True. I don't think site owner should ever offer this. I know he is trying to market his poker site, but this is not the way.

Advertisement.

What is the way then?

He didn't have a site when he was bumhunting Isildur/Guy etc.

It’s amazing that there can be an announcement of the most exciting thing to happen in online poker in years and there can be this much negativity itt. Guess I’m still naive after all these years.

The more I think about it the more I actually like this idea if done right. He's the perfect person to do this and will want to make it highly visible and publicized(I'm thinking cameras all around, no software tools) to highlight the site as a legitimate place to play and friendly to recreational players.

Moving forward I can't say I like the site operator playing on a regular basis(like others said, Phil has an immaculate reputation but somehow I still feel uneasy about it -
especially if you're a casual player/don't know who Phil is just take that at face value) and I think as a business decision it would be wise to reduce the level of trust needed from customers.

That aside - if he does a few promotional/charity highly publicized watchable events I think that's a great idea. I for one went to the website for the first time so if other people do the same that's already a huge win.

He's written a few times in comments on his twitter that he's looking to do "several" of the challenges proposed.

That's a lot of popcorn.

I don't mean to be negative, but it seems a bit ironic, to set a match between well known poker players, who get to choose their screen name, and people will want to see them because they know who they are - in an effort to try and attract people to a site, that only lets all other people play completely anonymously and who cannot choose any screen names.
Other than that it's great.

LOL awesome point you made there.

thanks

Just look at the avg user's post count .. lol online

On topic though - I do miss the high stakes omaha action... it's always delightful to see BERRI and TrueTeller.

Where did phil get all this money. Like sure he made 10-20 million during the boom days, but enough to open a poker site and now this?

Did he get in early in the crypto boom and is just like sitting on a hundred milly or something?

I assume he got investors like most business people do. They don't usually invest a ton of their own capital on risky ventures. Him being college educated I'm assuming he's not donking off his winnings like some poker players do.

Didn't he spend 150k on a slide?

best post in the thread so far.

how ironic this is indeed haha

so 25 year old Galfond = 35 year old Galfond?

Does $150k = the same as the capital you have to pour into a business?

It was a joke

When looking up RIO at Pokerscout i think it's an great idea: he will literally increase traffic by 13% when a match takes place . Boy, 13%!!!!!!

Straight out of The Hustler.

Hahahahaha had forgotten that. One more reason to like Phil Galfond.

I am a huge Galfond fan but we need to stay as objective as possible here. As you said he did lose millions in mixed games to learn them. Learning them in order to make money in the future by playing them.

In this challenge, I doubt Phil wants to play the best players in the world to improve his game. I doubt his plans are to play poker in the future at all, at least not online if the games stay as bad at stakes he would want to grind.

So as you said, it's a big marketing campaign but I don't like the fact that he sells it as "I want to brig action to the tables and poker is what I'm living for!". He rather wants to save RIO. So hes trying to increase his overall ev, which is fine and completely reasonable as a business man. He's not supposed to help anyone but himself.

If you think about how many regs would want to play against Phil, he is looking to lose way more than a few millions.

By calling it a "failed marketing campaign"?

The first thing he shared about this challenge is that he is doing it to draw eyes to RIO Poker. So he thinks the regs make money playing him, but that he'll potentially make more if it brings RIO Poker a little bit of momentum it wouldn't otherwise have. And we get to watch.

Unless I'm missing something that's a win win win? No idea why there is so much negativity.

Didnt even think of that movie when I typed that. Straight Minnesota Fats style!

Hey, guys! Some updates / fact-checking / clarification:

• 13 challengers and counting now

• The 3:1 offer to training site pros is an open challenge - if I'm happy with the stakes they're willing to play (and don't have any weird suspicions or something), I won't turn any of them down. (Note that this is for active coaches at the time of my post. Ike, please don't go make videos for Upswing. It won't get you 3:1 action - it will just make me sad.

• The thread title is misleading. The "everyone" challenge is "reach out to me with a proposal." I am not guaranteeing that I accept any and every proposal, any game, any stakes sent my way and keep playing challenge after challenge forever. I'll try to play as many as I can while out of the US, and there will certainly be some extremely tough players involved. There's essentially no chance I get through 10 matches.

• I'm working on locking in and selecting my first several challenges. I will publicly announce them in advance and would be happy for each player to put down a deposit so there's no backing out (within reason). I haven't discussed that with the challengers yet - we're still hammering out the basic terms. I probably won't look to lock in more than 4-5 matches in advance because there are risks of things taking a long time and circumstances changing, etc. I'll be open about what's locked and what isn't so you all have full information and can start placing your sidebets

• I only spent $35k on my slide, guys

• All of the matches will be for real money and for the stakes advertised.

• I'm not sure where the Isildur bumhunting talk is coming from. We played against each other many, many times. It wasn't based on who was tired. We have both always liked to play irresponsibly long sessions.

• There was a short time in my career when I (virtually) only played $100kNL when Guy was playing. It was also the only time many other people played, some of whom I liked playing with. I was way under-rolled for those stakes and I didn't think it made sense to battle the best when a normal-sized downswing would have literally busted me.

• I can confirm I've lost millions playing limit games in hopes of learning them. I have not come remotely close to winning that money back at limit games, but I still try sometimes.

• I'm not planning to spend millions on these challenges, but it's certainly a possibility. I'll be playing some people I otherwise wouldn't have at these stakes - yes, this is marketing for RIO Poker - but I don't think I'm going to be -$2m+ in EV. Obviously I could be wrong.
  

Hope you all enjoy the show!

It cannot be win win if Phil let's every reg play him as he offered. I just don't think that compaign will bring nearly enough value for his company compared to what he potentially is gonna lose.

I guess "failed marketing campaign" is a poor description of what I meant, sorry about that.

Regardless of all that I would love to rail the matches, regardless where they will be played. So yeah, it's great for the fans.

This made me lmfao.

Phil, you are an absolute legend of a guy. We are truly not worthy.