Phil Galfond talks about whether he will continue the Galfond Challenge against Venividi1993
Phil Galfond went on Joe Ingram’s Poker Life Podcast yesterday evening and spoke about whether or not he will continue the Galfond Challene against Venividi1993 after having lost a massive $900,000?
We reported that Phil Galfond has decided to pause the first Galfond Challenge against Venividi1993 and is considering to quit.
In addition to that, Luke Schwartz was firing shots as Phil Galfond before their Heads-Up Match, so Phil went on Joe Ingram’s Poker Life Podcast to answer the question everybody wants to know: Is he continuing the first Galfond Challenge against Venividi1993 or not?
Joey Ingram: How are you feeling about the Challenge?
Phil Galfond: I didn’t have time to think about it. If I force myself to think about it I still have some negative feelings associated with how it’s gone and I still have to decide if I have to continue this first challenge or move on to the next.
I’m planning over the next few days to dig back into focusing on the challenge and reviewing hands, which is gonna help me make that decision.
I definitely feel emotionally recovered, but there is still the issue that I’ve been losing to this guy every day is it a good idea to keep playing him? That’s something I have to decide.
JI: Why not just say this first challenge is gone you win the $200,000 side bet let’s move on to the next one?
PG: Yeah, I almost did that. For a moment I even made the decision to quit the first challenge and started writing the post, but while I was writing it I was like I don’t know if I am ready to quit yet and I realized I wasn’t in the right mindset to decide.
Obviously I am paying $18,000 in penalties, but in the grand scheme of things I think it is a small price to pay to approach this with a clear head and make the best decisions.
JI: Do you think you have an edge?
PG: When we started early on I thought I had an edge. As it went on I became less certain, but still thought I did, but towards the end I though I did not, but in large parts I wasn’t playing my best.
The question is do I think I can have an edge, that’s the question I’ve been asking myself. I think for everybody out there wathcing seeing the results they are like absolutely no way what are you thinking, but if I decide to continue the challenge that should be evidence enough that I can compete with him.
JI: At what point would you quit the match?
PG: There is not a lot that can be done within a couple of weeks, but maybe there is more to be done for me than for him as he has bee playing the last years straight and I haven’t been, but if he is much better than me he is still going to be much better than me when we going back at it.
The decision on whether to quit or not, there are really two major factors. One is distance from even being down so much there is still a little bit of EV to not giving up the side bet.
And then of course it’s just evaluating play and it’s tough, because you can look at results and as much as results matter, it is still difficult to decide how much weigth to out on them, especially since I caught myself making mistakes, when going through the hands, less in the beginning and more in the end.
JI: Why did you choose Venividi1993 as first opponent and in retrospective would you do this again?
PG: Scheduling was difficult and Venividi1993 was a tough negotiatior and Veni was very interested in playing me first for obvious reasons as I am going to be a weaker player in the beginning than after four months.
Could I have pushed and getting him later? Maybe, but also I didn’t have anything else ready to go. It was not ideal, but it was my only option.
JI: What are your thoughts on the letter Luke Schwartz wrote and the comments he made about you?
PG: Luke is Luke. He could basically say anything and it wouldnÄt bother me as it is kind of expected from him.
Luke likes to trash talk. It is fun for the community and it creates hype. I believe that our match will be fun for the community, because he is Luke.
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Watch the entire Interview with Phil Galfond here:
Timestamps Phil Galfond Poker Life Podcast Interview:
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