ShareIt will soon be Chance Kornuth’s turn to take on Phil Galfond in the PLO Challenge series – September 16th announced as the start date for the 35,000-hand battle at €100/€200 stakes PLO
Kornuth will be looking to do what online crushers VeniVidi1993 and ActionFreak both failed to manage, but he’s currently a longshot in the betting markets, although not quite as bad as the initial numbers showed…
That has been pulled back to a more realistic 3-1 in the last few days, given that Kornuth is no mean player himself, the Denver-born, Vegas-resident pro a double WSOP gold bracelet winner who can boast almost $7.5million in live tournament earnings.
Add to that his online experience and his role as founder of Chip Leader Coaching, and Kornuth has the pedigree to trouble Galfond – but that was also said about the RunItOnce boss’ previous opponents.
VeniVidi1993 falls on Galfond’s sword
The highstakes PLO Challenge kicked off with Galfond facing VeniVidi1993 and the anonymous online crusher pulled away to a €900,000 lead by the halfway stage.
Galfond bravely decided to continue rather than admit defeat and miraculously clawed his way back, the final session seeing 20,000+ TwitchTV viewers tuning in to witness his last gasp victory.
Bill Perkins tastes early defeat
Next up, Galfond started a match against Bill Perkins and the Thirst Lounge, booking a $90k+ session win on the 2nd day, but the match put on the back burner as Action Freak stepped up to the plate…ActionFreak fails to topple the PLO endboss
Revealed afterwards as Greek pro Ioannis Kontonatsios, the ActionFreak match was almost the reverse of the opener against VeniVidi1993, this time Galfond stretching out to an early lead.Despite Kontonatsios battling back hard, Galfond took down the 15k hands €150/$300 match-up, winning the €150k sidebet to go with €115k in table winnings.
Jungleman’s costly mini-match
Inserted among the full-length PLO Challenge encounters were a couple of mini-matches, and the against Dan Jungleman Cates naturally stood out, expected by many to be Phil’s toughest opponent.The one-day, 750-hand match naturally didn’t reflect the relative skill levels of two of poker’s legends, but it was long enough for Galfond to pocket €86,870 and secure an incredible admission from Cates.
That’s where we stand in the PLO Challenge series to date, and the big question now is whether Chance Kornuth can buck the trend and the odds to land a crushing blow?
