Chance Kornuth put up a valiant effort against Phil Galfond in the Galfond Challenge, but the writing was on the wall. The Chip Leader Coaching founder trailed by more than $700,000 with under 10,000 hands remaining. He saw the writing on the wall and realized a comeback was out of the question.
The $100/$200 pot-limit Omaha competition continued on Saturday with Kornuth down $680,000. After Chance lost a couple of buy-ins, he decided it was time to call it quits. With 25,400 hands complete of a 35,000-hand challenge, play has come to a halt.
Galfond entered the match four months ago as a heavy 4-1 favorite. He had already won two Galfond Challenges in 2020 against “VeniVidi1993” and “ActionFreak,” both online pros. And he’s widely considered one of the best PLO players ever.
So, although Kornuth is one heck of a poker pro, Galfond was expected to win this challenge by a wide margin. But it certainly wasn’t easy for the Run it Once poker site founder. He took some lumps for quite some time. Kornuth led by as much as $340,000 at one point, and held an advantage for over two straight months.
Those who bet on Phil Galfond to win were nervous. But the eventual Poker Hall of Famer battled back and completely took over the match over the past month or so. He won more than $1 million in the challenge since November and finished with a $726,500 profit overall.
There was a side bet between the two players, and Kornuth now owes his opponent an extra $250,000 to add insult to injury.
Kornuth and Galfond Discuss Challenge
After conceding the match on Saturday, Kornuth graciously joined Galfond for a wrap up interview on the Run it Once YouTube and Twitch channel.
He admitted in the interview that he felt a relief that it’s over and can now focus his attention more on being a father. Galfond was complimentary of his opponent, and said Kornuth was his toughest challenger to date.
Galfond has two additional challenges booked, although he said he isn’t sure when or if those will run. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, traveling outside the country is an issue. Galfond and Kornuth both reside in Las Vegas so they could compete on WSOP.com.
But Galfond’s poker site, and every other poker site, isn’t available in Nevada and are only open to players outside the US. So, he’d need to travel abroad to compete in his highly anticipated match against Dan “Jungleman” Cates. He also is scheduled to resume a Galfond Challenge against Bill Perkins, which briefly began in 2020, at some point.
“I would love to do it,” Galfond said of his match against Perkins. “If I could do it from Vegas, I guess I’d be playing whenever he wanted to, but unfortunately he can’t.”
