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. Make sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel to stay informed about new videos https://www.youtube.com/RunchuksPoker?sub_confirmation=1 And if you'd like to receive my key takeaways from each latest podcast episode, subscribe to my newsletter https://www.runchukspodcast.com 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