On Friday, Unabomber Poker pro Phil Laak reached the halfway point of his endurance challenge. On a quest to break the standing record of 78 – yes, 78 – straight hours of poker, Laak is camped out at a $10/$20 table at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. While others are enduring the grind of the World Series of Poker (WSOP) at the Rio, Laak is experiencing a completely different definition of the word.
Posted on Friday was a YouTube video of the challenge crossing the 40-hour mark. Laak, dressed in his trademark Unabomber Poker hoodie and black 'Badazz Mofo' t-shirt, pulled out a brand new rack of $100,000 in chips and challenged any and all opponents to make their way to the Bellagio poker room to play. Laak now enters the home stretch of his Guinness Book of World Records run.
Unabomber Poker Player
A blog by Unabomber Poker's Taylor Kent described Laak's mental state at the halfway mark: 'On the mental side, he still seems relatively fresh, considering how long he's been at it. The hallucinations he's expecting haven't kicked in yet and he's still able to read the board without any problems.' Posted shortly thereafter was an offer for a free Unabomber hoodie, which fans of a flamboyant pro can receive by signing up for his namesake online poker site with the promo code 'FreeHoodie' and earning 2,500 player points by July 5th.
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Despite Kent observing that Laak seemed to be in a composed state of mind, 'The Unabomber's' Twitter feed would lead you to believe the opposite. Late on Friday, Laak posted, 'Mind happy-body semi fatigue -scopes on-noise canceling headphones key – patterns of cards especially pleasing – rhythm sensitivity high.' With 30 hours to go, Laak was down $720 and apparently took a shower near Noon PT on Friday.
Always wearing dark hoodies while playing and covering his head almost entirely with a hood and sunglasses, Laak was likened to the police sketch of Ted Kaczynski, the notorious terrorist (dubbed Unabomber by the media) who was involved in a number of bombings that took place between 1978 and 1995. Not so flattering, but nicknames often aren't. Laak became known widely in the poker scene as the 'Unabomber' because of the hooded sweatshirt and sunglasses he wears at the table, making him resemble the forensic sketch of Theodore Kaczynski, who was known as the Unabomber. These items were given to him by fellow poker.
Reading through Laak's Twitter feed featuring posts made with no sleep allows you to peek inside the twirling mind of one of the game's greats. Friday's Tweets including this gem about his diet: 'I wonder, how much is my new love of sweet potatoes correlated to the fact that I am healthier now than when I did not like them.' He added, 'Movement is labored– it is grt when other players post my bb and sb for me.'
Shortly after 8:00pm PT on Friday as Laak lapped the 56-hour mark, ESPN.com Poker Editor Andrew Feldman Tweeted that Laak's fortunes had turned for the better. He was up $6,000 and Feldman added, 'I'm tired and I've only been up since this morning.' Laak had shed the hoodie at the time and was down to his black t-shirt, with a homemade counter reading 56 hours down and 24 to go.
A live webcam can be found on the official blog of Unabomber poker and features shots of Laak and the center of the table at the Bellagio. In a hand that occurred around 8:30pm PT on Friday night, Laak raised pre-flop and the first three cards came 5-5-4. An opponent seated directly to Laak's right bet, Laak came cover the top, his opponent 3bet, and Laak deliberated before calling. The action went check-check when a king hit on the turn to bring another king on the river. Laak's opponent shoved all-in and Laak quickly called, flipping over 8-5 of clubs for a boat. His opponent commented, 'Nice beat,' before electing to rebuy.
Unabomber Shirt
Laak won Nicknames Week on 'Poker After Dark' in January for $120,000 and took down the PartyPoker World Open V in London last October for $250,000. Laak bested the field in the 2004 World Poker Tour (WPT) Invitational for $100,000 and owns nearly $300,000 in lifetime WSOP earnings.
