The 55-minute piece dives into Galfond’s rise through the game in the 2000s, slow withdrawal from a heavy playing schedule, and entry into the online market as the founder of Run It Up Poker.
Galfond managed to erase that deficit in the second half of the 25,000-hand Pot-Limit Omaha match, squeaking out a narrow victory in a battle that’s become the stuff of poker legends.
Episode 5 of the Gamblers Podcast frames Galfond as one of the game’s all-time greatest comebacks. That title comes not just because of the VeniVedi match, as the episode chronicles Galfond’s entire history in the game of poker.
Two eras of Galfond greatness
The Gamblers Podcast features a detailed account of Galfond’s rise through poker, sustained status as a poker icon, and return to success as an active player in the Galfond Challenge series.
The Ringer operates as one of the most popular sports and pop culture media outlets in the U.S., founded by sports media veteran Bill Simmons in 2016.
The Ringer Podcast Network debuted the Gamblers Podcast on Nov. 18, and each week’s episode unveils a new piece of a collection of incredible stories from the history of gambling. The Galfond episode marks the first chapter of the anthology to center around poker.
Episode 5 tells the story of a young player who made millions playing poker, stepped away from the game, started his own poker training site, then couldn’t resist the urge to prove he could still play at the highest level.
The first poker-related chapter of the podcast sets the scene with a dramatically dictated introduction comparing the Galfond vs. VeniVidi match to some of the greatest sports comebacks of all time.
“Cavs-Warriors. Patriots-Falcons. Ali-Foreman. Some sports comeback stories are so enshrined in our collective consciousness that we need only to say the names of the competitors.”
“But what makes these stories so memorable, so important to the history of sports, is how improbable they were. How much they defied belief. These were the kind of stories that left people saying the words ‘fairytale’.”
Does Phil Galfond’s comeback against VeniVedi really compare to some of the greatest comebacks in sports history? For true followers of the game perhaps it does.
The Gamblers Podcast certainly does a great job telling the story of the first Galfond Challenge as one of the most epic chapters in the history of poker. Poker fans will likely enjoy the Gamblers Podcast as a whole, and eagerly await the next poker-centric episode of the series.
Featured image source: Twitter
