Phil Laak’s Wild Ride

London is the perfect city to interview a poker personality who is in no danger of tiring of life. The renowned British writer Samuel Johnson once said, “When a man is tired of London he is tired of life, for there is in London all that life can afford.” Even when he has stayed awake for 115 hours straight, setting the Guinness world record for longest continuous poker session in a cash game, Phil Laak never tires of the world or the game that he loves.

Laak’s insatiable curiosity and natural poker talent have helped create the enigma that is one of the most unique and popular players in the game today. His skills as a conversationalist at a poker table are largely unrivaled, outside of a “Mouth” here or a “Poker Brat” there, as he continues to entertain poker fans across the globe on televised poker shows such as High Stakes Poker.

His natural energy flows from his speech as he takes a seat for an interview in the hotel lobby of the Radisson Edwardian Hampshire, just opposite the Empire Casino on Leicester Square in London, where, a few days earlier, he had scored the greatest triumph of his poker career. He won event No. 1 (£2,650 six-handed no-limit hold’em) at the World Series of Poker Europe, which earned him £170,802 and his first gold bracelet.

There are many things that you probably already know about Laak. His relationship with Hollywood actress Jennifer Tilly is well-known, and his friendship with Antonio Esfandiari also has been well-documented, including a television show, I Bet You, in which the two try to one-up each other in a series of prop bets. But what you probably don’t know is that Laak is a very insightful individual who has a multitude of opinions on a variety of topics.

An interview with Laak is a full-contact sport. In one moment, he will recount every major hand that he played in a poker session with deft strategic analysis, and in the next moment, he will have moved on to literature or solving the world’s societal ills.
The variety of topics within a conversation with him is very representative of the year that he has had in 2010. He gained notoriety this summer by playing poker for 115 hours straight at Bellagio. Shortly after the World Series ended, he was in the headlines again, albeit for an unfortunate reason. He was unwinding from the long summer by taking part in an ATV trip with friends in Oregon, when he crashed and injured himself rather severely.

The injury report read as follows: dislocated elbow, broken arm, partially smashed orbital socket. Undeterred by the setback, thanks to a new lifestyle (which Laak will discuss later), he traveled to Europe and was playing the best poker of his life.
Laak is far from where he started after graduating from college with a degree in mechanical engineering, but for a person who is so unpredictable, it comes as no surprise.

For now, he will continue to rehab from his injuries as he travels the tournament trail and plays cash games with newfound moderation. He also will be playing more poker online on his new site, UnabomberPoker.

Read on to get a rare look inside the mind of a modern-day poker mad scientist. His narrative and stories will fill you in about the wild year it has been for one of poker’s most unique personalities.

On His New Approach to Life

On Jan. 1, I weighed 211 pounds, and was the proverbial thin fat guy. I was fine, no one thought I was fat, but if I took my shirt off at the pool, people would say, “Wow, look at that marbleized fat on that thin fat guy.” In high school, I weighed 160, and in college, I weighed 165. Eventually, I got to 170-175. I thought that was a pretty good weight, but when I got to 180, I was 5 or 6 pounds overweight, but that was fine. Then, every time I would get up around 200, I would go to the gym and get down to 185. That seesaw thing went between 185 and 200, then 190 and 205, and then 195 and 210. I always said that it would be impossible for me to be 211. I’m a thin guy. I can’t be 211. One day, I weighed myself, and I was 211; I wanted to puke. I told myself, “This is no longer a get-back-in-shape thing; until you die, this is going to be your new thing.” It’s the same way that you brush your teeth two times a day. You never miss brushing your teeth, so I’m going to make working out like that.

I also started to eat healthy. I learned the horrors of fried food. As far as calories going into my body, as much as I love things like cheese and ice cream, they are not filled with valuable calories. During a week that I was trying to eat really well, it dawned on me that every time I didn’t eat ice cream, I could feel a sense of willpower building.

It was around that time that the World Series of Poker was coming up, and I knew that I wanted to do an endurance test. I knew that certain foods had a hold on me, and I realized that it was an opportunity to build my willpower; there was going to be a time in the future when I would really want sleep, so I wanted to get to the point where it was effortless to say to myself that I didn’t need it. Things that pull the average human weren’t going to pull me. Over time, it worked. After two months of doing this after Jan. 1 — working out five or six times a week, and cutting out those foods and trying to eat five small meals a day instead of three large ones — I was like, “Wow, I’m losing weight. I’m feeling fit and strong.” At the five-month mark, my willpower was at a high level.

By the time the sleep challenge came around, every time I felt tired, I was like, “Tired? That’s for mere mortals.” I had to trick my mind not to need things like sleep or food. The willpower aspect really, really helped.

On the Endurance Test

A lot of people think the reason why I quit is because I was tired, but it was quite the opposite of that. At hour 90, the adrenaline was in such high gear, the serotonin and the dopamine levels were so high, that everything was perfect. It was insane how good I felt.

At hour 90, I thought the previous five hours had been effortless, and then at hour 100, I was like, “Wow, I haven’t even really felt tired.” I was kind of in a weird trance. At hour 110, I took Jennifer [Tilly] aside and said, “Jennifer, this is really weird; I haven’t felt tired in around 15 hours. If I still feel this way in a few hours, I think I’ve got to pull the plug.”

I could have clicked off two more days, but I knew that would be really bad. If you’re not tired after 114 hours, something is seriously wrong with your body. I never expected the thing that would be wrong would be that it was effortless. I never saw it coming; it was so out of left field … and then I panicked at 114 hours. I was like, “Forget about going to 120.” I set the record at 115, and somebody is going to beat it; in fact, to be clear, the record was broke before I ever set it, as I was just getting the recorded cash-session record. How about “Seven-Day Ted” in L.A.? He did three days many times, and one time he went seven days and the casino stopped him. He wanted to keep going, and argued with the boss. All I was doing was setting the recorded session for a cash game.

The reason why I did that challenge stemmed from when I was 10 and would go over to my friend Gary’s house. We would just sit around reading his dad’s copy of the Guinness World Records book. I remember thinking, “I want to get one of those records.” I remember getting on a pogo stick and hopping on it for 20 minutes, then thinking, “How can somebody do this for a day straight?” Once I got to high school, I gave up when I realized that you can’t just be the one guy out of 7 billion people who can do something the best. You can’t just go do that. It wasn’t until many years ago when I was in a natural cash game that lasted 62 hours that I was like, “Holy cow, I didn’t take any breaks.” I wouldn’t even miss hands; I would wait for a big hand so that I could run to the bathroom and come back. It was insane. I thought, “If I can do 62, I can probably do 70, and if I can do 70, I can probably do 78.” [The official record was 78 hours, 25 minutes, and 45 seconds]. I was planning on doing it, and it never happened, until one day I thought, “Oh, my God, Phil, if you’re ever going to do it, you need to get in shape and get it done.”

I had no idea that I was going to crush it. If you were to have asked me beforehand if I thought I would make it to 100 hours, I would have given myself a 5 percent chance.

On His New Approach to Poker

In the event that I won at the WSOPE, a guy showed me a bluff that would have made me go on absolute mega-tilt a couple of years ago. When he did, I was so happy that he showed. I thought, “Wow, what a great spot, what a great move he made.” I just saw the purity of it. There wasn’t any part of me going, “Aaarrrgghh, I can’t wait to get that guy.” Since that sleep thing, I have found a new level of emotional freedom.
I used to be jealous of the Internet kids and how they could mask their emotions effortlessly. They would lose $20,000 in a hand and then talk about why it was a good play with another Internet guy. I was like, “Wow, I want to be like that.” I could never become like that; I just morphed into it after the endurance session. I hope that it lasts, because it’s a good feeling.

There’s not a chance that I win the bracelet otherwise, no way. I’m a better poker player now; I really believe so. The patience card is the new effortless thing from that endurance session. I thought my ability to make decisions was always really strong, and now my patience is much better.

On the ATV Accident

I felt like it was just a random thing. In one sense, I was unlucky, but my EV [expected value] when I was floating through the sky was really low, because of how far I fell and how fast I was going and had to land with the ATV. About a third of my orbital socket broke down. I got a CAT scan, and there was flesh hanging into my skull. The doctor said that to get that many stitches, break the orbital socket, and still have my eye 100 percent normal is really hard to do. He said, “If you believe in guardian angels, this would be a perfect time to start talking about them.”

I ran way ahead of expectation there. So now people are saying it’s like Phenomenon, where John Travolta has an accident and then starts speaking Portuguese [laughing].

It was not the accident that improved my play, it was more the endurance session.
Talk about being happy, though, I was. Right after the accident, seconds later, I was like, “My back works, my legs work, my brain is working because I’m doing these tests, and I can see out of my eye through the blood and the sand.” I was in three accidents before the age of 15, then one when I was 25, which was a brutal one, and now this one.

When this happened, it was the fifth broken arm in my lifetime. When it happened, I could see it, and I was doing the finger test and realized that I was going to be good. I had an intro-articular fracture, which means that the radius in my right arm broke right up to the point where it meets my wrist, and in that movement area, there is a tiny bone that will heal, for the most part, but it will have a little odd kink, and I’m a likely candidate for arthritis of the wrist when I get older. The cast just came off and it’s looking pretty nasty, but it will heal. I can’t wait to start swimming and running again.

I would not have fared this well in the accident if I wasn’t in the best shape I have been in since college. I hit that earth, and a lot of bad stuff happened to me, but it would have been a lot worse. If I had gotten into that accident a year ago, I can’t even imagine how gross it would have been.

On His Bracelet Win

I found Andrew [Pantling] to be completely unreadable. I felt like I was playing a wizard online. It was highly annoying. He raised from in and out of position, and reraised from in and out of position. He did it with 8-6 offsuit, and with A-Q. He did it with pocket jacks, and with 9-2 offsuit. Once, he raised, I reraised, and he shoved all in and showed the J♥ 3♥. I was going absolutely bonkers.

I was trying to play small-ball poker, because I love looking at flops. I just wanted to look at flops; I wanted either him to chop away at me or me to chop away at him. I wanted small pots, and he refused to do that. Every time that I would say to myself, “You refuse to do that, you want to play big pots? I’ll show you big pots,” he would surprise me with huge calls and thin holdings, and all of the stuff that you do not want to happen.

I remember one hand when he moved all in with J-3 and I folded. I was thinking in a kung-fu state, that it didn’t hurt me, and I was happy that he showed me. I was like, “Wow, you made a mistake. You never should have showed that to me, because you could have made that move again.” I became a little more focused. I said to myself, “Phil, your goal is to look for that time in the next two hours, or however long it takes, when you can make a massive sick move and know exactly where he is.”

There was a hand that came with a K-J-6 flop, and I knew that he had a nice jack. I thought this was the hand, and I decided to play it like I had K-J, a set, K-7, or A-K. I played it just to get all of the money in. He got so sick when I made that move. I had the A♥ 4♥. He folded, and I showed the A-4; it was huge, because I was ahead, and psychologically, it was super invigorating because I got my revenge. After I showed that move, I felt perfectly in the zone until the end.

Since June 2, there have been only two times when I have made a poker decision that was rushed and unthinking. One of them was with K-5; it’s interesting that the one time I made a play that I wouldn’t normally make, it was with the hand that I won the tournament. ♠