tries to make poker more interesting and equalize the position of professionals and novices. And his name, which is highly respected and trusted in the world of gambling, allowed RIO Poker not to get lost among other similar gambling establishments.
The poker player’s personal life
On May 16, 2015, Phil married actress Farah Fath, who starred in soap operas for American television. After the wedding, she did not abandon her career, but at the end of 2018, the couple had a son, Spencer, and the woman took a break to devote more time to the child. Overall, the player does not like sharing any information on his personal life and even in Phil Galfond interviews, it is difficult to find much information regarding his family.
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