Unabomber Poker pro Phil Laak endured 115 straight hours of poker, a new Guinness World Record. That’s nearly three traditional work weeks compacted into just under five days. Laak’s enduro challenge played out at a $10/$20 cash game at the Bellagio in Las Vegas.
Laak shattered the old record of 78 hours set by Paul Zimbler last year by nearly 40 hours. His original goal was 80 hours, which was later extended to 100. By hour #115, or 4.8 days, Laak called it quits. As you’d expect, the crowd was electric as Laak stood on his chair in the middle of the Bellagio poker room to celebrate his 100th hour seated at the felts. His girlfriend, Jennifer Tilly, supported him throughout the endeavor as some fans screamed for the poker pro to shoot for 100 more. ESPN “E:60” cameras were on hand for the momentous occasion.
At the end of his session, a sense of relief could be felt in Laak’s Twitter feed. He posted shortly before 3:00am PT on Monday morning, “115 hours later… Bedtime… ahhhh!” In addition to being tired, Laak also lost five pounds during the course of his marathon session: “Wow – my weight was 182 – first time in 12 yrs it has been below 185!” Although he was feeling hot, his doctor informed him that he was in perfect health and running a temperature of 98.63 degrees.
Six hours before the enduro challenge’s conclusion, Laak was up $4,000. At nearly the same time, he emphatically Tweeted, “Dolphins take turns w each side of their brain when it comes to sleep – I wonder if we can learn how to do this for ourselves.” He then added that he would not follow the ways of Prahlad Friedman and Jeff Madsen to become poker’s next rapper: “Discovering that I have just about no talent for rap whatsoever.” Laak ended his Guinness World Record run up $6,766.
At the 96-hour mark, a blog found on the official website of Unabomber Poker put the four-day milestone into perspective: “Professional baseball teams can play a full series against each other in four days. Folks with day job can complete 80% of their work weeks in four days. And a driver in an automobile can go from Los Angeles to New York and back again in four days. Now imagine doing any of those things without sleep – and you’ve got an idea of where Phil is right now.” A webcam of the entire feat was available on Unabomber Poker’s website.
PocketFives.com Mod “ApesAreFun” tipped his hat to the man known as “The Unabomber,” posting, “Such a great publicity stunt. Will def increase the traffic on his new site. Congrats to him and GL!” “MastaP89” added, “much respect for laak to be degen enough to pull this off.”
Memorable Tweets from Laak during the end of the enduro challenge included “The Bellagio is like a dream, only better. Just look around. So tranquil right now. Like a Star Trek mission to a Strange New World.” In a scene reminiscent of GSN’s “High Stakes Poker,” Laak even accepted a prop bet to raise additional funds for Camp Sunshine: “Kaz said, ‘If U can do 30 push-ups (press-ups), I will donate $1,000 to CampSunshine.Org.’ I dropped and delivered 32. Ace Jones filmed it.”
Laak raised money for Camp Sunshine throughout the course of the 115-hour extravaganza. Congratulations from all of us here at Poker News Daily to Laak for etching his name in poker history.