Chance Kornuth Concedes In High-Stakes Poker Challenge Against Phil Galfond

Chance Kornuth has officially conceded in his high-stakes cash game poker showdown against three-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner Phil Galfond. The two played around 25,400 hands of heads-up $100-$200 pot-limit Omaha before Kornuth, a two-time bracelet winner himself, decided to throw in the towel and pay out the $250,000 side bet he had put up against Galfond’s $1 million as to which of the two players would come out on top after playing an agreed-upon total of 35,000 hands. At the time the match was called, Kornuth had reportedly lost $726,500 to Galfond.

I've decided to concede the challenge . Congrats to PhilGalfond</a> on another <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/GalfondChallenge?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#GalfondChallenge</a> Victory. It was an incredibly fun battle even though I lost. Going to take a few days w/ friends and family, and share more about my experience in the weeks to come on <a href="https://twitter.com/ChipLDR?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">ChipLDR

— Chance Kornuth (@ChancesCards) January 23, 2021

The two players were just shy of completing three-quarters of the 35,000 hands when Kornuth made the decision to call it early in the 50th session of the match. Kornuth had held the lead for the majority of the first 37 sessions, building his advantage to as high as $344,500 in profit before Galfond launched a late surge that turned the tables. In the three sessions that followed his low point of -$344,500 that was reached on Nov. 13, Galfond booked three wins in a row to erase $313,000 in losses and nearly pull even.

The two hovered around even for the remaining sessions in November, but December saw Galfond go on the winning streak that ultimately proved decisive. He booked an $88,000 win on Dec. 8 to regain the lead in the match and then proceeded to win 9 out of the next 13 sessions to increase his total profits to $680,500. Galfond won $126,000 on Jan. 22 in what proved to be the penultimate session of the challenge.

Session 50 was delayed due to technical difficulties with the live stream coverage of the match. By the time the issues were sorted out, Kornuth had reportedly lost a few all-ins to fall to be stuck $46,000 on the day. Just minutes after the live stream began to show the two playing, Kornuth sat out. Farah Galfond, Phil’s wife, was making her debut as a commentator. She and fellow commentator Nick Steiner were killing time, reading questions from the chat during the break in action, when Galfond let them know that the match was officially over. Both competitors then joined the live stream via a video call after the shocking announcement that Kornuth had conceded.

“It was a heck of a battle, and things didn’t really go my way down the stretch,” said Kornuth. “Phil played great.”

Kornuth went on to share that he sold action for the match based on a $1 million total. With the $250,000 side bet he was posting, that meant that he had set a $750,000 loss limit for himself.

“So I knew about my number coming in, and when I lost two all-ins I thought I better double-check the numbers, and it was there,” explained Kornuth about the decision to end the match.

Galfond took to Twitter shortly after the match concluded to make a statement about the result, making a point to thank all of the commentators who spent so much time analyzing the action on the live streams. Among those who committed a great deal of time to covering the match were Card Player columnist and two-time WSOP bracelet winner Nathan Gamble. You can check out his Twitch channel to view archived action from the match.

I guess it was “only” 4 months? I have no sense of time anymore because of these things.

Thanks to henry_kilbane</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/Surfbum4life?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">Surfbum4life, o8grinder</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/ThalloPoker?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">ThalloPoker, and @smithers4pres for holding down the booth this whole time. I hope everyone enjoyed watching!

— Phil Galfond (@PhilGalfond) January 23, 2021

This is the third Galfond Challenge match that has been completed, with Galfond coming out on top in all three so far. He started of the challenge in dramatic fashion by mounting a €900,000 comeback to beat ‘VeniVidi1993’ in the final session of the match. Galfond’s second victory saw him hold a lead throughout his battle against Ioannis ‘ActionFreak’ Kontonatsios.’

With this third match now concluded, Galfond’s only active match is now against entrepreneur and frequent high-stakes poker player Bill Perkins. Just two sessions of $100-$200 pot-limit Omaha have been played in this match so far with Galfond up $90,144.05 for the time being. The two have not played a session since April of 2020. With a total of seven matches having been announced, Galfond has at least four more opponents to contend with.

Below is a look at all seven challenges and the details regarding stakes and side bets:

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