Some people in the world won’t walk beneath a ladder, not through the fear of a hammer landing on your head, but because it’s deemed bad luck.
Pure superstition.
What’s not superstition is the belief that luck plays no part in our successes or failures. That control, strategy and foresight always triumph over fate.
Those people don’t play poker.
Hard work and effort doesn’t guarantee your results. Within every success, and every failure lies a degree of luck. We are not, the authors of our destiny, but if we were, then Phil Galfond would have written a script just like the way it played out in real life.
A Game of Two Halves
After taking time away from the game to build an online poker room, Phil Galfond shocked the world by offering a high stakes heads-up challenge to 7.8 billion people.
It wasn’t a plan to escape nappy duty. Galfond wanted to pump some life into Run It Once Poker while at the same time shaking the ring rust that had clung to his hairy body while others matters of the mind and heart took precedence.
Venividi1993 became the first player to sit down with Galfond. The stakes were €100/€200 Pot-Limit Omaha (PLO). The length of the match would be 25,000 hands, and Galfond said he would stump up €200,000 should Venividi1993 win, and the PLO genius would hand Galfond €100,000 should the roles be reversed.
Fifteen days in and Galfond was in trouble.
Down close to €1m, the wolves gnawed on Galfond’s Twitter bones. There were some beauties, with Luke Schwartz calling Galfond a washed-up has-been nice guy, punching way above his weight – or something like that.
Galfond, took a few days to ponder his future.
Prayer?
Meditation?
Running naked through the woods, howling at the moon.
Whatever Galfond did, it worked.
The RIO Founder leapt from his sickbed and went on an insane run, and by Day 35, Galfond had taken an €81,064.56 lead with 2,903 hands left to play.
Could Galfond do the unthinkable, and win?
Determined to put a fork into that idea, Venividi1993, knuckled down, thought back, and won two of the final three sessions, before taking a small lead into what would prove to be the last blob of wax to melt in this particular candle.
There Are People on The Pitch
When it comes to climactic moments in sport, none have been as memorialised as Kenneth Wolstenholme’s final words during the 1966 World Cup Final between England and West Germany.
With England leading 3-2 after extra time, and seconds remaining on the clock, Geoff Hurst, chasing a hat-trick, bore down on the German goal, and Wolstenholme began his awesome oration.
“And here comes Hurst! He’s got…”
“Some people are on the pitch!”
“They think it’s all over!”
Hurst smashes the ball into the roof of the net.
“It is now!”
People began clambered onto the pitch with 97-hands remaining in the war between Phil Galfond and Venividi1993. At that time, Venividi1993 held a €6,307 lead and seemed the favourite to win his €200,000 side bet.
12-hands later, and Galfond had the lead.
The people thought it was all over.
Galfond raised and Venividi1993 called. With €1,200 in the pot, the pair stared down at a Jd9d4c flop, and Venividi1993 check-called a pot-sized bet from Galfond. The 4d brought the flush in on the turn, and Venividi1993 check-called a half-pot bet. The Ts paired the board on the river, Venividi1993 checked, Galfond bet pot, and in came the call.
Galfond showed QsTcTd8d for the turned flush and rivered full-house.
Venividi1993’s hand went into the muck.
“It is now!”
Galfond had enough leeway to fold his way to victory, ultimately winning a little over a grand from the match, and a €100,000 side bet – an incredible feat when you consider his position after a fortnight of action.
During his post-match interviews, Galfond revealed that Venividi1993 had a full-house during the final hand, and had that ten not landed on the river, then there would have been a reversal of fortune.
‘Luck’ just had to squeeze itself into the headlines, and that’s not a bad thing. Luck takes the edge off our arrogance, and at moments when fate turns against us, it tempers the violence of our self-hatred.
After a month battling at crazy stakes, Galfond and Venividi1993 need that right now.
Results
Day 1, 655 hands, VeniVidi1993 wins €72,572.68
Day 2, 715 hands, Phil Galfond wins €2,615.26
Day 3, 557 hands, VeniVidi1993 wins €84,437.52
Day 4, 581 hands, VeniVidi1993 wins €17,544.87
Day 5, 726 hands, VeniVidi1993 wins €155,063.52
Day 6, 703 hands, VeniVidi1993 wins €13.31
Day 7, 823 hands, VeniVidi1993 wins €52,057.13
Day 8, 940 hands, VeniVidi1993 wins €60,743.37
Day 9, 446 hands, VeniVidi1993 wins €12,706.51
Day 10, 696 hands, VeniVidi1993 wins €100,993.30
Day 11, 741 hands, VeniVidi1993 wins €15,647.36
Day 12, 622 hands, Phil Galfond wins €87,940.91
Day 13, 470 hands, VeniVidi1993 wins €267,949.70
Day 14, 593 hands, VeniVidi1993 wins €48,473.73
Day 15, 659 hands, VeniVidi1993 wins €102,593.34
Phil Galfond Calls for a Break
Day 16, 574 hands, Phil Galfond wins €183,481.38
Day 17, 582 hands, VeniVidi1993 wins €21,571,51
Day 18, 555 hands, Phil Galfond wins €27,198.94
Day 19, 638 hands, Phil Galfond wins €26,018.41
Day 20, 566 hands, Phil Galfond wins €92,803.89
Day 21, 576 hands, Phil Galfond wins €3,766.94
Day 22, 556 hands, VeniVidi1993 wins €88,465,60
Day 23, 598 hands, Phil Galfond wins €23,821.05
Day 24, 628 hands, Phil Galfond wins €19,099.65
Day 25, 664 hands, Phil Galfond wins €139,485.78
Day 26, 539 hands, Phil Galfond wins €110,752.58
Day 27, 645 hands, VeniVidi1993 wins €76,026.05
Day 28, 503 hands, Phil Galfond wins €140,979.28
VeniVidi1993 Calls for a Break
Day 29, 642 hands, Phil Galfond wins €85,271.31
Day 30, 777 hands, VeniVidi1993 wins €26,992.32
Day 31, 393 hands, Phil Galfond wins €106,328.51
Day 32, 664 hands, Phil Galfond wins €113,680.87
Day 33, 632 hands, VeniVidi1993 wins €28,538.21
Day 34, 680 hands, Phil Galfond wins €28,722.28
Day 35, 758 hands, Phil Galfond wins €121,486.95
Day 36, 592 hands, Venividi1993 wins €34,580.19
Day 37, 883 hands, Venividi1993 wins €78,237.54
Day 38, 734 hands, Phil Galfond wins €23,581,50