A Year in the Making: Two Launches
We’re going with a different style today, as these past few days mark the launch of two projects my team and I have been building for about a year, and I’m excited to share them with you!
I’ll talk a little bit about the journey and then send you to them.
Let’s go!
Galfond: The Docuseries
I’ve often been asked to share some behind-the-scenes, day-in-the-life content, and I’ve always resisted — not because I’m uncomfortable, but because I didn’t think it would be interesting. I sit behind a computer screen in my office for 11 hours a day doing nothing particularly exciting. Then I go hang out with my wife and son.
My wife, Farah, came up with the idea for a series while we were watching Netflix’s Full Swing, and she talked me into it! We brought in a very talented friend to help our team put it together, and we got to work late last summer.
The first episode finally launched last Friday, and people have loved it — even though, personally, Episode 1 is my least favorite of them all!
We’ll go deeper starting this Friday, July 5th, with Episode 2, which focuses on the most challenging time in my life.
Episodes 3 & 4 will air in the following Fridays. I hope you’ll check it out, and I hope you enjoy it!
Beyond The Game: Expanded
[Note: This section is an announcement of a new coaching program. In that sense, it’s sort of an ad for it, mixed with an update on my life and beliefs. If that annoys you, you can stop reading. But I know that if I subscribed to someone’s newsletter and I didn’t hear about something they’d built for a year that I could sign up for, I would be annoyed. This program is for mid-stakes, high-stakes, and nosebleed-stakes poker pros. If that’s not you, I still think there are some lessons here.]
If you’ve followed me for a while, you know I’m a big believer in investing in myself.
I’ve had coaches throughout my career, and that number has only increased in recent years. Last year, in addition to the few coaches I had, I joined a group coaching program and applied to another. Inspired by that experience and how much of a difference it made in my life, I launched a group coaching program of my own.
I launched the first version of Beyond The Game as a pilot program last fall. I planned to do a single cohort of 12 people, but over 200 applications came in immediately, so I decided to run two concurrently. It was incredibly successful – I was very proud of how it went.
I took my learnings and applied them to v2, which launched early this year and ended right before WSOP. Once again, I loved it, and once again I went back to the lab to apply my new learnings.
Meanwhile, this year, I added two new personal coaches, got into the group coaching program I applied to last year and joined another. As of now, I spend 2.5 hours a week on these group calls and nearly 2 hours a week with 1:1 coaches.
I tell you that because I want you to know I’m not selling something I wouldn’t buy myself. In fact, Beyond The Game is something I wish I had early in my poker journey. Knowing what I know now, I’d have signed up a year into my career… though the 20-year-old version of me wouldn’t have been wise enough.
I’ve completely changed the BTG curriculum based on my learnings from the last two iterations, pulling from some of my favorite elements from these other programs as inspiration, and a lot of brainstorming with my team, and I’ve come to what I believe will be the final version of my program.
Beyond The Game: Expanded is much bigger, in multiple ways:
One much larger group (split into smaller teams)
5 times the length (1-year)
More structure and systems
I believe I can do much more for someone in this year-long program than in the prior 10-week program, while making it more accessible. (BTG was $8500 for 10 weeks. BTG: Expanded is $8000 for the full year – $1600 per 10 weeks.)
What’s In It?
I wanted to get a feel for common questions and concerns about BTG, so I decided to email a tiny segment of you and have some back-and-forth discussions.
One of the challenges I’m running into is that many people would like a point-by-point list of every topic we’re covering and how we’ll do so, as well as a number of other specifics because they want to make sure this is a +EV investment.
I completely understand and respect this perspective, and I don’t have a good answer for you. There is a general structure, and the topics we cover will be adapted based on the group.
What I can tell you is:
While you may find great opportunities to study with and coach your peers, the program will not focus much on poker strategy, so all game types are welcome.
We’ll focus on everything else that goes into creating a successful career in poker.
I will be there on calls for 90 minutes every week (barring a few unforeseen circumstances, during which I’ll make sure you won’t miss me).
This program will be my #1 priority (followed by this newsletter!).
If I were able to talk to all of you and get your life and career story, I’d strongly recommend it to 95% of you if your bankroll is $50k or more.
It is geared towards poker pros, but if you’re a serious recreational player who plays higher stakes, I think it’ll be well worth it for you, too.
If that’s not good enough for you, I get it. I don’t want you to join if you are on the fence. I’ll be sharing stats on the success and improvement of my students as a whole, and perhaps that will be enough evidence for you after a year’s time.
The program launches at the end of July. You can learn more about it and sign up here.
If you sign up in the next 48 hours, you’ll also get a free year of Run It Once Elite ($1,400 value).
See you all next week!
