Fernando ‘JNandez’ Habegger is the second confirmed player ready to accept Run It Once founder Phil Galfond’s Heads-Up PLO challenge.
The Swiss high stakes PLO wizard follows Bill Perkins in taking Galfond’s offer, reported on here.
Props to the bravest non-@RunItOnce coach out there!
Let’s give them a good show, @JNandezPoker. https://t.co/3nkEZQQvSe
— Phil Galfond (@PhilGalfond) December 9, 2019
JNandez Takes on the Old Guard
After initially trying to lower the stakes to $10/$20, JNandez looks to have pulled a masterstroke in agreeing an improved deal. The original offer for run it Once coaches was,
- 50,000 hands
- 3:1 on a side bet of 10 buy-ins
- Player at $100/$200 stakes or higher
Bill Perkins managed to negotiate his deal to 4:1 on the side bet with play continuing for 50,000 hands or until somebody loses $400,000. JNandez went one further and got 5:1 on his side bet.
A cool $200,000 put up to win a million dollars.
Washed Up?
When making the offer Galfond jokingly referred to himself as a washed up pro. There may be some high stakes grinders out there who agree with this, but make no mistake, Phil Galfond is still a member of the elite tier of poker players. Particularly when it comes to pot limit omaha.
JNandez is also one of the world’s most feared PLO players. His success at mid to high stakes has seen him employed by both Run it Once and Upswing Poker as a coach.
In fact, some of you might recall JNandez’s last challenge to a high stakes player – a $50,000 fist fight against Doug Polk which never took place. The pair had a serious falling out after JNandez left Upswing poker.
Regardless of what people think of JNandez’s business choices he is a serious threat to Galfond over only 50,000 hands. He might not have Galfond’s background as a confirmed nosebleed stake grinder, but he sure knows what he is doing.
That said, playing for such huge sums does bring additional pressure. This type of mental strain is something very players have a lot of experience with.
It has also been mooted that JNandez will have sold most of his action for the challenge. Firstly, trying to lower the stakes to take the offer game the game away a little bit.
Secondly, when a Twitter follower cried down how brave he is for facing Galfond, JNandez only asked them not to kill the hype. There was no denial of selling up to 90%
With 50,000 not being a lot of hands, even for heads up, the 5:1 deal on the side bet probably attracted more than a few potential investors.
How Many More?
Phil Galfond tweeted that he might have as many as 11 different challengers, although a couple might have dropped out.
The challenge is set to begin sometime during January, and might go on for a while. Even if there are only 10 takers, half a million hands will take a while. Hopefully not as long as the much lamented ‘durrrr challenge’.
Dan ‘Jungleman’ Cates and Tom ‘durrrr’ Dwan still haven’t finished their 50,000 hands after starting no less than nine years ago.
Hopefully both Galfond and JNandez will be streaming their play on Twitch. You can check what poker streaming is all about here.
All challenges will be played on Galfond’s site, Run it Once Poker. The fledgling poker room is getting great reviews already, especially after they launched their rewards system.
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