Women of the WSOP: Farah Galfond, Soap Opera Star to High-Stakes Poker

July 03, 2018

Women generally represent between 5 and 10 percent of poker tournament fields — and it's an even smaller percentage in high roller events. This article series means to encourage greater female participation by highlighting some exceptional women who are braving — and excelling in — today's "man's world" of poker.

They’re so much more than just a poker power couple, him a self-proclaimed “professional poker player/recreational businessman” with his own coaching site, her an “actor turned poker player turned back into actor apparently but still a poker player," according to their Twitter profiles.

While anyone remotely involved in the poker world knows the PLO King Phil Galfond, who started the Run It Once poker training site and just shipped his third WSOP bracelet in $10K PLO, the poker world is only just becoming more familiar with the other half of the hitched duo — Farah Galfond.

“You can get very attached to a character when you play them for so long.”

Formerly Farah Fath, the daytime soap opera star discovered poker while playing in cast & crew home games in New York City while she was shooting One Life to Live in 2007. She was instantly hooked on the game, and would get much more involved in it several years later after also getting hooked on one of the game’s most-respected players.

Fath owes much of her acting success to her mother, who took a chance and flew her out to L.A. from their Kentucky home when she was 14 years old to see if her daughter could fulfill her dream of being on screen.

Farah found a break with an agent that saw something in her and decided to take a chance, and her first audition was perfect. It was for Days of Our Lives, which happened to be her favorite show, and she knew the characters by heart. She nailed it and got the part as Mimi, staying on the show for 7.5 years until she left.

She also played Gigi on One Life to Live, and couldn’t say which she loved more.

“You can get very attached to a character when you play them for so long,” said Galfond. “I truly had alter egos and lived two lives. I cared deeply for them!”

From Acting to Poker

Many of the same challenges that drew Galfond to acting also make poker a nice fit for her, and she would eventually live somewhat of an alter ego in real life as an actor turned high-stakes poker player.

“I believe acting, like any art, is therapeutic,” Galfond says. “I loved the challenge of constantly trying to get better and go deeper, and break through walls, and those are reasons I love playing poker too.”

After meeting Phil as a fan of his through Twitter, the two fell quickly and as they say, the rest is history. Farah Fath became Farah Galfond in May, 2015 and she eventually transitioned into playing poker full-time.

“I loved the challenge of constantly trying to get better and go deeper, and break through walls, and those are reasons I love playing poker too.”

She started out grinding $2/5 and was winning in the games by 2015. She continued at those stakes for around two years before she felt comfortable enough to climb up to $5/10, which was probably the most difficult jump for her. Before the former soap star knew it, she was playing the biggest stakes around, taking an interesting trajectory to get there.

“I played $5/10 for under a year and was doing well before [Phil] asked if I would be okay with trying out 300/600 last summer,” Galfond recounted. “Honestly, it was equally scary moving up to $5/10 as it was $300/600. [laughs] The $5/10 regs look so intimidating!”

Her rapid climb up the poker ranks has landed her in games as big as $500/$1,000 and being featured in Poker Central’s Super High Roller Club episodes and Poker After Dark. She even headlined a week of televised Poker After Dark games on PokerGO aptly titled “Games of Our Lives,” where Galfond tangled with the likes of Bill Perkins, Jean-Robert Bellande, Bill Klein and Matt Berkey – and held her own.

When asked what she loves most about the game, Galfond responded: “I suppose overall, it's the infinite amount of interesting situations that you find yourself in, session after session, and the challenge of learning from these situations to improve your game over time.”

How has being married to Phil Galfond helped her game? Farah explained, “I would be nowhere without him.

“We don't ever have sit down coaching sessions but over time, he has imbedded important fundamentals into my game and given me a number of 'hot tips' as I would like to call them. I'm a trial-and-error based learner so I really just need to dive in and play and then chat with him later about what I could have done better.”

To Play or Not to Play the WSOP Main Event?

Farah Galfond loves poker so much, that she even came to try her hand on Day 1b of the WSOP Main Event, though she struggled with the idea now that the couple is expecting.

Galfond decided to brave the grind, hoping for that #babyrungood Phil tweeted about. And she seems to be enjoying it so far.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BkyDTVxlbol/

And while the actress turned high-stakes poker grinder may have gone back to acting recently, it looks as if poker will always be in the bones of the Galfonds, and most likely also in the blood of their offspring.

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