Phil Galfond has transformed himself into somewhat of an online poker hero over the past several years. Not only has he victimized PLO opponents for nearly $9 million in career online profits, but he’s also gained quite a bit of respect for his poker training and blogging abilities as well. Speaking of the latter, Galfond recently wrote a massive 5,000-word piece on his humble poker beginnings, and how he finally made the decision to play the game for a living.
Poker Bankroll Management
So how did one of the world’s best PLO players get his start in poker? Ripping up $5/$10 NL Hold’em games right away? Winning a $100k Guaranteed tournament on his first try? Actually, Galfond got his start by playing $10 SNG’s as a freshman at the University of Wisconsin (Madison) – and the kicker is that he only deposited $50 to fund his initial bankroll.
Galfond admitted the glaring bankroll management mistake in his blog by writing, “Clearly, I didn’t know much about poker bankroll management at the time. I lost my first $50.” Fortunately, the man who would later dominate under the screen names “OMGClayAiken” and “MrSweets28” reloaded for another $50 and ran this up to several thousand dollars. He attributed his newfound success to joining forums and investing in poker software.
Competitive Fire
Another really interesting excerpt from Galfond’s blog explained how he satisfied his competitive fire in high school by playing football. But when high school ended, he transitioned this competitiveness to the cyber felt. Galfond then equated poker to an “awesome video game” and said that he obsessively began studying and playing poker around the clock.
College Dropout
Like many successful online poker players these days, Phil Galfond is a college dropout. Of course, it’s hard to argue with his decision to drop out when the guy was making $500 an hour playing online poker. Galfond describes, in great detail, how he finally chose to drop out of college during his senior year, and you can check it out here.
