Posts Tagged ‘Phil Galfond’

Barcode – The Mysterious Online Poker Phenom

Thursday, October 18th, 2012

When it comes to high stakes online poker, we’re used to seeing names like Phil Galfond and Viktor Blom dominating the news. However, a new and mysterious player named “Barcode” (a.k.a. 1Il|1Il|1il|) has been experiencing most of the success lately.

Getting into the specifics, this player is fresh off of a week where he made over $554k. And this isn’t the only success that Barcode has experienced because he’s managed to collect over $1.3 million while playing against some of the top online poker players in the world. October 11th was an especially good day since he was able to win $557k in profits!

Apparently, Barcode makes the bulk of his money on the PokerStars $100/$200 and $200/$400 PLO tables. This certainly isn’t surprising because these games are a favorite among many of the world’s top players. It’ll definitely be interesting to see if Barcode continues to top the nosebleeds and haul in major profits.

Tony G backing Jungleman

In other big high stakes news, Tony “G” Gouga has announced that he’s going to stake Dan Cates. Gouga wrote about the news with the following:

I have talked before about how I wanted to stake Isildur1 – well I am back in the staking business now as I am backing Daniel ‘Jungleman’ Cates. I think this guy could turn $5 million into $100 million – he’s a genius. I started off by backing him for the WPT Grand Prix de Paris and intend to back him live but predominantly online.

To those who’ve followed high stakes in the past, it may seem weird that Cates is being staked. After all, he made over $5 million in 2010 profits and has collected around $8 million overall. However, he’s also had a lot of money locked up on Full Tilt over the last year and a half. Plus it seems like he may have hit a little downswing as Gouga said, “He has definitely had his ups and downs but his heart is in the right place.”

With a rich backer like Tony G, it will be very interesting to see how Cates does in the near future.

Phil Galfond robbed by Blue Fire Poker?

Wednesday, September 19th, 2012

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.

Vegas Inc covers Online Poker Move to Canada

Monday, August 8th, 2011

As we discussed at the beginning of August, several prominent online poker pros like Phil Galfond, Cole South and Dan “Jungleman12″ Cates have either moved to Canada, or are in the process of moving to Canada. This being said, the website Vegas Inc did a good story on this subject entitled “Exodus of Online Poker Players under way.”

This article revolved around how lots of Las Vegas poker pros are seriously considering going up north because the live poker game just isn’t the same. Vegas Inc wrote the following:

Las Vegas became a favored home base for many poker professionals because of the concentration of big-money poker games, tournaments and all-hours access to amenities and entertainment. Many online players also play poker in casinos — although those who make most of their money in virtual poker rooms have little use for the typically slower and more expensive games offered in Las Vegas casinos.

Tony Dunst, who not only plays online poker professionally, but also works for the WPT, had plenty more to say on why Las Vegas-based online poker pros hate the live game so much. He said, “Live (casino) poker is really slow and monotonous, and the casino setting is generally unpleasant. You’re sitting in a chair for nine hours around people you might not like or want to listen to.”

He finished by adding, “For people like us who play eight to 20 games at a time from the comfort of our own home … your buddies are around and you can watch movies and order food. You can talk strategy and communicate with friends from all over the world.”

Shaun Deeb was also featured heavily in this article, and he looks to be the next big-time pro to make the jump to Canada. Deeb told Vegas Inc, “I used to play poker for 100 hours a week. Every day I sit around I get more motivated to leave.” With over $6 million in online poker tournament winnings, it would be stupid for Deeb not to leave for the greener pastures in Canada.

Assuming you want to see more from the Vegas Inc article, you can check it out here.