In the first Galfond Challenge, Phil Galfond suffered huge losses early in the contest to ‘VeniVidi’, slumping to a €900,000 deficit that many thought would finish him off, not only in the challenge itself, but perhaps the overall schedule of events on Run It Once.

That, of course, didn’t happen as Galfond pulled back his losses and seized a late, great victory with a thrilling comeback victory for the ages.

It must come as something of a surprise to the great man, then, that he’s got off to such a strong start against the similarly-talented ‘ActionFreak’. While Galfond has begun his ‘second’ challenge against Bill Perkins, the busy schedule of the Die With Zero author, businessman and philanthropist demands a sporadic series of sessions rather than a regular return to familiar tables. That doesn’t help the narrative of the challenge, of course, and Galfond has been wise to start the challenge against ActionFreak. Taking place in Pot Limit Omaha, just like in the VeniVidi challenge, Galfond has got off to the opposite kind of start this time round.

The terms of Galfond’s challenge against ActionFreak are slightly different to the ones which framed the VeniVidi clash. The action is €150/€300, so swings are even bigger, the average pot is larger and because of that, the $416,442.58 that Galfond leads by is a very healthy lead but not one that ActionFreak will feel he can’t come back from.