Phil Galfond: Ship It Holla Ballas
Even though it’s been in place since 2009, Yahoo news recently featured an article in their Real Estate section about pro poker player Phil Galfond having a metal fun slide connecting two penthouses in the East Village section of New York City.
Galfond, better known by his online poker handle of “OMGClayAiken” bought the penthouses in October of 2008 for a total of $3.14 million. The problem he faced was connecting the two. It was no problem for the firm named Turett Collaborative Architects, who designed a stainless steel tube resembling a slide similar to those featured in amusement parks and playgrounds.
The two condos are identical one bedroom units, one directly on top of the other, and the slide that gives users “the option to descend in the usual way on a new Italian-made “Rintal” stair, or more speedily, in a seated position, careening through the new double-height atrium,” according to the company’s website.
The slide is a half-tube, which gives users a view of the city though an oversized window, and provokes “the irrepressible glee of grown adults on the slide, is surprisingly poetic; with careful detailing, the playground element is an unexpectedly elegant addition to the space.” The ultimate bachelor pad is notorious for being a party building.
Galfond is a high-stakes online pro who was born on Jan. 16, 1985, in Rockville, Maryland, but grew up primarily in Gaithersburg, living there until he was 18.
For a while, he attended the University of Wisconsin at Madison, majoring in philosophy, yet like so many of the young guns of poker, he was introduced to online poker by fellow students, and right after he turned 21, with some online cashes and a World Series of Poker (WSOP) as well as a World Poker Tour (WPT) circuit event under his belt, he dropped out of school to play poker professionally.
At the 2008 WSOP he entered into one of the toughest games of his career, the $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha re-buy event. He made it to the final table that included poker superstars Johnny Chan, David Benyamine, Phil Hellmuth, Daniel Negreanu, and John Juanda who collectively had 28 WSOP bracelets between them. Undaunted, he was the chip leader for most of the event, and came down to a heads-up match against Adam Hourani. After more than 100 hands, Galfond won his first bracelet and prize money of $817,781.
He includes among his friends notable poker players such as Alan Sass, Peter Jetten, Andrew Robl and Tom “durrrr” Dwan and has played against the toughest opponents in poker.
Galfond moved to New York due to the fact he plays mostly online in high stakes cash games primarily $200/$400 stakes and above in No-limit Texas Holdem and Pot-Limit Omaha on Full Tilt Poker.
In January 2009 he launched BlueFirePoker.com, a poker-training site utilizing instructional videos. At the site Galfond is actively involved in hiring trainers and overseeing the instructional content.
He is also a writer of various articles on poker, including the well-regarded piece entitled G-Bucks.
