Brandon Adams hopes to do what no other poker player has managed to date: defeat Phil Galfond in a Galfond Challenge. Adams and Galfond go head-to-head across a marathon session of high stakes heads-up pot-limit Omaha, with the first session planned for July 26.
July 26-30 are the dates set in stone for the latest Galfond Challenge. Adams is the newest challenger to take on the Run It Once Poker owner, doing so at the newly-opened Resorts World Las Vegas.
Heads-Up Pot-Limit Omaha is the game, and $100/$200 are the stakes, so it is not a game for the faint of heart. In addition to the potentially huge sums of money won from the match itself, Galfond has put up $150,000 to Adams' $100,000 in the form of a side bet. Should Adams defeat Galfond, something nobody has managed across a trio of battles, there will be an immediate rematch online with the duo fighting it out "battleship style" with more hands played.
Adams and Galfond have agreed to fight it out one-on-one for 40-hours. With the latest Galfond Challenge scheduled for five days, this equates to eight-hour marathon sessions. This latest match-up is both a battle of skill and endurance.
PokerNews does not know if there will be any streaming of this challenge, although Adams recently tweeted he planned to stream some of the matches via his Instagram account. Galfond has promised fans daily recaps of the action if they have left it too late to organize streaming of the challenge.
Find out more about the Galfond Challenge, including all the past results, in our special Galfond Challenge Hub.
Who Is Brandon Adams?
Brandon Adams hails from New Orleans, Louisiana, and is a poker player and self-published author. The 42-year-old has a bachelor's and Master's degree and obtained a doctorate at the world-famous Harvard University.
Adams discovered poker during his college years and found he had a penchant for this crazy game. His first recorded live tournament cash was back in May 2005 when he finished 21st in a WSOP Circuit event in New Orleans, which saw Adams scoop $14,765.
His first six-figure cash game eight months later in a $10,000 WSOPC Tunica event. Adams walked away with $114,475 for a sixth-place finish. A certain Daniel Negreanu won that particular event.
The 2008 World Series of Poker (WSOP) saw Adams almost win a coveted bracelet. Adams finished second to Men "The Master" Nguyen in the $10,000 Seven Card Stud Championship for a career-high $243,958.
A bracelet eluded Adams until 2019, when he triumphed in the $3,200 No-Limit Hold'em WSOP.com High Roller for $411,561. Amazingly, that prize is only Adams' fifth-largest haul. The largest tops the scales at $819,000, Adams' reward for winning a $50,000 buy-in event at the 2017 Poker Masters in Las Vegas.
Adams has almost $5.2 million in live poker tournament cashes despite being better-known as a cash game specialist. The battle with Galfond should be epic.
Galfond Hoping to Go Four-for-Four
Galfond issued a challenge to the poker world back in late 2019, where he called himself a "washed-up ex-pro."
"Venividi1993" was the first challenger. They took on Galfond on the Run It Once Poker site at the €100/€200 heads-up PLO tables. Venividi1993 looked to have Galfond dead and buried, with Galfond finding himself down €900,000 at one stage. Galfond even took a break from the challenge to regroup. Whatever he did during that brief hiatus worked before Galfond bulldozed his way back into contention, before securing the win by a narrow €1,671.58 margin.
Ioannis "ActionFreak" Kontonatsios fancied his chances of glory, but he fell behind after only the second session of €150/€300 and ultimately finished €114,765 down.
Bill Perkins tossed his hat into the ring, challenging Galfond to a $100/$200 PLO battle at partypoker. The plan was to play 50,000 hands or until someone lost $400,000. Perkins and Galfond have only played 862 hands since April 19, 2020; Galfond is $91,705 to the good there.
The last time out, we saw Galfond butt heads with Chance Kornuth in a match Galfond had an awful lot riding on. Stakes were $100/$200, and 35,000 hands were the limit. However, Galfond put up $1 million to Kornuth's $250,000.
The early sessions were primarily one-way traffic for Galfond, but Kornuth turned things around and was in the green to the tune of $344,500. Galfond managed to get his nose back in front and never looked back, finishing with a $726,500 profit from 25,400 hands after Kornuth threw in the towel.
Stay tuned to PokerNews for the duration of this latest Galfond Challenge, and discover whether it is Galfond or Adams who leaves with the title of champion.
