If he can do right by poker players I wish him good luck and understanding during the formative period of his endeavor. If he can get over the hump of opening his room, where there is not yet a recreational presence, he could enjoy great success. If it means something good for poker I would like to see it.

Development costs to build a platform from scratch and regulatory issues make this a HUGE challenge. He must have someone making a significant investment in this. Wish him the best but I think he's drawing very thin in today's climate.

Gonna be a tough undertaking to start a successful online poker site in the current climate but if anyone can do its Galfond. Good luck every online poker player is rooting for you.

Agree with the no HUD sentiment

great idea and long overdue. has a chance to wash away his training site atrocities.

Getting recs could be done through tv advertising with incentives to play vs big players. eg "Play our $15 $XXXX guarantee tonight and knockout RIO coach Grayson Ramage to win his $1k bounty...". Couple years doing that the rest will be word of mouth. If he just looks to BE for first few years could be poss..maybe... Would help if the whole team equated to a few billion to fund it all...

It will be awkward when Phil's buddies bankrupt all the fun players in a matter of weeks

Just got curious that what pros have had their own site in the past? Negreanu had full contact poker and oc doylesroom.

Tony G and Phil Ivey had their own sites I think.

Getting recs to play on their site will be the biggest challenge. Recs will play on brands they recognize and Pokerstars is advertised regularly on TV.

I dont think he will be able to go toe to toe with Pokerstars in that respect.

maybe its going to be a reg only site. reg vs reg all day and pros being preyed on by house accounts

Untracked, no damn telling how much Isildull will win

I live in the land of the FREE, the United States, can't wait to play! Oh yea...North Korea, Iraq, and the United States can't play. Good category to fall in US, really know how to let people have freedom of choice.

Cant believe no one has mentioned the possibility that this may be run on the full tilt software... would make sense would it not?

Awesome News! Well done Phil Galfond!!

Really like the mission statement, shows huge enthusiasm to make it right, a love of the game, and a desire to respect and value all players.
I think 2p2'ers wish really may have come true, and not just a new site, but a new site with the right intention, and the right people behind it.

nOT REALLY ESP CONSIDERING POKERSTARS owns full tilt.
*** CAPS TO LAZY TO ERASE AND RE-TYPE

Even such a short-term focused company like Amaya won't be so braindead to hand over a good pokerclient to a competitor. Ain't gonna happen.

This is amazing news. I moved away from Pokerstars in 2012 even before all the recent bull**** because if felt that plo games were raked unfairly. Amazing to see that someone with some actual values is going to run a poker site.

What this mean?No 3rd party application for HUD?if that so,I agree..NO HUD! or at least there are NO HUD tables

We're celebrating Galfond's upward mobility from player to coach to rake-collector. It's every kid's dream.

Phil good look with your venture, agree about no Huds, also no mass multitabling max 4 tables, I hope your site rapes Pokerstars in the assh0le eventualy

no software, anonymous tables and table cap of 4ish is the only way this can be successful. it will be a regfest for a long time and no one will play except the elite. also having a training site affiliated to the client is really bad

With adequate marketing and perhaps a collective marketing/backing-helping hand from a large number of players from forums such as 2+2 and RIO this could potentially go very well.

Obviously, good luck.

However, I just don't see any site that lacks billionaire backing as being remotely successful. Now, maybe Phil has some friends of that financial status backing this, but if he doesn't....

It's as if Pros don't understand the importance of tournament poker and how it attracts the masses. You need big guarantees with small buy ins to attract a lot of people. Then, and only then will you have a healthy cash game ecosystem.

Some billionaire will have to come along and invest $52 million in hosting a Sunday Million every single Sunday with overlays until numbers reach sustainability. That's the only way you will ever see a site compete with Pokerstars. There is no "growing a site" to the point where you can host a Sunday Million in an ecosystem like this. It's going to take an investor with massive backing to ever make a site that will compete with Pokerstars. Not only will it require backing, but the backer must do it with the understanding that large financial losses will be required before any kind of a profit can be made from the investment.

One guy who does get the point is Doug Polk. He recently talked about the importance of tournaments to the cash game ecosystem in one of his recent videos. It was a refreshing to finally see a high stakes pro who gets it....