Galfond Walking Away From the Nosebleeds?
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Last week it was Brian Townsend with a long, reflective blog post where he announced he was walking away from the high stakes online games, citing variance, the grind of finding a game to play and a desire to undertake a new challenge.
This week it’s cash pro, WSOP bracelet holder and lead Bluefire poker instructor Phil Galfond spouting similar sentiments in a long-form, introspective post that doesn’t go quite as far as Townsend’s sayonara, but echoes many of the same complaints.
Galfond, better known to some by his online screen name OMGClayAiken, is considered by many to be one of a handful of elite cash game players online. Despite that recognition (and considerable results to back up the praise), Galfond isn’t immune to the inherent emotional instability that comes with playing poker for a living.
From his blog: “Playing around with some variance calculators has made me realize that at the frequency the nosebleeds run, I won’t see the long run for about 5+ years. I wasn’t even planning on playing that long. It’s a little disheartening to know that I have so little control over my month to month results. Maybe disheartening is the wrong word. It makes me feel, I dunno, not in control of things. I feel like there’s probably a good word for that, but I have a bad vocabulary.”
Compare that to Townsend’s complaints: “”The thought of losing everything I made this year or in the past year on such a downswing sickens me. Although its unlikely with what I feel my edge is in those games, I still don’t have a massive edge and no one really does [...] To be honest I guess I am getting a bit older and am not willing to take the risks that I once was. I used to not mind the thought of losing a lot and grinding back up, but now I have no desire to have those swings in my life as they are incredibly stressful.”
Galfond clearly isn’t ready to be done with the game in the way that Townsend is, but it’s clear that he’s seeking the same sort of recalibration that Townsend appears to be - a reimagining of sorts of why he plays poker. Again from Galfond’s blog: “I think I need to come to terms with the fact that I can’t rely on high stakes poker for my income. My EV is still very good, but I need to have other reasons for playing: the challenge, fun, pride. Playing 50k hands a year of 300/600+ for the money is just setting myself up for dissapointment. Even with a decent edge, I can’t expect to come out a significant winner more than 60% of the time.”
You can watch Galfond play at Full Tilt Poker, but make sure you read this before you download Full Tilt Poker.
