Phil Galfond Poker Room
- Phil Galfond Poker Room Games
- Phil Galfond Poker Room Rules
- Phil Galfond Poker Room Ideas
- Phil Galfond Online Poker Site
Galfond originally announced he was working on an online poker room last September, when the high stakes/high volume community’s anxiety over the ongoing changes at PokerStars was at its peak. The project, RunItOnce Poker, is ambitious.
- — Run It Once Poker (@RunItOncePoker) May 16, 2020 Jungleman's ode to Galfond. Speaking of which, a very active Phil Galfond also found time to play Daniel Cates heads-up for a 'mini challenge' last week, with a special prop bet attached. On top of the €86,870 he won, the loser had to record a video proclaiming why the winner was the better.
- Run It Once is an independent room, which is the project of online poker superstar Phil Galfond. The public beta of the room launched in February 2019, but it wasn't until the fall of 2019 when it started widespread promotion of the room.
- The latest announcement of a new online poker room comes not from an established gaming company, but from high stakes professional poker player, Phil Galfond. He founded the Run it Once poker training site, and is famous within the poker community while remaining relatively anonymous in the mainstream.
Poker Room Reviews > Run It Once Poker Room Review
Updated: November 28, 2019
Pros
- Licensed in Malta and UK
- Poker client for Windows and Mac
- Up to 75% rakeback via “Splash the Pot” + Road to Legend
- Dynamic avatars + forced anonymous tables
Cons
- Does not accept US-based players
- Cap on multi-tabling (6 tables maximum)
- No tournaments available (cash games only)
- Only No Limit Hold’em and Pot Limit Omaha spread
History of Run It Once Poker
Run It Once Poker is the brainchild of Phil Galfond. He is the owner of three World Series of Poker bracelets, won in PLO, PLO8, and NL 2-7 Single Draw events, respectively, and plays for the highest of stakes when it comes to cash games. He has won over $8 million online playing at other sites under the names ‘MrSweets28’ and ‘OMGClayAiken’, but over the last few years he has been spending more of his time on running his Run It Once training site. Believing he could find ways to improve on the way most online poker sites operate, in 2016 Galfond resolved to open his own online poker room under the same Run It Once name.
After years of back-end work during which a great deal of buzz was generated for and by the poker community, with Galfond going out of his way to keep everyone regularly updated as to what progress was being made, Run It Once Poker has been up and running as a public beta since February 2019. Galfond now plays regularly at Run It Once Poker under his real name, and you can download the client to start playing with him.
The Run It Once Poker client offers a 100% Welcome Bonus up to €600. The bonus is valid for and covers every deposit you make within 30 days of your first deposit. Your bonus money will be released to you in increments of €5 for the first €100. In other words, you will receive €5 for every €25 you have raked. You will have to rake another €57.10 to receive your next €10 in bonus funds. The amount that has to be raked rises with every €100 of bonus money you earn, but the rewards go up as well, as illustrated by the chart below.
One important item to note is that the welcome bonus has no expiration date, so long as you play at least 1 raked hand per month. That’s welcome news as there’s no need to constantly be on the grind immediately after depositing solely in order to qualify for the bonus.
Once you download the Run It Once Poker client, you are able to make deposits and withdrawals via a number of debit/credit cards, E-wallets, virtual pre-paid cards, and even bank transfer methods, including: Visa, Mastercard, Skrill, Neteller, Trustly, EcoPayz, AstroPay, MuchBetter, and Paysafecard. Note that while deposits can be made via Paysafecard, you can not withdraw your funds via this method. Furthermore, some payment methods may not be available to you depending on your physical location.
While you can make deposits in a number of currencies, games on Run It Once Poker are only played using euros. As such, note that you may incur conversion fees when attempting to deposit/withdraw in alternate currencies.
This reviewer chose to make a €20 deposit via the MuchBetter E-wallet and faced no issues as processing was easy and smooth. When attempting to make a withdrawal of online funds, the initial €20 arrived instantly back into my MuchBetter account. Additional (won) monies that I wished to withdraw were credited to my credit card within two hours of having made the withdrawal request.
Table Alias and Dynamic Avatars
You immediately notice something that is very different than most poker clients when you download Run It Once Poker and open up a table on client. The players at your table have randomly generated names and avatars. The names that are given look as though they are of a real person, such as ‘Elliot M.’, ‘Melvin S.’, or ‘Todd M.’. Player avatars are also randomly generated, which means that you never know who you’re playing against (except for Phil Galfond himself). Integrating this type of forced anonymity system into the software truly ensures a level playing field, with no HUDs allowed and no player having an unfair advantage over another.
Run It Once Poker developed a smart and innovative way of indicating how your opponents are playing. The avatars are dynamic, can show emotion, and will change based on a player’s playing style. As such, your avatar will change based on three stats: VPIP, PFR, and 3Bet. I personally really liked the fact that the avatar changed because of the playing style, and I feel it accurately reflected my own playing style as well. It is obviously a personal choice with regard to whether you might change your game up a bit when playing against a certain player, but overall the dynamic avatars serve a great purpose.
Rakeback/Splash the Pot
When it debuted Run It Once Poker offered players a minimum of 51% rakeback. This amount could rise all the way up to 101% during certain promotional periods, with players who live stream their online poker play on Twitch or YouTube eligible to receive up to an astounding 110% rakeback!
A maximum 5.75% rake is taken and cash game stakes range from €4NL – €2,000NL and €10PLO – €2,000 PLO, respectively.
The way Run It Once Poker deals with giving players rakeback is very different from conventional online poker sites. They developed a unique “Splash the Pot” system in which money is dropped at random times during gameplay. The amount can vary from just a couple big blinds all the way up to 1,000 big blinds. The color of the table will change during a splash pot and a fun (because what’s more fun than free money?!) sound alert will let you know that something special is happening.
In November 2019, Run it Once Poker revamped their rewards scheme. Within the new program, there’s still the Splash the Pot element, but that awards a maximum rakeback of only 30%. To compensate for the shortfall, RIO Poker introduced Road to Legend weekly rewards, which enables players to secure up to 75% total rakeback. Players earn points to move up the ranks and eventually end up as ‘Legend’ if managing to generate enough rake within a week. The ranking tiers are denoted by suit: clubs, diamonds, hearts, and spades, before making it to legend. A minimum of 60 points is needed to earn any money back from the rake you have generated (outside of the ‘Splash the Pot’ feature). Players need to earn 90,000 points in any given week to make it to Legend. Everyone starts from zero all over again when Monday morning hits.
There are multiple ways to earn points. The first one is to log in to the client. Ten points will be awarded and the first hand played each day is worth 25 points. Every €0.05 in gross rake generated will be worth 1 point, but the point total increases at shorthanded tables. If you manage to keep a table from breaking by playing heads-up, you will earn 2 points for every €0.05 in rake and if you play 3-handed you will be awarded one point for every €0.03 paid in gross rake.
The lowest level, clubs, will be worth an extra 10% in rakeback on top of the 30% from the ‘Splash the Pot’ feature. The Legend rank will pay an extra 30% in rakeback to add up 60%. How does someone get 75% in rakeback, you might ask? By attaining Legend status for four weeks in a row. The 15% extra rakeback will be paid as instant cash rewards. The ‘four week streak’ doesn’t only count for the legend tier though. All players who reach a certain status for four weeks in a row will be awarded with an extra percentage of rakeback. This will be given as an instant cash reward based on the lowest level achieved over the previous four weeks. In Legend status it is 50% (50% of 30% is an extra 15%), for the Spade level this is 30% of the Spade rewards, 20% of Hearts, 10% of Diamonds, and 5% of Clubs.
You can download Run It Once Poker via your Mac or Windows-operated computer. For the time being it is not possible to play at Run It Once Poker via your mobile device. With that said, this is something they’re currently working on, as well as a dedicated app. There’s no official release date for either of these, but be sure to check back here at Cardplayer Lifestyle for updates.
The first thing one notices when opening the Run It Once Poker client is that there are no tournaments to be found. No Sit & Gos, no MTTs, no satellite tournaments, no funky stuff at all. Plain and simple: Run It Once Poker is there to spread cash games. For the time being, No Limit Hold’em and Pot Limit Omaha are the games on offer, and there’s no word as of yet if or when additional poker variants will be added to the mix of what’s available.
I decided to jump in both no limit hold’em and pot limit Omaha games at the lowest stakes. Once you select a stake level, table selection and seating is made automatically and you must buy in for 100 big blinds.
Phil Galfond Poker Room Games
I was immediately seated at €4NL at a full table and it took about three minutes for a seat to open up before I was seated at a €10PLO table. As it’s still a relatively new online poker site with de facto limited traffic, note that it might take a little time for tables to fill. More players logged on and starting playing when it got a bit later the evening (I’m based in Europe).
While you can’t pick at what table you wish to be seated, it doesn’t feel annoying whatsoever, especially with the built-in ‘Table Alias’ feature. Moreover, you are assigned a brand new random alias at each table you open.
You can play simultaneously at up to six different tables; this table cap was decided by open vote in 2018. Upon testing the hand history feature for the first time, I noticed that it doesn’t show graphics like other sites do. With that said, the action is all written out and the interface and navigation through the hand histories felt very intuitive.
The client runs smoothly, and the sound alerts are very pleasant. The tables look pretty and are resizable. I decided to add a third table and played around with the sizes. The graphics looked great whether one table was filling my 27-inch screen or when there were multiple tables each sized smaller and covering just the corners of my screen. The client has built in options to automatically tile your tables or stack them. For me this always shot my table to my left monitor, which is in vertical position. This caused my tables to be smaller and I had to manually move and adjust them on my right monitor.
I play on Run It Once Poker every so often, usually for a couple hours at a time, and I personally love the splash pot feature. It brings a whole new dynamic to the game. Recently, I was fortunate enough to have my table be randomly selected for a 1,000 big blind splash pot towards the end of a €10PLO session. It was exciting to see €100 added to the pot and I was lucky enough to win it and enjoy a big thrill! I can truly say that having the splash pots being randomly dropped is a very fun way of distributing the rake among players.
I personally didn’t need any help from customer support, as I was very happy with how smoothly the client ran. Nonetheless, for the purposes of this online poker room review, I was curious how contacting Run It Once Poker would work in case I ever felt the need to do so. It turns out they have a wonderful Discord server where you can ask questions directly, or you can also send email to Support@runitonce.eu.
Run It Once Ltd. is duly incorporated and registered in Valletta, Malta and is regulated by the Malta Gaming Authority (MGA). Moreover, Run It Once Poker is also licensed by the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC).
Frequently Asked Questions
Question: Does Run It Once Poker accept US-based players?
Answer: Unfortunately not, as online poker currently illegal in most US states. Run It Once Poker is licensed in Malta and the UK, but is not yet licensed to operate in the regulated US online poker markets of Nevada, New Jersey, Delaware, or Pennsylvania. While there is a worldwide player pool active on Run It Once Poker, there are a number of countries from which it is forbidden to play, including: Afghanistan, Australia, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Colombia, Czech Republic, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany (State of Schleswig-Holstein), Greece, Guyana, Iran, Iraq, Italy, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Portugal, Romania, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Uganda, United States of America, Vanuatu, and Yemen.
Question: Does the software allow for playing at multiple tables at once?
Answer: Yes, you can play at up to six cash game tables simultaneously at Run It Once Poker. With that said, play is currently limited to downloading the client on Mac and Windows-operated devices, with mobile availability currently in development.
Question: Is there a VIP & Loyalty rewards program for frequent players?
Answer: Rather than the traditional VIP or loyalty rewards offered by other online poker sites, Run It Once Poker offers players a minimum of 51% rakeback via its innovative Splash the Pot feature. Occasionally some of the site’s promotions also offer direct rakeback to players beyond monies distributed through splash pots. Beyond the rakeback promotions, there’s also a 100% up to €600 Welcome Bonus offered to all new players who open accounts and make their first qualifying deposits.
When Winston Churchill advised defiance in defeat and magnanimity in victory, he was giving practical advice. In Justin Kuraitis’s response to the Postlegate court case, we can see why the latter is so important.
The ruling was made, his job was safe, and the case was done. Kuraitis could have let things cool down and the poker world might have forgotten him. Postle was the face of the scandal, and any future agro would be going that way.
Mac VerStandig even put his signature to a piece of paper that more or less acquitted Kuraitis.
Kuraitis had won. It was a time for magnanimity in victory.
Instead, Kuraitis seems to have taken a different path and the poker world is not taking it lightly.
The former defendant posted a four-page missive against the cheating allegations. And then he set about typing up a barrage of tweets that riled Phil Galfond into putting his own time and money into reopening the investigation.
“I’m a busy guy,” wrote Galfond. “I probably wasn’t ever going to think about Postle again, but @JFKPokerTD & @StonesGambling responded to a legal “victory” by taunting the victims. If we get all HHs into PT or a spreadsheet, I’ll create a detailed report with proof (or lack thereof) myself.”
I'm a busy guy. I probably wasn't ever going to think about Postle again, but @JFKPokerTD & @StonesGambling responded to a legal 'victory' by taunting the victims.🤮
If we get all HHs into PT or a spreadsheet, I'll create a detailed report with proof (or lack thereof) myself.
— Phil Galfond (@PhilGalfond) September 19, 2020
Data, data, data
Nor was this an idle threat.
The founder of RunItOnce has already downloaded the relevant videos and is coordinating a team of volunteer researchers. They will be turning video streams into the kind of hand histories that a computer can understand and analyze.
Despite the fact that Galfond is aiming the investigation at him, Kuraitis been generally supportive of this undertaking. He even Tweeted that he is “looking forward” to the results.
Imagine an entire community accusing a man of cheating, destroying his life, name, reputation and then publicly admitting they haven't even compiled the data yet.
Don't stop until you hit +$100k in inflated winnings.
I'm looking forward to your findings. https://t.co/HHuoERHbSN
— Justin Kuraitis (@JFKPokerTD) September 20, 2020
Galfond is clearly keen to avoid what is known as P-hunting in science. (This is where a large body of data is analyzed using many different parameters as it takes to find a “statistically significant” correlation. In a large enough data set there will be some of these correlations just by chance.)
To avoid this, Galfond had laid out an initial list of 17 tests he wants to run before he has seen the data.
These include things like Postle’s river bluff success rates and comparing scenarios like how often he folds to a flop raise when the raiser is paired or unpaired.
These analyses will go some way to quantifying whether Postle was playing well or too well.
In order to be fair, I plan to pick the stats I look at before seeing the data (or at least most of them – I may think of others later but I’ll note which were planned before seeing the data).
Here’s a quick draft. Any suggestions? pic.twitter.com/bWc5L2zYom
— Phil Galfond (@PhilGalfond) September 20, 2020
Why keep digging?
To those wondering why such an effort is worthwhile when the courts have ruled on the case, Galfond has two replies.
In one tweet, he states that he thinks “that the poker community banding together to self-police and protect their own when the courts won’t is a good look.”
GoFundMe adds organization and public record of the effort, which is worth the 10% imo. I think that the poker community banding together to self-police and protect their own when the courts won't is a good look.
— Phil Galfond (@PhilGalfond) September 17, 2020
In another tweet, he references the continued threats of legal actions that Veronica Brill claims to be receiving from Postle and his associates.
Reading about those threats, one is reminded of how Oscar Wilde took the Marquess of Queensbury to court for libel. Wilde ended up paying Queensbury off and still went to prison.
Phil Galfond Poker Room Rules
Though in this case, Kuraitis gets a freeroll. If Postle is proven innocent, the Kuraitis name is cleared. If not, there is no honor among cheats and Kuraitis can still claim Postle acted alone.
Phil Galfond Poker Room Ideas
For those asking “what’s the point of trying to prove he was cheating now?”… https://t.co/xOYIo1dZun
Phil Galfond Online Poker Site
— Phil Galfond (@PhilGalfond) September 20, 2020