Imagine the jubilation of getting an opportunity to compete against your heroes and play High Stakes Poker on television, and then getting kicked to the curb and told to never show your face on HSP again.
It happened to Phil Galfond, who told the story of his departure from the show in a new video that he posted on YouTube. Phil was 22 years old at the time and had been crushing online action for the past three years.
Through his connection to Tom Dwan, Galfond received an invite to play on HSP and appeared on an episode seated among Phil Hellmuth, Jamie Gold, Eli Elezra, Sammy Farha, Brandon Adams, Daniel Negreanu and Jennifer Harman.
Bad TV
To say that it didn't go very well is quite an understatement. It's not that a young Galfond was crushed by the poker legends and lost his bankroll. It was more that he wasn't ready for prime time television.To put it another way, he was boring.
"What I didn't realize that going on TV to play poker back then was about entertainment," Galfond said. "Yes, people were trying to win .... but the people who got invited back were the ones who made great TV."Galfond was accused of being nitty and snippets from the game bear that out. He folded pocket queens when Farha bet $16K into a $22,000 pot with air.
In another instance, Phil mucked his cards thinking he was a sure loser when it turned out that he would have chopped the pot. Embarrassing mistakes to be sure, and coming from a guy who had a few years under his belt playing against the toughest online poker players in the world.
Unflattering Appearance
But this was a different animal. There were the lights and TV cameras, as well as a stacked table of famous players, many of whom Galfond had idolized."It went as poorly as it could have possibly gone," Galfond stated. "My hopes and dreams of being a poker superstar were dashed."It takes a secure person to show his least flattering moment on the felt to the rest of the world. It also benefits beginning players when they see that a well-known poker pro such as Galfond is susceptible to the same foibles as the rest of us.
Check out the video below. Mad respect for Galfond for putting it together and posting it on YouTube.