Phil Laak

infobox poker player
firstname=Phil
lastname=Laak
nickname=The Unabomber


caption=Phil Laak at the 2006 World Series of Poker
hometown=San Francisco, California
wsop bracelet count="None"
wsop money finishes=8 [ [http://www.worldseriesofpoker.com/players/playerprofile.asp?playerID=292 WSOP player profile] ]
wsop main event best finish rank="None"
wpt titles=1
wpt final tables=3(+2)
wpt money finishes=6

Philip "Phil" Laak (pronounced "lock"; born September 8 1972 in Dublin, Ireland) is a professional poker player, now residing in Los Angeles, California. Laak was the winner of a World Poker Tour (WPT) title in 2004 cite web|url=http://www.worldpokertour.com/Shared/Players/Bios/P/Philip_Laak.aspx |title=Phil Laak |accessdate=2008-04-24 |work=worldpokertour.com ] and has appeared on numerous nationally aired television shows. [ cite web|url=http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1884316/ |title=Phil Laak |accessdate=2008-04-24 |work=IMDb ]

Early life

Laak was born in Dublin, raised on the East Coast, and now lives in Los Angeles and Las Vegas. He graduated from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst with a degree in mechanical engineering and worked as an engineer, a repo man, a stock day trader, and a real estate investor, prior to getting into open poker games in California.

He is former roommates with fellow professional poker player and close friend Antonio Esfandiari.

Poker career

Laak learned to play poker as child. [ [http://www.poker-babes.com/bio/phil-unabomber-laak/ Poker Babes profile] ] His first major tournament victory was at the World Poker Tour (WPT) Celebrity Invitational in February 2004. He has made two other WPT final tables since: sixth place in both the season 2 Battle of Champions and the 2005 Five Diamond World Poker Classic.

At the 2005 World Series of Poker (WSOP), Laak finished second to Johnny Chan in the $2,500 pot limit hold 'em event.

Laak defeated Ram Vaswani to win the inaugural William Hill Poker Grand Prix, taking home the £150,000 first prize.

He has also competed in numerous Poker Royale series.

Laak appeared on seasons two, three, and four of High Stakes Poker on GSN, and served as the dealer on the short-lived television series "E! Hollywood Hold'em".

Laak was a winner of NBC's Poker After Dark , earning the weekly prize of $120,000. The tournament was entitled "Phil Phil" because both Phil Laak and Phil Hellmuth were contenders. Apart from Laak and Hellmuth the table consisted of Doyle Brunson, Antonio Esfandiari, Jennifer Harman, and Erik Seidel.

At the 2007 conference of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence in Vancouver, British Columbia, Laak and fellow professional player Ali Eslami competed against, and beat, Polaris, a poker playing computer program developed at the University of Alberta, in two of the four rounds with the remaining rounds being a loss and a draw.

As of 2008, his total live tournament winnings exceed $1,300,000.cite web|url=http://pokerdb.thehendonmob.com/player.php?a=s&n=16576|title=Phil Laak - Stats|publisher=The Hendon Mob|author=Butt, Robert|accessdate=2008-04-24]

Laak has written a monthly column called "Being Phil Laak" in the poker-themed Bluff Magazine since late 2005. [http://www.bluffmagazine.com/magazine/Being-Phil-Laak-Phil-Laak-269.htm ]

Laak co-hosts a show called "I Bet You" with his friend Antonio Esfandiari where they can be found betting on any and all things.

Laak recently came in 9th place in Event #1 of the 2008 World Series of Poker, a Pot Limit Hold Em event with a $10,000 buy-in. He made the final table, which was aired on ESPN, but quickly busted out, cashing for $78,000 USD.

Nickname and personality

Laak became known widely in the poker scene as the "Unabomber" because of the hooded sweatshirt cite web|url=http://www.playubt.com/ubt_teamubt_prfbio.aspx?pge_id=145&pge_pge_id=124&ply_id=96 |title=Ultimate Blackjack Tour - profile |accessdate=2008-04-24 |publisher=playubt.com ] and sunglasses he wears at the table, making him resemble the forensic sketch of Theodore Kaczynski who was known as the Unabomber.

Laak is known for pulling closed the drawstrings on his sweatshirt's hood to hide his face during large hands, and is well-known for his other antics at the poker table, such as doing push-ups to celebrate winning hands, running behind the dealer during showdowns to see which card will come up next, and getting entirely ready to leave whenever he pushes all-in (usually significant as he replaces his shoes). On the "Poker After Dark" program in 2007 he lay down on the floor during a particularly stressful hand.

Laak is known also for his unusual and inventive manner of speech. He has been credited with coining the poker term "felted" to mean having lost all of one's chips (i.e. nothing left in front of the player except the table felt). [ [http://www.pokerplayernewspaper.com/viewarticle.php?id=2246 Pokerplayernewspaper.com] ]

He is currently dating actress Jennifer Tilly, who won a WSOP bracelet in 2005 in the $1,000 buy-in Ladies no limit Texas hold 'em championship. Tilly has since been nicknamed "The Unabombshell."

Laak now stars on "I Bet You," a TV show with fellow professional poker player Antonio Esfandiari on MOJO HD in which the friends make bets on anything ranging from who can make more tips bartending to the price of a t-shirt.

Laak has been highly regarded as one of the top "cash game" poker players on the circuit. He regularly plays the highest no-limit games at the Commerce Casino in Los Angeles. He was seen playing the biggest cash games at the World Series of Poker at the Bellagio and the The Venetian (Las Vegas).

Phil Laak played the first day of the Main Event of the 2008 World Series of Poker incognito, in a latex mask, wig, make-up, and costume. Only his girlfriend, Jennifer Tilly, and close friend Antonio Esfandiari, knew who he was. Even his fellow table mates who played the entire session with him did not recognize him. His disguise was discovered, and reported shortly thereafter, by AP reporter Oskar Garcia. [ [http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hYwC8Q4JEzW6gdY23zMTM2Mb7SbgD91ONFL80 AP News] ]

Notes

External links

* [http://www.worldpokertour.com/Shared/Players/Bios/P/Philip_Laak.aspx World Poker Tour profile]
* [http://www.insidepokermag.co.uk/poker/players/1894/mad_about_poker.html InsidePoker magazine interview]
* [http://alwaysbluff.com/poker/blogs/author/phil-laak/ Phil's Poker Blog]