Jun
3
by Taylor Kent
Phil Laak was just over 24 hours into his world record attempt when I dropped by the Bellagio early this afternoon and things seemed to be going pretty well. “I’ve been to this mark 50 or 60 times in my life,” he told me. “I’ve gone to 48 hours maybe 10 times. My record is 62 hours - and it only ended because the game broke. I felt like I had another 5 hours in me, easy.”
So far he’s only taken 25 minutes of breaks - running through Bellagio to the bathroom and running back as fast as he can each time. He has another 90 minutes in his time bank, which should make for a nice little break at some point in the next day. Money-wise, he's been up as much as $3,541 and down as much $2,500. "I should’ve bought in for $600, that way if I get whacked I’m only stuck six," he told me. "But I didn’t think about that enough."
Phil's graph of his results so far
Helping to keep Phil balanced is his nutritionist, All American Dave. Dave dropped by with some freshly prepared food for our man - chicken, brown rice and broccoli, lightly cooked in olive oil. The goal of Dave’s diet, which Phil is taking very seriously, is to keep his blood sugar at a constant level. That will prevent his insulin levels from spiking, helping Phil to avoid the crash that follows such a spike.
Jen Tilly was on hand to support Phil last night.
Lots more people have been by to check out the action since Phil started the record attempt yesterday, too. Chief among them is his girlfriend, Jennifer Tilly. Jen sweated phil for a while before jumping into a cash game of her own. Another fan dropped in to ask for Phil’s help in winning a prop bet; her friend bet that she couldn’t get the Unabomber on the phone, so he gladly helped her out.
“How do I know this is really Phil Laak?” her friend asked when Phil talked to him.
“Well, you can always pull up the live stream on the internet,” he replied.
Phil at the eight-hour mark, looking alert
So far there have been nearly 8,000 unique viewers on the live stream, so the world is definitely paying attention. Those numbers are likely to begin going up once Phil hits the 50-hour mark - that’s when he expects the hallucinations to begin. “It’s not like people get demons with tails or whatever - just weird little things,” he told me. “But I’m not looking forward to motor reflex collapse. It’s one thing when you start imagining you can see the other side of the cards, it’s another when you don’t know how to look at your cards. That happened to me once when I didn’t know how to get to my cards - that was a mess.”
You can keep tabs on the Phil Laak Poker Endurance Contest here on the Unabomber Poker Blog, or by following Phil's Twitter feed. You should also check out Steve Friess' interview with Phil. I'll have another update for you tomorrow, when things should begin to get really interesting.
Jun
2
by Taylor Kent
Outside it’s a typical June day here in Las Vegas, with the sun beating down and the desert wind kicking up dust. Inside the crowded Bellagio poker room it’s business as usual as well, with one small exception - our man Phil Laak is trying to break the Guinness record for the longest individual poker playing endurance marathon in world history.
To put it lightly, this attempt is an extreme test of endurance. Phil’s going for 80 hours of poker, and he’s allotted just five minutes of break time for every consecutive hour of poker that he plays. That adds up to just 6 hours and 40 minutes of break time over the course of three and a half days. He can build them up and use them all together (e.g. he could take a 30-minute break after playing for six straight hours), and he can use the break time for anything he wants - using the bathroom, grabbing a meal, or even sleeping.
However, there are some limitations - for instance, he can’t build up a bunch of break time and then tack it on at the end as part of the marathon record. Every accounted minute of the record attempt has to be spent at the poker table. The good news is that the use of those break minutes is at his discretion - which means there will be some strategic issues to consider. Is it better to take frequent, short breaks to stay fresh? Or is the best method to grind out a long string of hours and then catch a few Z’s?
Phil got his world record attempt started at 12:04pm PT today. If he can make it to the end, he should break the record around 7pm PT on Saturday evening. He’s playing full-ring $10/$20 no-limit hold’em with a table full of grinders, and just an hour in there were already a few interested observers hanging around. And the players hanging around the periphery of the Bellagio poker room waiting on games are talking about him - they don’t all seem to know exactly what this whole thing is all about, but they definitely know who Phil is and they know he’s up to something special, since there are cameras recording his every move to document the attempt for Guinness.
It’s far from a guarantee that he’ll break the record - but if anybody’s got this kind of feat in them, it’s Phil Laak. Whether he makes it or not, I’ll be checking in on him the entire way, so make sure to keep an eye on this blog for more updates from the Bellagio. And be sure to check out Phil's Twitter feed, as well as the live stream that's following his every move.
Jun
1
by Phil
About a year or so ago Daniel Negreanu and I did a thing for a show called Sports Science. It was about about detecting lies via polygraph exams, and they
used us... a couple of poker players to make it fun. It was mostly Daniel's gig, but if you watch it I start to come in a bit at around the 4 minute mark. It was goofy,
took the greater part of day to make, but was a lot of fun.
Most of what they filmed never made the cut which is a shame as I thought that most of it was highly entertaining.
Anyway, here is a link to it on you tube. ---> http://bit.ly/95c9yW
Later
Phil Laak
Degen for Life
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May
31
by Jake
As we mentioned earlier, Unabomber Poker is sending three poker players to Las Vegas for the chance to take on Phil Laak in a heads-up cash game while he attempts to break the Guinness World Record for the longest poker session.
Congratulations to Gytis Bernatavicius who Unabomber Poker will be flying in to Vegas from his home in Lithuania. Gytis will be staying at the Bellagio Hotel and Casino where Phil’s poker endurance contest is taking place.
Good luck at the poker table in Vegas Gytis.
Phil starts his record breaking attempt this Wednesday at noon local time. Stay tuned to the Unabomber Poker Blog for regular updates.