Phil Galfond Poker Site
It had been a while since we heard from Phil Galfond about his new online poker site, Run It Once. The site finally went live in February and he gave an update in April, but for the most part, it has been radio silence since. Nothing wrong with that – it’s just how it is. Recently, though, he popped into his blog for another update, this time telling everyone that he, himself, will be playing on the site.
Galfond informed the poker community that he has “gotten approval” to play on Run It Once. I do not know what the approval process is, but it is understandable that a site owner might either not be allowed to play on his own site or have to jump through a bunch of hoops to do so.
Phil Galfond is preparing to launch his own online poker site and he wants it to be a platform that’s by players and for players. With more than $10 million in online cash game earnings, $2.3 million in live earnings and a WSOP bracelet to his name, it’s fair to say that Galfond knows a thing or two about poker.
One would think that people may be skeptical of Galfond playing on his site. The “poker is rigged” conspiracy theorists could come out in full force, believing that Galfond will know the cards or that the software will stack the deck for him. It is understandable, as after all, there have been incidents where someone did rig the game (see: UltimateBet and Absolute Poker). There is no reason to think Galfond would do anything, but it certainly isn’t unreasonable to be wary, which is why he had to get approved to play on his site.
- November 18, 2020 Online Poker. Never doubt Phil Galfond’s abilities to come from behind in a Galfond Challenge. The Run it Once poker site founder has erased nearly all of a $300,000 deficit to Chance Kornuth, and all the momentum is currently on his side.
- Phil Galfond takes one of the key principals in poker, the Minimum Defense Frequency (aka 1-alpha), and sheds light on various scenarios where it is theoretically okey to deviate from the mathematically derived defense frequency.
- Phil Galfond won his third WSOP bracelet in 2018. Splash The Pot Rewards System Explained In his initial post about the Run It Once site, Galfond explained his belief that a poker site should value all types of players, so it comes as no surprise that they’re launching with a very visible rewards system that rewards all players equally.
- Phil Galfond Playing Poker. Galfond’s Full Tilt poker screen name is now legendary: OMGClayAiken. He said he chose the name as a sort of contrarian approach to the hyper-aggressive and macho monikers often taken by poker players wanting to sound tough. He says that when Full Tilt went under, he had about a half of million dollars on the site.
Run It Once tables are anonymous, but Galfond will not be; he will go by his own name at the tables and will have a custom avatar.
Galfond said that part of his excitement for getting to play on Run It Once is to be able to stream his site’s games. He has been able to stream previously, but on competing sites. Makes sense to want to show off his baby. He has also been giving money away this week. Anyone who takes 100 big blinds from him in a single hand wins an additional €20. He has frequented micro and low stakes tables, so that €20 can be pretty meaningful to lots of players.
He also announced that a recent update added many features that players have been wanting. Directly from his blog post, all parenthetical comments Galfond’s:
• Finalized HH Formatting
• HH Downloads
• Multiple Hotkey updates (now nearly perfected), including mouse hotkeys
• New Table Backgrounds
• New Splash the Pot Visuals
• Automatic Updater
• New Card Options, including the solid 4 color deck
• Table Layout Options
• Game Alerts on Discord (I recommend you check these out!)
Galfond also lamented a decline in player traffic, citing player frustrations with bugs that existed prior to the May 29th update.
Phil Galfond Poker Site
“As they left,” he added, “liquidity suffered, which is, unfortunately, a problem that compounds – other players who still loved Run It Once couldn’t find their games available when they wanted, and they followed suit.”
To that point, Run It Once plans on increasing its marketing efforts, including streaming and promotions, in order to grow the player base.
