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Galfond completes incredible comeback to win the challenge!

Done and dusted! Phil Galfond completed an almost improbable comeback today after finally defeating his opponent ‘VeniVidi1993’ in the first Galfond Challenge! Undoubtedly, the owner of three WSOP bracelets made the most of this Easter Sunday. Once down more than €900,000, the champion stormed back to complete a comeback for the ages to triumph against his mystery challenger.

Its has been a major roller coaster ride which lasted for 39 sessions and the sessions averaged 641 hands. The first one took place on Wednesday, 22 January 2020 and it all ended on Sunday, 12 April. More than 26,000 poker fans watched the ultimate match on Twitch which was a thrilling 6-hours battle while countless others were pouring the details on social media. The outcome wasn’t decided until the last 80 of 25,000 hands. The heads-up contest, which appeared destined to end in VeniVidi’s favour only two months ago, finished off when Galfond showed down a Full House to take an insurmountable lead with just a few dozen hands remaining.

With Galfond down to almost €1 million, took a month’s break to regroup himself and decided to optimal play was to continue. Certainly, the challenge had major plot twists. “I feel pretty good,” Galfond informed live stream hosts Joe Stapleton, David Tuchman, and Joey Ingram on-stream after match 1.

After 38 sessions, Galfond and ‘VeniVidi1993’ were pretty much tied, with ‘VeniVidi1993’ clinging to an €8,171 lead. Entering the final 39th session, the duo had 698 hands left to battle. ‘VeniVidi1993’ started off the final session with the lead and he held that lead for the first 75 hands or so before Galfond worked his way into the lead. In the end, Galfond won by an incredibly small margin, as he ended up edging ‘VeniVidi1993’ by €1,671 over the course of the 25,000 hands.

Miraculously clawing his way back over the past few weeks. Galfond thanked his wife Farah who shared her tears of joy, after he took down the tournament.

Poker players around the world posted their congratulatory thoughts on Twitter following Sunday’s conclusion.

Galfond said he was surprised the match was so close so late. “I didn’t think it would get under 300 hands with it being anyone’s game.” Tuchman asked Galfond how his strategy changed late in the final session. “Until maybe 300 hands left, my goal was to just play the best poker that I could and not necessarily do anything too crazy as an adjustment to the weird situation, other than to adjust to what I think he was doing,” he said.

Galfond also thanked ‘VeniVidi1993’: 

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