Jun
5
by Taylor Kent
As we've mentioned before, Phil's world record attempt is part of an effort to raise money for Camp Sunshine, a charity that does great work for children with life-threatening illnesses. But Phil's not just limiting himself to playing poker to raise money for the Sunshine kids - he's taking on prop bets for the charity, too. Check out this video of him taking a challenge to do 30 push-ups for a $1,000 donation to Camp Sunshine - at nearly 59 hours into the record attempt, no less!
It's hard enough for most people to do 30 push-ups on a full night of sleep. Sleep-deprived Phil Laak added another two at the end for good measure. Does this guy have heart or what?
Jun
4
by Taylor Kent
Phil Laak is now more than two full days into his attempt to break the Guinness world record and things seem to be going well. For starters he’s back in the black, having erased a deficit of more than $11,200 to find himself up $914 right as he hit the 47-hour mark. The upswing was helped along earlier today when the game morphed from $10/$20 No Liimit Hold’em to $10/$20 with a mandatory straddle, doubling the average pot size.
A great shot of Phil at the table at Bellagio
Physically Phil is holding up okay at this point, though there are some minor issues that come along with an attempt like this that most of us wouldn’t even think about. “I’ve got itchy-ass syndrome a little bit,” he said, “but I got some talcum powder on my last break. I’ve also got a bit of a sore back.”
Like Evel Knievel, Phil's doing something others wouldn't consider
He also tweeted earlier that his movement is becoming labored, though when I talked with him he seemed to be moving just fine. The most common movement has been standing up, which helps to keep him awake at a point where most people will collapse without pharmacological assistance. 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. That's good, because about 10 hours ago he brought out his entire $100,000 stack and one other player at the table matched him - a mistake against him could be bad news indeed.
Phil's $100,000 stack
“She was making it like it was news,” Phil said. “it’s not really news. It’s more like a goofy thing that’s happening, like who can hold the most golf balls in his hand. Is that news? It’s just an enduro session of poker.”
But is it really just an enduro session? If he falls short of the record it may be. But if he can make it, the difficulty of pulling off such a feat means it will probably be very difficult to surpass - which in turn means that it will stand as a world record for some time. For some perspective, consider this: ESPN has had a reporter coming to check on Phil from time to time throughout the session, and on her last visit she asked how many players at the table had played for 24 straight hours. Two-thirds of the table raised their hands. When she asked about 40 hours, two people raised their hands. For 48 hours, there was only one. And for 60 hours, none. Doing something no one else has done might not necessarily be “news,” but it’s nothing to shake a stick at.
Be sure to check in on the live stream, and of course to monitor Phil's Twitter feed for all the latest news coming straight from Bellagio. Things should get pretty interesting as the day rolls on.
Jun
3
by Taylor Kent
Phil Laak was just over 24 hours into his world record attempt when I dropped by the Bellagio early this afternoon and things seemed to be going pretty well. “I’ve been to this mark 50 or 60 times in my life,” he told me. “I’ve gone to 48 hours maybe 10 times. My record is 62 hours - and it only ended because the game broke. I felt like I had another 5 hours in me, easy.”
So far he’s only taken 25 minutes of breaks - running through Bellagio to the bathroom and running back as fast as he can each time. He has another 90 minutes in his time bank, which should make for a nice little break at some point in the next day. Money-wise, he's been up as much as $3,541 and down as much $2,500. "I should’ve bought in for $600, that way if I get whacked I’m only stuck six," he told me. "But I didn’t think about that enough."
Phil's graph of his results so far
Helping to keep Phil balanced is his nutritionist, All American Dave. Dave dropped by with some freshly prepared food for our man - chicken, brown rice and broccoli, lightly cooked in olive oil. The goal of Dave’s diet, which Phil is taking very seriously, is to keep his blood sugar at a constant level. That will prevent his insulin levels from spiking, helping Phil to avoid the crash that follows such a spike.
Jen Tilly was on hand to support Phil last night.
Lots more people have been by to check out the action since Phil started the record attempt yesterday, too. Chief among them is his girlfriend, Jennifer Tilly. Jen sweated phil for a while before jumping into a cash game of her own. Another fan dropped in to ask for Phil’s help in winning a prop bet; her friend bet that she couldn’t get the Unabomber on the phone, so he gladly helped her out.
“How do I know this is really Phil Laak?” her friend asked when Phil talked to him.
“Well, you can always pull up the live stream on the internet,” he replied.
Phil at the eight-hour mark, looking alert
So far there have been nearly 8,000 unique viewers on the live stream, so the world is definitely paying attention. Those numbers are likely to begin going up once Phil hits the 50-hour mark - that’s when he expects the hallucinations to begin. “It’s not like people get demons with tails or whatever - just weird little things,” he told me. “But I’m not looking forward to motor reflex collapse. It’s one thing when you start imagining you can see the other side of the cards, it’s another when you don’t know how to look at your cards. That happened to me once when I didn’t know how to get to my cards - that was a mess.”
You can keep tabs on the Phil Laak Poker Endurance Contest here on the Unabomber Poker Blog, or by following Phil's Twitter feed. You should also check out Steve Friess' interview with Phil. I'll have another update for you tomorrow, when things should begin to get really interesting.
Jun
2
by Taylor Kent
Outside it’s a typical June day here in Las Vegas, with the sun beating down and the desert wind kicking up dust. Inside the crowded Bellagio poker room it’s business as usual as well, with one small exception - our man Phil Laak is trying to break the Guinness record for the longest individual poker playing endurance marathon in world history.
To put it lightly, this attempt is an extreme test of endurance. Phil’s going for 80 hours of poker, and he’s allotted just five minutes of break time for every consecutive hour of poker that he plays. That adds up to just 6 hours and 40 minutes of break time over the course of three and a half days. He can build them up and use them all together (e.g. he could take a 30-minute break after playing for six straight hours), and he can use the break time for anything he wants - using the bathroom, grabbing a meal, or even sleeping.
However, there are some limitations - for instance, he can’t build up a bunch of break time and then tack it on at the end as part of the marathon record. Every accounted minute of the record attempt has to be spent at the poker table. The good news is that the use of those break minutes is at his discretion - which means there will be some strategic issues to consider. Is it better to take frequent, short breaks to stay fresh? Or is the best method to grind out a long string of hours and then catch a few Z’s?
Phil got his world record attempt started at 12:04pm PT today. If he can make it to the end, he should break the record around 7pm PT on Saturday evening. He’s playing full-ring $10/$20 no-limit hold’em with a table full of grinders, and just an hour in there were already a few interested observers hanging around. And the players hanging around the periphery of the Bellagio poker room waiting on games are talking about him - they don’t all seem to know exactly what this whole thing is all about, but they definitely know who Phil is and they know he’s up to something special, since there are cameras recording his every move to document the attempt for Guinness.
It’s far from a guarantee that he’ll break the record - but if anybody’s got this kind of feat in them, it’s Phil Laak. Whether he makes it or not, I’ll be checking in on him the entire way, so make sure to keep an eye on this blog for more updates from the Bellagio. And be sure to check out Phil's Twitter feed, as well as the live stream that's following his every move.