Phil Galfond

Phil Galfond (born January 16, 1985)[1] is an American professional poker player. Galfond won three World Series of Poker bracelets, in the $5,000 buy-in pot-limit Omaha with rebuys event in 2008, the $10,000 no-limit 2-7 single draw championship in 2015 and the $10,000 Pot Limit Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better Championship in 2018. Due to his success as a high-stakes online player, he appeared on multiple seasons of GSN's High Stakes Poker.

Phil Galfond
Galfond, after winning the $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha w/Rebuys event at the 2008 WSOP
Nickname(s)OMGClayAiken (Full Tilt)
MrSweets28 (PokerStars)
Jman28 (2+2)
ResidenceNorth Potomac, Maryland, U.S.
BornJanuary 16, 1985 (1985-01-16) (age 36)
World Series of Poker
Bracelet(s)3
Final table(s)8
Money finish(es)24
Highest ITM
Main Event finish		141st, 2010
World Poker Tour
Title(s)None
Final table(s)None
Money finish(es)2

He is currently the owner of real money poker site Run It Once Poker and poker training site Run It Once Training where he also is a coach.

Personal life

Galfond is originally from North Potomac, Maryland and attended Thomas Sprigg Wootton High School and the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He used to reside in New York City where he installed a slide as his access between the two penthouse apartments he purchased in 2011.[2] He married actress Farah Fath on May 15, 2015. Their son, Spencer, was born in December 2018.[3]

Poker

Tournaments

As of February 2020, Galfond's total live tournament winnings exceed $2,900,000.[4] His 24 cashes at the WSOP account for $2,876,895 of those winnings.[5]

World Series of Poker

Galfond won the $5,000 pot-limit Omaha with rebuys event at the 2008 World Series of Poker, earning $817,781. He defeated Adam Hourani during heads-up play. The final table featured a number of well-known professional players including Phil Hellmuth, Daniel Negreanu, John Juanda, Kirill Gerasimov, Johnny Chan, David Benyamine, Brian Rast as well as online star Adam 'houdini' Hourani.[6][7] Galfond went on to win a second WSOP gold bracelet in 2015, topping a field of 77 entries in the $10,000 No-Limit 2-7 Single Draw Championship to win $224,383.[8] He then earned his third gold bracelet in 2018, winning the $10,000 Pot Limit Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better Championship for $567,788.[9]

World Series of Poker bracelets
Year Event Prize Money
2008 $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha w/ Rebuys $817,781
2015 $10,000 No-Limit 2-7 Single Draw Championship $224,383
2018 $10,000 Pot Limit Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better Championship $567,788
World Poker Tour

Galfond has two World Poker Tour in-the-money finishes. He finished in 70th place in the $25,000 buy-in World Poker Tour World Championship in April 2008, earning $39,570. In December 2012, he finished 24th in the $10,000 buy-in WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic for $31,714.[10]

Other notable tournaments

Galfond finished in 18th place at the 2006 World Series of Poker Circuit event in Grand Casino Tunica, earning $22,895.[7]

Online poker

Galfond is well known for online poker where he plays high-stakes cash games primarily $200/$400 stakes and above in no-limit Texas hold 'em and pot limit Omaha tables on Full Tilt Poker under his nickname "OMGClayAiken," and on Pokerstars under the screen name "MrSweets28."[11][12] With a lifetime net profit of over $8M in Internet poker play, he has been one of the most successful online poker players in history (as of May 2011).[13] According to Galfond, he chose “OMGClayAiken” as the antithesis of the “macho” screen names that are prevalent in online poker in hopes that other players would be embarrassed to lose to him.[14]

Due to the legal actions against online poker, which are known as Black Friday, that took place on April 15, 2011 in the United States, Galfond moved to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada so he could continue to play poker online.

In February 2013, Galfond's all-time online earnings on Full Tilt Poker came to over $10,000,000.[15][16]

Galfond Challenge

In November 2019, Galfond issued a challenge[17] to the poker world to play high-stakes heads-up pot-limit Omaha (PLO), deemed the Galfond Challenge.[18] He issued the challenge in two parts: one challenge was open to PLO coaches and the other was to everyone else in the poker world. Several opponents stepped up[19] and details were ironed out for a series of high-stakes poker matches that would be played on Galfond's online poker site, Run It Once Poker. The first six challengers were Bill Perkins, Brandon Adams, Chance Kornuth, Dan 'Jungleman' Cates, and online poker players 'ActionFreak' and 'VeniVidi1993.' In addition to the money won or lost on the poker table, Galfond and his challengers had large side bets that they were competing for.

After being down €900,000+ to poker professional VeniVidi1993, Galfond came back to win his first challenge by securing a €1,472 overall win and the side bet of €100,000.

In his match against Actionfreak, Phil Galfond ended the 15.000 hand battle with a €114,000 overall win. This win netted him the sidebet of €150,000.[20]

Business venture

In 2012, Galfond started the poker training site Run It Once Training with fellow high-stakes players, Ben Sulsky, Di Dang and Hac Dang as coaches. As of September 2019, 125 coaches have produced content for his training site.

Being concerned about the direction online poker was heading Galfond announced the launch of poker site Run It Once Poker in August 2016.[21][22] The site was launched in public beta in February 2019.[23]

In October 2020 Run it Once was one of several entities named in a $330 million dollar defamation lawsuit brought by poker professional Mike Postle.[24]

References
  1. Phil Galfond's Twitter
  2. Bachelor Builds Slide Between His NYC Apartments. Realestate.yahoo.com. Retrieved on January 4, 2012.
  3. "IT'S A BOY FOR DAYS'S FARAH FATH". Soap Opera Digest. Retrieved January 1, 2019.
  4. Butt, Robert. "Philip Galfond – Stats". The Hendon Mob. Retrieved June 11, 2008.
  5. Player Info, Winnings & Bracelets | Official World Series of Poker. Wsop.com. Retrieved on January 4, 2012.
  6. "A final table for the ages". ESPN.com. June 16, 2008. Retrieved June 17, 2008.
  7. Butt, Robert. "Philip Galfond – Results". The Hendon Mob. Retrieved June 17, 2008.
  8. "Phil Galfond Wins WSOP $10K NL 2-7 Draw Lowball Bracelet". pocketfives.com. June 16, 2015. Retrieved June 16, 2015.
  9. "WSOP: Galfond and Bellande Bag Bracelets". pocketfives.com. July 2, 2018. Retrieved July 2, 2018.
  10. Phil Galfond | World Poker Tour. wpt.com. Retrieved on February 1, 2020.
  11. http://www.runitonce.com/phil/
  12. "Phil Galfond (OMGClayAiken) Poker Bio". pokeronamac.com. Retrieved June 17, 2008.
  13. "Top Poker Winners". pokertableratings.com. Retrieved May 3, 2011.
  14. Galfond interview by Amanda Leatherman for PokerNews (June 17, 2008); https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUUx0wcn29A
  15. Pempus, Brian (July 27, 2011). "Phil Galfond Returns to Online Poker". CardPlayer. CardPlayer.com. Retrieved August 1, 2011.
  16. Rhodes, M. (March 12, 2012). "Phil "MrSweets28" Galfond's $1 Million Upswing After Winning $650k from Isildur1". OnlinePoker.Net. OnlinePoker.Net. Retrieved April 2, 2012.
  17. "Heads Up Battle". runitonce.eu. Retrieved November 19, 2019.
  18. "Galfond Challenge". pocketfives.com. Retrieved January 20, 2020.
  19. "Phil Galfond Ready To Battle in Galfond Challenges". pocketfives.com. Retrieved January 21, 2020.
  20. https://www.runitonce.eu/galfond-challenge/#actionfreak
  21. "Phil Galfond Announces Run It Once Poker Site". Retrieved October 3, 2019.
  22. "A Poker Site Should". A Pokersite Should. Retrieved October 3, 2019.
  23. "Phil Galfond Run It Once Poker Site Public Launch". Retrieved October 3, 2019.
  24. Koerner, Brendan I. (October 6, 2020). "A Poker Pro Accused of Cheating Wants $330 Million in Damages".
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