Player Spotlight: Phil Galfond
Phil Galfond is to Pot Limit Omaha what Dr. James Naismith is to basketball.
He’s not only an innovator but also one of the greatest PLO players in history. It all started for the New York native back in the Full Tilt Poker days when he famously played nosebleed cash games under the moniker “OMGClayAiken.”
No, he isn’t a fan of the 2003 “American Idol” runner-up. Instead, he chose the screen name as a contrarian to the typical macho pseudonyms used by many online poker players.
Galfond, 35, has always been a cash game specialist but he’s also had some success in the World Series of Poker. He has three career bracelets and 21 cashes for $2.8 million.
But while he does occasionally pop up in live events, he’ll always be an Internet poker player at heart. Galfond launched his own poker site, Run it Once, in 2019. He is attempting to create a product that satisfies both recreational and professional poker players.
On the felt, Phil has appeared in many televised poker shows such as “High Stakes Poker” and “Poker After Dark.” You won’t find him playing Texas hold’em very often. He prefers sticking to the game that made him wealthy – pot-limit Omaha – although he did win a WSOP bracelet in $10,000 No-Limit 2-7 Lowball Draw Championship for $224,383 in 2015.
Phil is married to Farah Galfond who is also a talented poker player. Mrs. Galfond is a soap opera actress who famously played the role of Mimi Lockhart on “Days of Our Lives” from 1999 to 2007 and Gigi Morasco on “One Life to Live” from 2007 to 2012.
