Phil Galfond is finding a tough opponent in ActionFreak
For a lot of people in the poker community, online poker player "ActionFreak" was considered the toughest opponent Phil Galfond will face in his Galfond Challenge, and that’s the way it has played out. After completing two weeks of sessions and over 5,700 hands of the set 15,000, Galfond ended up with a huge lead for over $434,664. Nevertheless, ActionFreak has made an impressive comeback during the ninth day of play, winning over $250,000 from Galfond from that session alone.
In doing so, he cut the difference to only $195,598 - and they haven't even reached half of the total hands.
During session number 9, Galfond and ActionFreak played 721 hands more, and ActionFreak closed the day with a win for a total of $278,232. As has been usual during this challenge, the whole session had both players up and down with their stacks. At the beginning of the session, it seemed like the scale was inclining more towards Galfond; however, ActionFreak started solidly building up his stack.
Galfond started winning a pot for $74,979 at the beginning with river quads. But ActionFreak was quick to erase that loss with his Aces, defeating Galfond straight draw in a five-bet pot, to win $76,066. Galfond had another great hand in which he won a pot for $104,319, but that was not enough to win. ActionFreak hit him hard with several consecutive wins thereafter that led him to his biggest win of the challenge.
Knowing ActionFreak's potential and reputation, it was no surprise that Galfond did not give his opponent any more odds for the side bet. Both players agreed on a $162,999 bet going to the winner.
