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As the Galfond Challenge headed into its third full week, things kicked off with a Sunday session, the 15th of the heads-up pot-limit Omaha match between Run It Once Poker founder Phil Galfond and mystery challenger 'Venividi1993'.
Coming into the week stuck just shy of €800,000 across a little more than 9,000 hands, Galfond was looking to turn things around at least a little bit. Any decent win would serve to both eat into his losses and give hope to his legions of fans.
However, Venividi fed him another dose of six-figure losses on Sunday, running his win to more than €900,000 over the course of 9,927 of the planned 25,000 hands. That leaves Galfond on pace to lose about just short of €2.5 million when factoring in the side bet in which he laid Venividi 2-to-1.
Professional poker player Phil Galfond has managed to recover from a €900,000 losing run in a heads up battle against online regular Venividi. Coin Rivet reported on Galfond's downswing in. Vitch has been playing poker professionally for more than a decade. He still mostly plays in cash games. During the online poker boom, Vitch was co-owner and a poker instructor at the website DeucesCracked.com. He is married and has one child – a four-year-old daughter. ‘Veni Vidi1993,’ is the bookies favourite with PokerShares offering odds of 1.74, with Galfond an outside bet at 2.13, There’s also a side bet up for grabs with Galfond’s €200k versus VeniVidi’s €100k. You can watch the entire squabble on Twitch/RunItOncePoker. Here are the rest of the jigsaw pieces. No dates on these, yet.
SEE ALSO: PLO Poker: A Beginner's Guide to Pot-Limit Omaha
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VeniVidi has amassed a €900,000 lead in Match #1 of the 2020 #GalfondChallenge at Run It Once Poker, and is now poised to collect another €18,000 in total “penalties” for the month of February. The poker player Venividi1993 was first discovered by HighstakesDB on the high stakes tables of PokerStars on Thursday, July 7, 2016. Since then, a total of 42029 poker hands have been tracked with.
Day 15
About 50 hands into the 15th session, Galfond found a dream spot to get his money in as he raised a turn bet from Venividi on . Venividi responded by potting almost all in and Galfond decided to play for stacks with for two pair and the nut flush draw. Venividi was in rough shape with for a wrap and a pair, and Galfond filled up on the river for a €60K pot.
After peaking around +€60,000, Galfond shipped back a stack when he turned nines full of jacks, only for Venividi to check-call with trips, fill up on the river, and check-call Galfond's shove. Venividi grabbed another stack on a nasty beat when they got in on a board of with Galfond holding the nuts and Venividi . He found a king on the river and they went to break about square.
Galfond regained his lead with a hero call on a completed board of . He potted river in position for €7,300 and Venividi shoved for Galfond's last €22K. Galfond used most of his time then called with an eight-high flush, with Venividi showing for a bluff.
Galfond got back up about €60K but Venividi worked his way back into the black when each player flopped a set and the board ran out paired. Venividi check-raised all in with his kings full and Galfond couldn't find a fold with tens full. Venividi stacked Galfond again with top set against an overpair and a straight draw to go into the last break a €66K winner.
Venividi finished strong as well. He picked off an all-in bluff for a pot of €50K with trip kings on a board of as Galfond shoved with . Galfond recovered one stack check-raising all in with on . Venividi called with but still booked another very solid six-figure win moments later.
Hands Played: 659
Results: Venividi1993 +€102,593.34
Full session video
Match Suspended
A planned session for Tuesday was canceled, leaving many to wonder about the fate of the match. Galfond himself said on Twitter that he's still loving what he's doing and he has plenty of reason to continue to play Venividi despite the grim results so far.
Tuesday evening, Galfond confirmed some fans' fears as he announced a suspension of the match with Venividi. Here's what he had to say:
As I mentioned in my last downswing post, a big consideration during any downswing is when it's time to give up and play elsewhere, as is figuring out when it's time to take a break and regroup.
Up until a few days ago, I was very proud of the way I'd handled a very unfortunate run. I think that I played well and remained as level-headed as can be expected.
After a seemingly endless string of losing days, I managed to find a winning one. I won €88K over a session where I felt great about my play (which had been true for some losing days as well. I got a taste of the downswing ending, and I was excited about the future.
Veni Vidi Poker
That was followed by my biggest loss yet — €268K. I felt some tilt during that session, but managed to play my B game. Again, I was proud of myself considering the circumstances. The last two days, unfortunately, I can't say the same thing. In my last couple of sessions, I could tell that I'd abandoned my gameplan for plays that felt better (emotionally), and I couldn't seem to gather my thoughts coherently, or to make reads like I normally do.
I was playing scared. I was expecting to lose. I simply couldn't get my brain to work properly. The most difficult thing about an extended downswing isn't the loss of money — it's the loss of hope. It's the gap between the result and your expectations, and how it changes your vision of your poker future. For example, I've lost €900K, but when comparing my expectation for how this year would go to my new expectations, I've lost much more. For some people, they question whether or not they'll be able to ever win again.
I'd kept my composure through loss after loss, focusing just on playing the best I could. When I experienced a winning day, I started to believe in my high hopes about the future of the challenge. (Remember from my last post, right or wrong, I'd felt like I had an edge and that things were reasonably likely to turn around). Afterwards, I was quickly and forcefully shown that it wasn't going to happen.
I lost that hope, and it was replaced by depression. I'm proud of the way I kept it together for so long, but I found my mind's limit.
I've experienced downswings of this size before, but this is the first time that one has begun precisely as I kicked off a high stakes, public challenge that I was incredibly excited about. I don't really know whether it was the gained and lost hope, fatigue from day after day of intense poker and study, or something else, but I know that I've become unable to play my A or B game.
Regardless of where we stood at the start of the match, I'm confident that my C game a big underdog to Venividi's A game (I think we can all agree on that :)), and I don't believe I can realistically expect to get back to playing my best soon.
I took my one allotted day off yesterday to think things over. I've been seriously considering throwing in the towel on this first challenge, accepting defeat, and taking a break to reset my mind before heading into the next ones. The idea feels awful to me, but so does continuing to play poorly against a really good opponent.
What I've decided to do for now is to see if I can get my head on straight before making a big decision like that. Venividi and I only had six more challenge sessions this month, ending on the 19th, due to travel plans (I planned to play part of another challenge at the end of the month, which I still hope to do.) I'm going to pay the predetermined penalties to not play these sessions (roughly €3K/day).
Veni Vidi Poker Name
Once I can get my brain working again after a little bit of recovery, I'll decide whether I feel ready to continue on March 1, or if it's time to regroup and move on to another challenge.
I've had a session win/loss record of 1-12-2 over these first 15 days of play. I know it was been hard for some of you to watch! I hope I feel prepared to come back and put on a good show for you all, but I know that realistically, as much as I don't want to, there's a chance I'll have to just take the loss.
Thanks to everyone who's been a part of the challenge and to everyone who's been watching, creating content, and talking about the match. I'm sorry for the little break in the action here, but I promise that either way, there will be plenty of challenge play ahead.
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Phil Galfond
Veni Vidi Poker Identity
“VeniVidi1993” is back in the news, and this time it isn’t for blowing a $1 million lead in a heads-up challenge against Phil Galfond. The online poker pro — whose real name isn’t publicly known — claims he was also banned from GGPoker for the sole reason that he’s a winning player.
Tobias Duthweiler, aka “dudd1,” accused GGPoker in a recent 2+2 thread of refusing to refund his winnings after being banned from the site. He was previously banned from Natural8, a GGPoker Network skin, but claimed he was unaware the two poker sites were related.
Poker legend Fedor Holz, a GGPoker ambassador, defended the poker site’s actions. He informed the poker community that “dudd1” was warned not to sign-up for any of GG’s network of sites.
But since that accusation, more high-stakes players on GGPoker have come forward accusing the site of banning winning players. That includes a high-profile online pro — “VeniVidi1993.”
Does GGPoker fear winning players?
“VeniVidi1993,” who famously lost the first Galfond Challenge despite jumping out nearly a $1 million lead, shared his own story about GGPoker withholding money from players.
He claimed on Twitter that he was banned for “bumhunting.” That’s when someone takes a seat in an online poker game and refuses to play anyone not considered a weak opponent. Bumhunting is frowned upon among recreational players and many pros. But it’s been common practice among the top heads-up online players for years.
“VeniVidi1993” said in a series of tweets that he was banned by GGPoker for bumhunting and “told to never come back.” He claims he returned a couple years later and after he raked in $250,000 in profits, the poker site banned him again and confiscated his winnings, much like they did to Duthweiler.
I have been banned from GG for false reasons. Years after I came back to play, which they allowed me to do for a very long time taking 100’s of thousands of dollar (Yes uncapped rake can be a bitch). Only to confiscate my money when I tried to cash it out
— Venividi1993 (@thevenividi1993) August 11, 2020
“What they do is not illegal. They told me not to play on their network, so for me to return I broke their rules and they are allowed to confiscate my funds. I still think it’s very questionable how they rig the rules in their favor,” he wrote.
Andy Cooper (@coopah88) also shared a similar story on Twitter. He claims he won a bunch grinding cash games and earned over $17,000 worth of tournament tickets on top of that, which he never got to use because he was also banned from GGPoker for supposed bumhunting.
Grinded the cash games on GG poker recently, had won around $17,000 worth of tournament $ as I freq won the top prize of $1k playing 6k hands daily. Banned for bumhunting despite playing every table, they'll keep the prizes. #ggpoker@CrownUpGuy@RealKidPoker
Veni Vidi Poker Galfond
— Andy Cooper (@coopah88) August 12, 2020
Veni Vidi Pokerstars
One Twitter user who often plays with Cooper on GGPoker — @dejank1337 — came to Cooper’s defense. He said he can confirm Cooper was starting games. If a player is the first to register for an online poker game, they aren’t bumhunting as it’s impossible to know which player(s) will register next. Bumhunters seek out games where “fish” have already registered.
Veni Vidi Poker
Another GGPoker player in Cooper’s thread — @Platameri — also claims to have been banned for bumhunting. This player wrote: “I got banned for bumhunting with $28k winnings but was able to withdraw $15k after they banned me by contacting them that I’d be fine with it if they gave me half. They were generous and gave me a bit over half.”