Phil Galfond Surprises No One by Announcing New RunItOnce.com Training Site
Then there’s the type of “breaking news” poker story that’s not really, truly news, because it’s always been a matter of when, not if. The when in question, and about what? That would be Phil Galfond’s new poker training site, RunItOnce.com, which he’s just announced.
That Galfond, one of the most popular high-stakes cash-gamers online, was going to launch a new site soon was hardly even a matter for dispute. It was just a few months ago that he filed suit against the previous site (and owner thereof) for which he had a deal to produce training content, that being BlueFire Poker and its owner, William Murphy.
Galfond was the public face of Bluefire from 2009 to 2011, and filed a lawsuit against Murphy for what was alleged to be nonpayment but in fact smelled a little hinky, if you looked into the details of the lawsuit. It turned out Galfond had been erratic at best in providing new training for BlueFire, and there were rumors of a sweeter deal elsewhere.
As Murphy alleged, in a rebuttal to Galfond’s legal claim, “He wanted to make more than double the money for less than half the work- much of which he wasn’t even doing.”
Murphy also asserted that the two had attempted to negotiate a new deal to keep Galfond in the BlueFire fold, but that Galfond blew that up with a very public split — and the November 2011 lawsuit — as part of an effort to force Murphy to drop a non-compete clause that had been part of the original BlueFire deal.
There was little doubt that Galfond wanted out, at the least. As Galfond claimed back then, “As of today, BluefirePoker.com and I are parting ways. It’s very hard to walk away from something I helped build from the ground up. Please know that it was a very difficult decision that I struggled with for a long, long time. I’m sorry that I can’t elaborate further.”
It’s been a little over a year. Seems just about right.
As for Galfond’s new venture, the star widely known online as “OMGClayAiken” and “mrsweets28” will join a large and impressive stable of horses in the new RunItOnce training site. How’s this for a lineup?
Phil Galfond (“mrsweets28”)
Steve Gross (“gboro780”)
Di Dang (“urindanger”)
James Obst (“Andy McLEOD”)
Hac Dang (“trex313”)
Jason Koon (“NovaSky”)
Sean Lefort (“Lefort”)
David Emmons (“betudontbet”)
Adrian Milroy (“Sharknebulah”)
Bryan Piccioli (“theczar19”)
Leo Nordin (“ISILDRooN”)
Grayson Ramage (“gray31”)
Parker Muir (“seankhalifa”)
Todd Sisley (“MaltLiquor40”)
James Hudson (“IRunLucky”)
Jono Crute (“GAWA9”)
Sam Lang (“olangotang”)
Espen Sørlie (“sh4wshank”)
Michael Dolle (“Klairic”)
Paul Senter (“Senterpeid”)
Call that what you will; I call that a heck of an impressive lineup for a site just trotting out its image.
Now the flip side: The bucks these trainers are seeking to extract are every bit as impressive. You wanna get your feet wet, hang with the low-level trainers such as Hudson and Crute, the “Essential” dudes, well that’s just a measly $9.99 per month.
But if you’re feeling a bit more bourgeois and decide you want to try the “Elite” plan, getting full access to Galfond and Gross and the Dang and the other Dang will set you back $99.99. Per month.
Dang! That’s $1,200 a year.
Is the market there for this service? That’ll be the real test. There’s no doubt, however, that this is Galfond’s baby, and that he’s aiming high. While anyone can register for free, join the community and post their own hands, Galfond and boys insist you gotta pay to play, play meaning to watch them play and comment about why they did what they did.
All videos posted here to date are either “Essential” or “Elite”, meaning that registering free (“Basic”) doesn’t let you watch them. To view even one video here, you’ll have to fork over some green.
For me, I’m guessing I’m going to wait and let the community decide if the content is that much more valuable than what one can get elsewhere. Exactly where the top of the market with is never set in stone, and this isn’t nearly as ridiculous as the $1850 price for Cole South’s and Tri Nguyen’s 2009 online trainer, “Let There Be Range“.
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