Phil Galfond Profile

Phil Galfond is one of the most respected high stakes online poker players in the world. Known as OMGClayAiken or Jman, he has won over 8 million dollars online, concentrating on high stakes PLO these days. He won a WSOP bracelet in the $5k PLO event at the 2008 WSOP. Although Galfond doesn't play many live tournaments, he has seven in the money finishes at the WSOP contributing to his nearly one million in live tournament winnings. Galfond also has an entreprenuerial streak; having launched BlueFirePoker training site in 2009 and PokerStatic poker podcast site in 2010. Galfond was born in January 16, 1985 in North Potomac, Maryland and currently resides in New York City.

Things you might not know:

Galfond originally deposited $50 and started playing $10 SNG's. He won several, moved up to $20 SNG's and went broke. He deposited another $50 and never looked back.
Galfond went to the University of Wisconsin-Madison to study philosophy.
Galfond was once part of the "Ship It Holla" crew, a team of young very confident American poker players who partied hard and played even harder.
Galfond created the name OMGClayAiken so that opponents would be embarassed to lose to me and to be the opoposit of most cocky, tough and macho usernames you usually see.
Galfond coined the term G-Bucks to represent his poker theorem that players should always estimate their equity against their opponent's projected range of hands, not a particular hand.
Galfond's very first hand playing $300/$600 online against Phil Ivey, he called a raise with 44, flop came 9,8,4, He checkraises, Ivey 3bets, he shoves and Ivey calls flipping over 99, to lose set over set.
Galfond defeated Phil Helmuth, Johnny Chan, Daniel Negreanu, John Juanda and David Benyamine at the final table of his WSOP PLO win. He was only 23 and they owned 28 bracelets amongst them.
Galfond credits poker life coach Tommy Angelo with having helped him deal with playing such high stakes and dealing with bankroll management, game selection and dealing with downswings.
Galfond is good friends with Tom Dwan, David Benefield, Peter Jetten, Andrew Robl and other top young stars of the poker world.
Galfond bought two condo's above each other in Manhattan, then had a two story metal slide built in to connect the two.

At only 25, Galfond has experienced tremendous success and has a bright future in the poker world. He prefers life in Manhattan and playing predominately online so he can remain private and have a normal life. Although he owns a poker training site and poker podcast media site that rely on his prominence and visibility.

"I think there's a very big difference between poker players and other people. People who are not poker players just can't fully understand what we do, even if they are very bright. I would have no problem telling a random, full-time, $1-$2 no-limit player that I lost $800,000 the other day, but I wouldn't ever tell that to a regular person, whether he knew me extremely well or not at all."

Galfond interview after winning his WSOP bracelet: