As feared by some people, the current Galfond Challenge matchup between Phil and Adams has reached a stalemate. After 3 online sessions held in Las Vegas, Galfond leads by $145,000. It was decided that the competition will continue on wsop.com site in an online format. Read on to find more details in this article.
Conflict and the End of Live Sessions
As a disappointment to many fans, the Galfond Challenge between Phil Galfond and Brandon Adams was not able to become the first full-fledged live event played in a casino during this event. After the first session, the participants met at Resorts World Las Vegas three more times to determine the winner, however, it was unsuccessful. The reason for that was the new format of the Galfond Challenge, where the length was determined by the time passed rather than by the hand played. The conflict arose roughly in the middle of the matchup when more than half of the agreed-upon 40-hour time limit has passed. Adams tweeted the following to explain the situation:
“I am down 48k with 15.5 hrs remaining. @PhilGalfond is changing strategy, as expected, but he is also using the clock to maximum advantage, taking full time for every decision on every street.”
As a response, Galfond has decided to accuse Brandon Adams of a similar type of behavior. He stated that Adams would frequently stand up from the table and stretch for around 30 seconds before each time he folded on the river.
In order to solve this issue, the participants have decided to hire Isaac Haxton and Max Silver as referees for the remainder of the session. The rest of the match was recounted according to the number of hands played. But when only 102 out of 338 hands were played, it was mutually agreed by both Phil and Brandon to halt the session. Both of them have agreed that this format turned out to be quite boring and dull. Phil accepted the $16.5K he had won, and the match was relaunched.
New Format
After the offline event was stopped, it was decided by both players to move this match-up online. Namely on the American room wsop.com, as it allows users located in Las Vegas to legally play online poker. The competition was relaunched on July 31 and was held on the same stakes of $100/$200 PLO but with some altered rules. Now the length will be once again determined by the number of hands played (10,000 hands), side bets will be $400,000 vs $100,00, and the game will be played at two tables.
There will be no way to watch the session online, as neither of the players has decided to stream it in the American room. Therefore Twitter will be the main source of information and in-game updates. It is important to note that Adams has already made a statement that the current session pace is “lighting fast” and that it concerns him.
As of today, over 2,000 hands were played in just three evenings. Brandon Adams was able to win only one session with a profit of $40k. However, the overall victory was achieved by Phil Galfond and his total winnings currently exceed $145,000.
Following such a marathon, the participants have chosen to take a break till August 22. Adams arguably needs this break more than anybody else, as he has already lost 7.5 buy-ins and appears to be uncomfortable playing on the Internet.
