There are now four players who have accepted Phil Galfond’s PLO challenge: Chance Kornuth, Fernando Habagger, VeniVidi1993 and Bill Perkins,

Galfond’s PLO Challenge Dance Card Gets Busier and Busier

Last month, Phil Galfond issued a challenge to the poker community. It took a little while for players to step up to the plate and take him on, but he now has four challengers – the most recent of which is Chance Kornuth, a well-known poker coach.

The two players will take part in thousands of €100/€200 Pot Limit Omaha hands. There will be a 4-to-1 sidebet, with Galfond paying €1 million if Kornuth wins and Kornuth paying out €250,000 should Galfond come out on top.  

The Terms of the Challenge

All three poker players who have accepted Galfond’s challenge will play by similar rules. They will engage in tens of thousands of hands of Pot Limit Omaha poker at high stakes. If his challenger is much further ahead before the number of agreed upon hands is over, then Galfond will pay them either 4-to-1 or 3-to-1 on their initial wager.

Galfond’s Challengers

A number of players have accepted this exciting heads up PLO challenge the course of the past month. Kornuth joins three other pros who will be taking on Galfond at some point in the coming year.

Bill Perkins & The Thirst Lounge

Bill Perkins is a billionaire who is well-known in the high-stakes poker world. The former hedge fund manager will be playing against Galfond over the course of 50,000 hands – and he will be able to tag in any member of his Thirst Lounge team. Whoever is ahead at the end of the hands (or has landed a $400,000 loss) will win the side bet – Perkins’ $800,000 to Galfond’s $200,000.

Venividi1993

This is the only player to accept the Galfond Challenge whose identity is unknown. The online poker legend will be playing 25,000 hands at €100/€200 stakes. There will be a €200k sidebet awarded to the challenger if he wins, whereas Galfond will receive an extra €100k.

Fernando Habegger

Fernando Habegger is known online as JNandez, and makes a living as a PLO coach. Many players in the online poker community known him for challenging Doug Polk to a winner-takes-all boxing match in 2018 when the two players harboured negative feelings against one another after working together at Upswing Poker. If Habegger comes out on top, Galfond will owe him $1 million; if he loses, he’ll owe Galfond $200,000.

You’ll be able to watch all of these players take on Galfond on Twitch, with specific dates for each battle soon to be announced.