No online poker instructor is as famous as Phil Galfond. The high stakes PLO expert developed a cult following over the past few years for his personable, knowledgeable and humble training videos on Blue Fire Poker. Unfortunately, the days of Galfond doing training videos came to an end when he mysteriously left the site late last year.
No true reasons were given for the split, and many people felt like it was weird because they thought Galfond owned Blue Fire Poker. But as it turns out, he was merely a minority owner who made training videos and served as the face of Blue Fire. Now it appears as if a corrupted business relationship between him and former business partner Williams F. Murphy may be behind the story.
According to Galfond, his contract with Murphy stated that he was to retain 38.33% ownership of Blue Fire and be entitled to 33.33% of the profits. However, the popular poker pro doesn’t feel as though Murphy stayed true to this deal, and he’s suing the current Blue Fire Poker owner. Galfond’s legal stance is summed up with the following statement:
Blue Fire has been immensely successful, having thousands of members who pay an initial enrollment fee of $100 in addition to a subscription fee of $30 per month. Upon information and belief, the defendant Murphy has misappropriated and converted to his own use and possession the assets of MGH (parent company).
Elaborating on the legal statement, Galfond never saw any accounting records for how much money the site was making. He merely trusted that Murphy was keeping up his end of the deal. And despite receiving a collective $409,000 in 2009 and 2010, Galfond maintains that he is still owed money – especially for 2011, which he hasn’t received any compensation for.
Tags: Blue Fire Poker, Online Poker, online poker instructor, Phil Galfond, William F. Murphy