Phil Galfond’s All Grown Up And Captures Second WSOP Bracelet

Greek philosopher Heraclitus famously said that, “Change is the only constant in life.”

A lot of things have changed for high-stakes poker pro Phil Galfond since he broke onto the live poker scene by winning the 2008 World Series of Poker $5,000 pot-limit Omaha rebuy event for $817,781. The young gun, who had first made a name for himself as “OMGClayAiken” playing and winning millions in nosebleed pot-limit Omaha (PLO) and no-limit hold’em games is in a different place.

He’s married now and owns his own poker training and clothing business. In the intervening seven years since he won that first bracelet, he has seen the online poker landscape in America violently shaken by the events of Black Friday, forcing him to establish residence in Vancouver, Canada in order to continue playing online.

While Heraclitus obviously had a point, in some ways, things are very much the same for Galfond. He’s still widely considered one of the best poker players of his generation. He is still a regular at the highest stakes in online poker and he is still winning WSOP titles, most recently taking down the 2015 $10,000 no-limit deuce-to-seven single draw lowball championship event for $224,383 and his second bracelet.

Card Player recently caught up with Galfond as he prepared to take his seat in the $500,000 buy-in Super High Roller Bowl tournament to discuss the changes in his life, the shifts in the high stakes online world, and his recent bracelet win.

Growing Up

“It’s weird because it doesn’t feel like it’s been that long,” said Galfond when asked about how his world has evolved since his 2008 bracelet win. “But it’s been several years. I’m a grown up now and then I was a kid. I was 23 then, I’m 30 now.”

Galfond said the more traditional trappings of adulthood were not something that he planned out, but more just happened to arise organically. He married Farah Fath, an actress best know for playing Gigi Morasco on the soap opera One Life to Live, just weeks before the World Series of Poker began.

His business is Run It Once poker training. The site has nearly 2,000 videos made by Galfond and other top pros to help subscribers learn how to play poker at a higher level. They also have branded clothing, bags, and even playing cards.

“It kind of happened because I always enjoyed talking strategy and writing articles,” said Galfond in regards to how he decided to start a business. “I always wanted to make videos, and when I had built up some profile in the poker world, I had the opportunity to. I did my first training video at CardRunners, then made a lot for Blue Fire Poker. It turned into starting my own training business because I still really wanted to teach and I became interested in the business side as well and thought I could make some improvements.”

Living in Vancouver with his wife, working on his business and passion to teach, it might seem that Galfond has cultivated a more typical and stable life, but he contends that, “My hours are bizarre, just like every other poker player.”

At least the fact that he mostly limits his tournament play to summer events in Las Vegas helps, as he mostly plays poker from the comfort of home.

“I’m a homebody, I like my routine, so for me traveling around the world for tournaments doesn’t excite me enough. It’s not so much that I’m trying to create a stable life, that’s just what I prefer.”

High Stakes Low Ball

Another aspect of Galfond’s life that has changed is just what type of poker he plays primarily to earn his living. When he was playing nosebleed PLO years ago not many people might have guessed that he would eventually spend much of his time playing limit triple draw deuce-to-seven lowball.

“For the past three years my online play has been split between pot-limit Omaha and limit triple draw deuce-to-seven, which has been running at the highest stakes, whereas PLO has kind of died off at the highest stakes. I play a ton of $25-$50 and some $50-$100 PLO, but if I want to play any nosebleeds it’s triple draw. Eight-game mixes run at high stakes as well, but I’m not as proficient in the H.O.R.S.E. games.”

PLO is a game characterized by big swings, with hand values running close together. While deuce-to-seven is definitely an action game, playing fixed-limit betting structure does seem to be less stressful in a certain sense for Galfond.

“Pot-limit Omaha is probably more tense in that one big hand can be quite a lot of money,” said Galfond with a chuckle that seems to imply that, in his experience, that’s an understatement. “In deuce the swings are still just as big over the course of a day or a week, but every individual pot you are only making a decision for one fixed big bet at a time. So it’s not quite as intense but it still requires a lot of focus and still very much keeps me on the edge of my seat.”

“For better or worse, in a game like triple draw deuce-to-seven, if you are in a very good game, you can do fine on autopilot,” said Galfond. “If you are in a tough game or especially a tough opponent heads-up, you are going to get crushed unless your autopilot game is very finely tuned. In pot-limit Omaha though, even in a very good game you can’t really autopilot because any single pot can cost you a lot more.”

Much like pot-limit Omaha, triple draw deuce-to-seven is often played short-handed at the highest levels, ramping up the variance and the excitement.

“The triple draw games used to run a lot six-handed, nowadays its mostly heads-up action against other pros. A lot of the matches I play probably without having an edge, but I really enjoy learning and I find it a super fun heads-up game.”

Going For The Gold

Galfond’s time spent playing deuce-to-seven at the highest levels has seemed to pay off at the World Series of Poker the past two years. In 2014 he finished sixth in the $10,000 triple-draw championship event. This year he improved two places, taking fourth in the same event.

“I’ve had a lot of success in triple-draw tournaments without playing that many of them.”
Although he plays primarily triple draw lowball, Galfond won his second WSOP bracelet in the $10,000 single draw no-limit lowball, defeating two-time champion of the event Nick Schulman to win $224,383 and his second bracelet.

“No-limit deuce doesn’t really run at high stakes online, but it has some of the same math involved in and understanding triple draw does help you understand the game better.”

Galfond found validation in performing well in tournaments of the game that he’s been focusing on.

“It’s actually pretty cool because I won the PLO bracelet about a year after I started playing PLO pretty seriously online. Now it’s been a couple years since I started playing deuce online, but it’s almost become my second game and is the game I work on the most. There’s a lot of luck in tournaments, but I do I find it pretty cool that I’ve had success in the games that I happen to be focused on and best at. I like that I have done well in tournaments that I feel strong in.”

Galfond has a calm, scholarly manner about him that might lead one to believe that he is only in poker to play as well as possible and win as much as he can, but he admits that the symbolism of the bracelet is important to him.

“It was definitely meaningful to win another bracelet. I can’t say it meant as much as my first bracelet win, because at that time I was relatively unknown and that was big validation. Not that it is not a dream for me anymore, but back then I was a kid and to win a World Series of Poker bracelet had been a dream of mine for a long time.”

“With this win, it had been a long time since I’d won a big tournament. I know that tournament doesn’t really prove anything necessarily about ones skill at a game, but it does kind of validate you in people’s eyes. I have a lot of respect from the community already specifically as a PLO cash game player. But winning tournaments, because I’m not known as one of the best tournament players in the world, does in a way mean more to me.”

Looking Ahead

Galfond is now in his thirties, and although age is only a number, he seems to be considering how his approach to the game might change as he gets older and the nature of the high stakes world changes.

“It’s tough because what I love to do is compete at the highest stakes and for a long time you could that without being too irresponsible. But these days the highest stakes games are so, so tough, especially if you are branching out to games that aren’t your specialty. As a result it’s pretty easy to have things go very poorly and unlike eight years ago, when if you went on a down swing there was kind of money growing on trees elsewhere, at a little lower stakes, but that is not the case anymore.”

“So now you do have to be a little more protective of your bankroll, especially now that I’m getting older and starting a family. I wish that I could just battle every day against the toughest players at the highest stakes, but I can’t responsibly do that. I guess it’s still a goal to be more successful than I even have been already.”

Galfond may be looking to be more careful overall, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t still willing to play some seriously high stakes. This interview was conducted while he waited to take his seat in a half-million dollar buy-in tournament at Aria Resort & Casino, where he butted heads with 43 of the games top stars over a $21.5 million prize pool.

“I love it, it’s fun and exciting. I think what a lot of people who can afford to play in these like about them is that they get a good chance of winning part a huge prize pool without having to wade through 6,000 people in the main event. They can have a very real shot at a final table and a win, so if you can afford it this kind of competition is really thrilling.”

Galfond did not make the money in that event, but still had quite an impressive summer with the one bracelet win, two total final tables and five cashes. While his WSOP success is great, Galfond says his focus as a poker professional is still firmly on online high stakes cash games, though, and that’s just the way he likes it.

“I love playing online, I still have a lot of fun doing it. I still wake up excited to play.”

As Heraclitus said, change is constant. These days Phil Galfond has a wife, a growing business, two WSOP gold bracelets, and enthusiasm for the day-to-day execution of his job. Why would he want to change a thing? ♠