Phil "Unabomber" Laak
Phil Laak is, beyond doubt, one of the most colorful personalities of the professional poker world. Known as "Unabomber", a nickname given to him by
Gus Hansen, on account of the hooded sweatshirt that he wears to the table, Phil Laak has a distinct taste for extreme adventure and sports.
His "higher order of thinking" approach to the game also betrays a character which is on a continuous mission to break the mould of the dull and mundane, and bring something new to everything it touches.
Phil says he uses "lucid dreaming" to visualize hands over and over in his mind and thus identify every thread of a poker tell his opponents may be giving out. He is also credited with the invention of a poker-expression. "Getting felted" means to bust out, get cleaned, lose all of one's money.
The logic behind it is, that once the stack of chips disappears from before a poker player, he'll get down to the felt, and be forced to leave.
Besides poker, Phil enjoys scuba diving, Skydiving and motorcycling. He once hit a car with his motorcycle, vaulted clear over it leaving the bike behind and landed on his feet on the other side.
Born in 1972, in Dublin, Ireland, he grew up in Wellesley, MA. He attended the University of Massachusetts where he earned a degree in mechanical engineering. Before he discovered poker, he performed a variety of jobs, including being a stock trader, a repo man, a real-estate investor and an engineer.
He began playing poker in 1999, in a New York City club. It was there that he noticed the card logic he had picked up as a child, playing penny Tripoli with his family did in fact work. It didn’t take him long to hit the tournament circuit and begin scoring money finishes.
Even though he is known as something of a wild-child (he is good friends with another party-animal, Antioni Esfandiari, with whom he had shared a room years ago) he is generally very tidy, and he keeps all the banknotes strictly arranged in his wallet.
His first notable poker achievement came in 2004, when he won the WPT's celebrity invitational.
2005 would see him continue his ascendant form, with a 6th position finish in the Five Diamonds World Poker Classic, and a second place finish in the 2005 WSOP's $2,500 PL Holdem event.
He also won the William Hill Poker Grand Prix. To date, he has 6 WSOP money finishes, 5 WPT final tables, and 6 WPT cashes. He also participated in GSN's High Stakes Poker, and in NBC's Poker After Dark.
Phil Laak starred with friend Antonio Esfandiari in a reality series on MojoHD, called "I Bet You".
Phil Laak poker player profile : Poker Player
