Phil Galfond's Fear of Failure: How It Led Him Back to Online Poker

Phil Galfond, a renowned poker player, recently opened up about his lifelong fear of failure that initially prevented him from competing with modern-day poker players. Galfond described this fear as the "Too Smart to Try" syndrome, which led him to avoid or quit things he wasn't naturally good at.

Galfond initially thought he couldn't compete in the post-solver era of poker because he wouldn't be able to memorize solver outputs. He reasoned that the best players would be those who studied hardest and memorized solver outputs, and he knew that wouldn't be him. This fear led him to semi-retire from playing tough online nosebleed games as his RunItOnce businesses took over his life.

However, his work with ElliotRoe1 helped him realize he loved playing poker and that solver-era poker is still about outwitting opponents. This realization led to Galfond devising his series of PLO Challenge matches, where he has recently defeated several high-profile online poker players, including VeniVidi1993, ActionFreak, Dan 'Jungleman' Cates, and Chance Kornuth. Additionally, Galfond's father passed away unexpectedly a month ago, and he was proud of Galfond's PLO Challenge matches.