Phil Galfond’s Biography

Phil Galfond is a celestial poker player from the USA. He performs in live and online tournaments as a professional. Owing to his big passion for playing No-Limit Texas Hold'em and Pot-Limit Omaha at $200/$400 limits and higher, he has been dubbed an online shark.

Poker Successes of Phil Galfond

Galfond has achieved his main success in live tournaments at the WSOP. Phil’s ITM history started with the 18th place at $10 000 Championship Event during the WSOP Circuit in 2006. On that notable day, the guy pocketed $22,900, which was solid money for a debut.

The next prominent stage of Phil Galfond's career started in 2008. Phil won the Pot Limit Omaha at the WSOP. It was iconic for him to meet the most prominent poker personalities at the final table. Some of these were:

• Daniel Negreanu
• John Juanda
• David Benyamine
• Phil Hellmuth
• Kirill Gerasimov
• Johnny Chan
• Brian Rast
• Adam Hourani

Galfond pulled himself together to beat Hourani in heads-up and succeeded.

How Many WSOP Bracelets Are on Galfond’s Count?

Phil has as many as 3 bracelets of the World Series of Poker. He earned them at different stages of his professional career. Namely in:

• 2008. The first trophy came after the victorious finish in the $5,000 PLO tourney.
• 2015. The second one was taken in the $10,000 No-Limit 2-7 single draw Championship.
• 2018. The third bracelet renewed Phil’s trophy arsenal after the victory in $10,000 PLO Hi-Lo Championship.

The last bracelet let him acquire the largest career cash of $560 000. Galfond has not got seven-figure winnings yet. Instead, he has already won four six-figure prize money at the WSOP. It happened three times for the 1st place and once for the 2nd place.

Phil Galfond launched his own poker room in 2019 – Run It Once Poker. In spite of a glorious beginning, the site closed in early January 2022.

The launch of its own poker club and training resource stole the attention of Phil. Initially, he was only a co-founder, but then he got involved in creating poker training videos and other content. Sadly, the room’s lifetime wasn’t destined to be long.

Poker Activity of Phil Galfond After 2019

A $560,000 win in the $10,000 Pot Limit Omaha Hi-Lo in 2018 was the latest massive cash Phil gained. Although he participated in many tournaments, Galfond didn’t achieve any substantial ITMs after that. The latest noticeable competitions the player appeared at were during the WSOP festival. Some of the highest wins he took in:

• 2019. $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. Championship and $41,625 (8th place).
• 2022. $5,300 NLH and $52,320 (6th place).
• 2024. $5,300 No Limit Hold'em and $19,875 (13th place).

Head-to-Head ‘Galfond Challenge’ Series

Beyond playing scheduled poker events, Phil is known for challenging other poker pros. Hence, between 2020 and 2023, the guy dared his several colleagues from the industry to confront in HU matches. Of course, a high-stakes format was the main condition. Here are key details of each Galfond’s duel:

Poker-Wise Activity Off The Felt

Among the noteworthy events in the life of the poker pro is the launch of Phil Galfond’s YouTube docuseries (2024). It got a somewhat comic title, “Who Is This Guy?”. From the short series of videos, over 100,000 followers had a chance to learn facts about their poker idol. The docuseries was a mix of his professional life and daily routine settings, particularly.

Phil was invited to the Game Summit 2025 as a speaker. The summit took place in August in Las Vegas. There, he discussed the mental barriers of players and how to get prepared for the WSOP events.

Management of the Poker Hall of Fame approved Galfond for the list of nominees for 2025. But it just wasn’t the right time. The incredible opportunity slipped away from the player. American poker pro Nick Schulman got the coveted place.

Surprising Facts About Phil Galfond

• Phil Galfond is from North Potomac. It’s a city in Maryland state of the USA. Phil attended Sprigg Wootton High School. Afterwards, Phil enrolled on the Wisconsin University in Madison, where he studied philosophy.
• Thanks to the reputation of a successful high-stakes player, Galfond has been invited to poker TV shows dedicated to high-stakes games. He became a participant of the 4th, 6th and 7th seasons of a popular High Stakes Poker project.
• Phil was a part of the "Ship It Holla Ballas" team. It is a so-called crew of young poker players who lead a luxurious way of life using money earned with the help of poker. They travel around the world in search of bright parties, hot girls and play poker tournaments.
• He owned the "Run It Once" website; he now works as a poker coach.
• On the 15th of May, 2015, Galfond married an American actress, Farah Fath.
• In 2018, it became known that Phil and Farah would have a firstborn. On 31 December, a couple announced the birth of their son, Spenser Keith.
• Since 2007, the poker player has periodically been writing articles for Bluff Magazine.
• In accordance with highstakesdb data for September 2018, Galfond’s graph in online-cash at high limits stopped at the mark of 1,45 million dollars on PokerStars (nickname "MrSweets28") and + 6,6 million dollars on Full Tilt (nickname "OMGClayAiken"):
• Phil is 910th in All Time Money list, whereas his position in US All Time Money list is 452nd.
• Galfond is very active on his social media, namely Instagram and X (old Twitter). He shares a lot of useful tips on how to play poker, how to prepare for the session and big series, etc. A portion of the personal life he posts to subscribers is quite low. The focus is on poker mastery.

Phil Galfond on Social Networks:

• Phil Galfond on X, former Twitter (@philgalfond)
• Galfond’s page on Instagram (phil.galfond)
• Phil Galfond on Facebook (phil.galfond)