Phil Laak And The Longest Single Session Poker Game in the World - SPL 'Table Talk'

Who is Phil Laak?

Phil Laak was born in Dublin, Ireland on Sept. 8th, 1972. Brought up on the east coast, Phil got his mechanical engineering degree in Massachusetts.

Before moving west to play professional poker Phil was an avid backgammon player in New York City. Phil got off to a super successful start with poker by winning many tournaments. Some with 1st place prizes over $150,000.

Some one you may not know but Phil was roommates with fellow professional poker player Antonio Esfandiari. The two became known for taking bets against each other on literally everything. It became so popular in Las Vegas, that the two of them got their very own tv show. I Bet You only ran for one season, but it basically consisted of the two going back and forth betting on various activities, like car racing or paintball.

You can find Phil Laak in a Las Vegas poker room any night of the week. He is a frequent player of large cash games and appears on High Stakes Poker and Poker After Dark. He is known for his calculated, yet wild play at times. He is not afraid to play any hand and win with it.

Phil's long time girlfriend, and fellow professional poker player, is actress Meg Tilly. Phil is aptly nicknamed the Uni-Bomber for his love of wearing hooded sweatshirts and sunglasses. Phil has a unqiue approach to the game and doesn't mind making it known. I have seen him wear ski goggles at the table before. Whatever he is doing, it must be working for him. Phil has earned over 3 million dollars in tournament winnings alone.

Longest Game in the World

In 2010 Phil broke the Guinness Book of World Records for the longest poker game. Phil played 115 hours of poker at the Bellagio consecutively with 5 min breaks every hour. The previous record was 72 hours which was set in Connecticut.

Over 130,000 people witnessed Phil break the record. When learning about his immenent record break, he simply said, "I'm sick. I need to have my head examined."

There was even a nutritionist on stand by preparing meals for him at break time. Can you imagine doing something so insane? I bet his legs and back felt like jello for days.

Meeting Phil Laak

I had a brief encounter with Phil Laak at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. I was walking to the poker room and I see a dude in sunglasses whizzing by me with a backpack on (probably millions in that thing), he bumped elbows with me and sorta grunted out a half worded "excuse me". That was my brush in with fame. We are practically best buds now because of that encounter. LOL

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