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Phil "The Unabomber" Laak may not have decades of poker experience under
his belt, but his television tournament appearances have made him one of the
more popular players on the circuit today. This 32-year-old Irish-born poker
star hosts a television poker show, dates a movie star, and even has a bobblehead doll of his likeness selling out on eBay every day. It's safe to
say he's reached a high level of success that plenty of people would envy, but
it was far from inevitable that Laak would end up involved in the poker boom.
Laak graduated from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst with a degree in
mechanical engineering, a field which he worked in for some time after
college. He was successful in his field but didn't get as much enjoyment from
his job as much as he wanted. While traveling in Europe with a friend when he
made the decision to find a profession that would not only make him money, but
allow him to enjoy the time when he was working. At first he thought about
becoming a blackjack dealer, but that career path was too long for him so he
continued to plan for a change. Among some of the other jobs he worked were
repo man, bookie, and day trader.
One day while in San Diego, California, Laak stopped in a restaurant for a
meal and heard something going on in a back room - he had walked into a
backgammon tournament being played for money. Like some other well-known poker
players, including 1995 WSOP champion
Dan Harrington, Laak is a highly skilled
backgammon player. He had honed his game during college, so he began playing
in tournaments and winning money. Not long afterward Laak made the jump to
poker. While living in New York he began playing underground poker clubs. He
enjoyed playing but knew he needed to devote more time to the game in order to
improve. He got a call from a friend around this time tipping him off to a
game full of fish back in San Jose, so he moved back to California and began
playing regularly. Laak lived in the Bay Area for several years, playing at
local casinos and living with fellow poker player
Antonio Esfandiari. The two
are still friends to this day, often sharing accommodations when on the road.
Laak had only played a handful of professional-level tournaments before he
made his first WPT final table, but he had a chance to learn to play solid
no-limit hold'em in local cash games before the game became so popular on
television. He developed his aggressive style in these games, and the
experience served him well enough to help him make the final table of the 2003
Legends of Poker $5,000 Main Event. In December he capped off his year by
placing 12th in the Bellagio Five-Diamond World Poker Classic in Las Vegas.
Then, just two months later in February 2004, came the biggest moment of his
poker career: he won 1st place in the WPT Invitational in Los Angeles,
defeating world-class player Humberto Brenes in an entertaining heads-up
match. It was this victory that made Laak's reputation and opened up all sorts
of new opportunities for him. The next biggest moment of Laak's career helped
to make poker history: he finished 2nd in the
2005 World Series of Poker
$2,500 Pot Limit Hold'em event, losing to
Johnny Chan heads-up as Chan claimed
his record 10th bracelet. On the same day his girlfriend, actress Jennifer Tilly, won a WSOP bracelet, possibly making Laak the first professional player
to have a significant other with more bracelets than he has himself.
A good portion of Laak's time is also taken up with other projects these days.
This year he landed a job as the host of the E! Entertainment Television
series Hollywood Hold'em, and recently he was featured in an installment of
GSN's Poker Royale series entitled The James Woods Gang vs. The Unabombers. He
also continues to speculate on the stock market, and is involved in the real
estate market as well. But if you're looking for Laak, the place to find him
is on the tournament trail: he continues to play in big-money events around
the US and Europe. His hard work and dedication to the game make him a tough
opponent to play, and they also explain why his name is in the money listings
more often than not.
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