Phil Galfond - qualities of successful poker players

In this episode of Runchuks Poker Podcast Phil Galfond talks about the qualities that make him a great poker player, his decision making process, how does he think through the hand, how does he handle the stress and of course how does Phil sees the future of online poker, what are some of the biggest dangers that the industry is facing (such as collusion in poker and poker bots) and what can poker sites do to overcome those. We also talk about the Galfond Challenge. So far Phil finished two of them, winning the matches against the high stakes crushers VeniVidi1993 and ActionFreak. We also dig deeper into how Phil managed to overcome the huge early downswing against VeniVidi to come out on top. His insights on what qualities make a successful poker player are invaluable. And Phil also shares his opinions on Poker Solvers and other study tools as well as HUDs.

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Twitter: https://twitter.com/RunchuksP

iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/mt/podcast/the-runchuks-podcast/id1511439478&ls=1

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3noSXKdBtcqqGWOpE4tsWR

Overcast: https://overcast.fm/itunes1511439478/the-runchuks-podcast

Follow Phil on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PhilGalfond

Timestamps:

00:00:00 Introduction

00:01:44 Where is Phil

00:02:20 Seriously missing poker

00:03:12 How Phil Galfond came up with the challenge

00:09:13 Phil Galfond poker passion

00:11:22 The qualities that made the best players then are still needed now

00:19:31 Thinking ahead during the hand

00:20:48 Memory

00:22:18 Key points

00:24:20 Being aware of your feelings

00:25:23 VeniVidi frequent check-raises on the river

00:29:49 Limited time for making decisions

00:31:26 A second or two to refresh

00:33:02 Why Galfond Challenge is so special

00:36:01 What caused the most stress during the challenge

00:37:25 Did VeniVidi1993 and ActionFreak feel the same?

00:38:29 What Phil expected from the challenge

00:40:20 Traffic on RunItOnce Poker during the challenge

00:41:38 The incredible VeniVidi1993 match

00:45:59 The importance of working with a team

00:49:12 Investing in learning

00:50:30 If your only motivation is money

00:51:08 Phil Galfond coaching videos and thinking process

00:55:19 How was life at home during the challenge?

01:00:25 Switching off after the session

01:01:53 How did the days off look like?

01:02:30 Maintaining a consistent schedule

01:05:29 Being a father

01:06:46 Teaching games to his son

01:08:16 RunItOnce Poker, what are the next challenges?

01:24:45 Pros feeling entitled

01:26:36 What do recreational players want?

01:29:09 Not everyone is a big winner or a big loser

01:31:49 Reaching all player types and where to draw the line

01:33:15 Being open-minded about changes

01:35:27 PokerStars changes

01:37:58 The future of poker

01:41:17 Deep Blue effect

01:43:38 Using the challenge to prove that solvers didn't kill the game of poker

01:45:15 The definition of "studying poker" is broad

01:46:12 Custom tools for studying poker

01:47:32 Importance of good memory in poker

01:50:58 Restarting the challenge