When I first started railing the nose-bleed stakes played at Fulltilt, the one name you were guaranteed to see was OMGClayAiken, grinding for hours a day and demolishing bankrolls playing for pots worth the average family home. But this year he seems to have seen far less action online.

Born in 1985 and brought up in North Potomac, Maryland, Phil’OMGClayAiken’Galfond’s interest in poker was sparked when his friend won a $30k online tournament on PartyPoker and told him how easy it was with all the poker books available. Phil started grinding $10 Sit n Go’s before working his way up to cash games playing $5/$10 tables. Within 2 years, he found himself at $200/$400, trading bankroll blows with the best in the business.

Last year brought incredible success at the virtual felt for Phil Galfond, netting him $7,080,790.21 in cash games, the 2nd largest amount won in the world online in 2008 next to Phil Ivey. His live action also bagged him his first WSOP bracelet in the $5k PLO event where he battled one of the toughest final tables ever assembled, including such big names as Daniel Negreanu, Johnny Chan, Phil Helmuth, David Benyamine and John Juanda, taking a 1st place prize of $817,781. So why has his Full Tilt action slowed down this year?

For one, the launch of his poker training site, BlueFirePoker, in January has been keeping him busy. The site made the news when it challenged Obama or any member of the US congress to put up $1 to the pro’s $1m for a game to prove that poker is in fact a game comprised of skill.

Phil Galfond has also been posting on 2+2 forums and writing articles for Bluff Magazine that truly show the skill and insight he has to offer in the game that made him one of the most successful poker pros to date. His G-bucks article is a must read as he discusses a concept to help improve your game, giving a glimpse into the mindset needed to be a poker champ.

In a few interviews he gave, he named Phil Ivey and Tom ‘durrrr’ Dwan as his toughest opponents. Phil Galfond was the only player in the world not allowed to accept the durrrr challenge, which showed a great friendship and a lot of respect for Phil’s game from durrrr. Phil also shed some light on why he chose the Full Tilt screen name ‘OMGClayAiken’, which apparently was stooped in irony as most screen names at the time were macho and arrogant. He explained ‘I wanted people to be embarrassed to lose to me’.

A look at Pokertableratings player search on OMGClayAiken shows he has toppled such big name pros as durrrr and Trex313, and is up over an impressive $1m against Gus Hansen. After 1,301 hands played against Isildur1, Phil is up $34,644. If anyone has got the goods to take Isildur1 off his mega hot streak, it’s Phil Galfond. Hopefully the fact OMGClayAiken has been seen raking in $43,924.25 in profit this November means that the railers can expect to see one of the world’s greatest cash game players crushing some more bankrolls again soon.

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