The next Galfond Challenge has been laid out for this September
After pro player Phil Galfond concluded his latest match as part of the Galfond Challenge almost two months ago, a new contender has been officially announced. The only thing is that followers of this online Pot-Limit Omaha (PLO) challenge will need to wait until September to see Chance Kornuth, the 34-year-old pro player, take down Galfond.
The task will be hard, as Galfond has already won the three challenges he has played so far, although one of them was a miniature one.
According to what Kornuth told CardPlayer magazine, he and Galfond finally agreed on a date to start the challenge, and it even comes with "a penalty in place if one of us is unable to start on the date we’ve now agreed upon, which is September 16." The terms of the challenge come with great odds for Kornuth as he is getting a 4-1 on the side bet, meaning that he will put $250,000 and Galfond will put $1 million at risk. The challenge will go on for 35,000 hands of $113/$227 (€100/€200) of PLO.
Kornuth seems to be getting great odds, but that doesn't mean his challenge will be easier – no one has been able to defeat the PLO star in the challenge. However, Kornuth admits that "it is nice to have information about his game and really seeing how he’s been playing, which will help me with my decisions." By saying this, he refers to the previous challenges against VeniVidi1993 and ActionFreak and a third one-day session challenge against Dan "Jungleman" Cates. Galfond's first challenge was won almost due to a miracle during the last few hands, but, in the second one, he was seen more in control of his game and his mind, so he was able to take down a great contender, keeping his lead from the beginning.