Gossip Column: Fernando ‘Nandez87’ Habegger Backs Out of Phil Galfond’s Heads-Up Challenge; Brandon Adams Jumps In

Phil Galfond, Fernando Habegger & Brandon Adams - Gossip Column
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  • Attreyee Khasnabis December 20, 2019
  • 4 Minutes Read

Run It Once (RIO) founder Phil Galfond’s ‘Heads-Up’ challenge has taken the poker community by storm! The three-time WSOP bracelet winner had announced the challenge on his blog on November 19.

Since then, the challenge has been accepted by four reputed poker personalities. The first was entrepreneur Bill Perkins, followed by high-stakes PLO regular Fernando ‘JNandez87’ Habegger and online phenom VeniVidi1993’. Dan ‘Jungleman’ Cates also joined the list of challengers a few days back.

Galfond found a fifth challenger in poker player, self-published author and Harvard University lecturer, Brandon Adams. A WSOP bracelet winner himself, Adams is scheduled to play 40 hours of live poker at stakes of $100-$200 PLO sometime next year.

Just as the list of challengers was ticking upwards, news came through that Habegger had backed out of the challenge claiming that he won’t be able to give enough time to the challenge to maximize the EV of his backers.

Is that really the case, or was Habegger just scared of facing arguably one of the best online PLO players in the game? Read on to find out!

 

Fernando’ JNandez87’ Habegger Backs Out of HU Challenge

High-stakes PLO specialist Fernando ‘JNandez87’ Habegger was the first non-RIO coach to accept Phil Galfond’s HU challenge. He was going to be Galfond’s second match in the challenge, and on December 9, both players had agreed to play 50,000 hands of $100-$200 online PLO with Galfond putting up $1 million on the side to win Habegger’s $200,000. Yesterday, Habegger tweeted that he was backing out of the challenge as he hadn’t correctly assessed the amount of time it would require for him to maximize the EV of his backers.

Fernando 'JNandez87' Habegger
Fernando ‘JNandez87’ Habegger

In his tweet, Habegger claimed that he would have no problem getting staked, but his “responsibility for maximizing my shareholders EV would call for a much more extreme preparation and execution than I originally intended.”

Needless to say, this announcement got him a lot of flak from the poker community with former nemesis Doug Polk tweeting a very sarcastic ‘lol’ in response.

Pretty soon, Habbegger’s back out was being mocked on social media.

We could keep sharing the tweets of people criticizing Habegger, but we’re going to go a little soft on him. The poor chap seems well on his way to becoming an internet meme for the next few days.

 

Brandon Adams Takes Up Galfond’s HU Challenge

An academic, an author, and a poker pro, Brandon Adams has quite the glittering resume. The Miami, Florida resident added a WSOP bracelet to his list of achievements when he took down the Event #74: $3,200 WSOP.com ONLINE No-Limit Hold ’em High Roller earlier this summer for $411,560.

Brandon Adams
Brandon Adams

Besides being an accomplished online player, he is also known for the 2011 prop bet that he took up against Finnish poker pro and former tennis player Patrik Antonius. The duo had decided to play a best of three tennis match, where Antonius had $295,000 on the line to Adams’ $30,000! Unsurprisingly, the former professional tennis player won the bet, and the YouTube video of the match is a great watch.

Adams is back to his betting ways, and this time he will be squaring off against Galfond. While the latter’s other competitors will be playing against him on the virtual felts, Adams will be Galfond’s first live competitor. The two will play 40 hours of live poker at stakes of $100-$200 PLO. Galfond is laying 1.5:1 with his $150,000 on the line against Adams’ $100,000. The match will is expected to take place sometime in the summer and might be streamed.

Will Adams be able to win this challenge? Only time will time!

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