Few first names have a better track record in poker than Phil.
Ivey, Hellmuth, Galfond, are three of the all-time greats. Sternheimer is a regular in the high roller scene. And even looking back at the pre-Black Friday days of poker there was Laak and Gordon.
BetRivers has two of those names as ambassadors for the newest online poker site in Pennsylvania, launching last fall. As a result, they decided to help settle the debate of which Phil was the best.
The answer to that question, for now, is Hellmuth.
The site brought Phil Hellmuth and Phil Galfond to Philadelphia for the “Battle for Phil-adelphia.” The two played a pair of $5,000 freezeouts with stagnant blinds of $25-$50. Hellmuth swept Galfond, winning $10,000 off the younger Phil in the process.
Rush Street Loves Its Phils
Rush Street Interactive signed Hellmuth to an ambassador role at the start of the year. In March 2022, the company bought the software for what was then known as Run It Once Poker from Galfond.
Galfond’s online poker site was available to non-U.S. players starting in February 2019. But shuttered its operations in January 2022 after it failed to gain a significant market share.
Now, the platform is available to U.S. players in Pennsylvania under the BetRivers brand name. 
BetRivers’ marketing campaign leans hard into the pair of Phil’s on their roster. The company’s online poker homepage features cartoon versions of the two pros with the phrase “Home of the VIPs [Very Important Phils]” in between them.
The heads-up matches were the culmination of four days of streaming from the two poker legends. Hellmuth streamed his online poker play on Wednesday and Friday before Galfond streamed a session on Saturday.
On Sunday, the two squared off with Hellmuth netting a five-figure score. The match was aired on Hellmuth’s and Galfond’s personal social media channels, as well as the BetRivers Twtich channel.
Cold Deck Goes Hellmuth’s Way To Seal The Match
The first match was an easy victory for Hellmuth. Everything went his way and Galfond was never able to win any significant pots.
However, the second match was defined by a cold deck that went to Hellmuth. Hellmuth limped on the button with 5
5
and $6,800 of the $10,000 in play in his stack. Galfond checked his option in the big blind with 3
2.
The flop was J52 and both players checked. The turn was the 3. Galfond bet $66 and Hellmuth min-raised. Galfond called.
The river was the 3
and Galfond checked. Hellmuth bet $121 and Galfond raised to $928. Hellmuth three-bet to $2,693 and Galfond called, leaving himself with just $233 and less than five big blinds.
Hellmuth finished him off shortly after. After the match, Hellmuth credited the victory to his playing style.
“I knew it was going to be a tough battle,” said Hellmuth. “I just play this very unique style and I’ve been very lucky with it. I think I went 10-2 in the [PokerGO] studio playing against the world’s best players. So, it’s a very hard style to play because there’s regrets all the time. If you lose like three or four hands in a row because you slow-played, you’re like ‘I can’t take this anymore.’ So my style is so unique that it’s just very hard to play and so, you know, it requires some real patience and some real great laydowns here and there. You just have to get used to routinely get used to making these, what people used to say were world-class laydowns.”
phil_hellmuth</a> reigns supreme in the Battle of Phil-adelphia! <br><br>He takes down <a href="https://twitter.com/PhilGalfond?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">PhilGalfond 2-0 on #BetRiversPoker.Thanks to everyone who tuned in—here’s Hellmuth’s post-game wrap-up! #Poker #BattleOfPhiladelphia #BetRiversPoker pic.twitter.com/iicXMgpCGc
— BetRivers Poker (@BetRiversPoker) March 3, 2025