In 2025, Phil Galfond reduced his social media activity to a minimum, posting a couple of times a month. In July of this year, everything suddenly changed.
Phil began posting almost every day, and not everyone appreciated the uptick.
"You know times are tough in the training biz when Galfond comes out of the cave to daily tweet poker fortune cookies," retired high-roller TiltMeNot announced.
The other day, Phil decided to find out who his audience considers the strongest poker player. The Twitter post went viral, garnering over 200,000 views and 300 comments in just a couple of days:
– Who is the best poker player in the world?
I have a clear pick, and I’ve had the privilege of being their study partner for the better part of a decade.
Tomorrow, I’ll share who it is, and why I’m talking about them now.
Any guesses? Or your pick for #1?
"You wouldn't post that it is actually YOU, FALCONS!," Daniel Cates joked, remembering their old rivalry. "Speaking of which, when will we finish our challenge so I can knock you off your Perch!"
When are you next in town a little while? 🦅
The match between Phil and Cates has been on hiatus since February 2023. They managed to play 2,250 hands out of 7,500 at $100/$200, with Jungle winning $77,500.
"Me, but we never worked together," Feruell, a rare participant in Twitter discussions, boldly declared. "You donated some money to me at the tables though."
You're welcome.
"Always classy," Feruell replied. "Okay I vote for Matthew Ashton, even though he is not the one you mean."
Great vote for the best, and good non-guess for me. Different paths and games.
Galfond commented on all these assumptions with the same “cool player, great assumption.”
Some less common options were also mentioned, like Alex Foxen, Allen Kessler, Patrick Leonard, Adrian Mateos, and even Linus.
For many of these Phil simply replied that they played different formats. His mother was also suggested, by Phil answered that "she's not very good at poker."
“You better pick your wife,” one reader advised.
I picked her for something more important. Or almost as important.
Several people mentioned Berri Sweet.
This ended up being the correct answer. The next day, Phil announced they were opening a new poker school called SWEETPOKER. In his youth, Phil played on PokerStars under the nickname MrSweets28.
In the lengthy post, Phil explained why Berri should be considered one of the best, if not the best at his craft.
No matter what they say, the best we can know is who they are willing to play against and who they aren’t.
So, who do the best in the world keep quitting?
The PLO specialist who:
• Had the highest winrate at 6-max HSPLO games without table selecting.
• Beat everyone at HU PLO until he got no action.
• Offered the world half PLO, half NLHE, where he got only one taker – Linus – and beat him.
• Moved to HU NLHE, playing anyone willing to battle him and beating them all, until they were no longer willing to try.
• Learned limit games and quickly played anyone in the world at 8-Game.
Until nobody would play him there, either.
This player challenged everyone to everything and had no takers for long periods, playing anyone who’d step in the ring until they tapped out.
The best cash game players in the world – who are the best to judge high-level skill – voted him best by quitting him.
Does dominating heads-up cash make someone the best at every form of poker? Of course not.
But heads-up is the format where elite players can tell us, with their own money, exactly where they believe they stand.
And, for whatever it’s worth, I would bet that he’d be the best in 6-handed cash games if he wanted.
The player who the other best players voted for, with their wallets, is BERRI SWEET.
That’s why I believe he’s the best poker player in the world.
He then explained his plan for the partnership with Berri.
SWEETPOKER is a high-stakes online NLHE cash game CFP. We are launching and accepting applications starting today.
Our aim is to start SWEETPOKER with 21 players. We are looking for players already playing 500nl+, though we’ll consider applications from 200nl players.
Matías @v3rson is bringing with him two more of Spain’s best-kept secrets from the rest of us: Xoán Míguez and Enrique Lago (@kikelake).
All three play and win at up to $10k NLHE.
If you are wondering how I can teach people 6-max NL cash at a high level, don’t worry… I won’t be. My job is to teach people the things I teach in BTG – how to manage their careers, their study, their mindset… supporting them off the table so they can perform on it.
And perhaps a lesson on adjustments and exploiting opponents sneaks in, as it has in BTG on an occasion or two.
SWEETPOKER won’t be the right fit for everyone.
Its coaches will also host a monthly bonus strategy call inside Beyond The Game over the next year.
BTG is open across games and stakes, though I recommend it most for mid- and high-stakes players.
Applications are only open for a single week, since Phil is probably expecting an overwhelming amount.
"Bravo, FALCONS, Bravo, well-executed and well-placed marketing scheme," Daniel Cates exclaimed. "I expected such a DEVIOUS scheme such as this."
A decent method to acquire truth albeit a bit too abstracted.
Yes, the answers of a republic of qualified voters would come close to the truth and Berri Sweet is a good answer.
Even at mix games supposedly he is very good though it is difficult to truly judge.
But tell me, FALCONS, who is this panel of mix players?
Tell me, has Berri Sweet ever shown his face to the light of day?
Has he ever proven proven himself in tournaments, live cash? The latest new Aria mix? Short Deck, invented games?
Your method seems to not be truly comprehensive, FALCONS.
You need a panel from all branches of poker, with all factors of poker assessed and performance properly weighted to the importance of each game.
Then, and only THEN, will you find the true best poker player, FALCONS!
Plenty of naysayers didn't like how the best player question had become used for promotion, but TiltmeNot saw nothing wrong:
Phil suddenly posting every day was clearly a planned marketing campaign.
Nothing wrong with that. id run the exact same playbook.
Now he's getting dunked on for being a salesman as if that somehow makes the whole thing fake. it doesn't.
Campaign is well crafted. well executed. actual quality content attached.
"I love this post," shared top reg Chris Nguyen , who also started tweeting actively a couple of weeks ago. "Only player who I´ve played who is truly unafraid and relentless is Linus, there is no comparison for me. Cant imagine what Berri was like GOAT."
Chris was recently in the headlines as well for taking on a new high roller on CoinPoker by the name of BTCdemon. Unfortunately, Chris used EV cashout during the session, which made his opponent immediately leave the table. Still, we got a collection of epic hands before that.
