Phil Laak
Phil "The Unabomber" Laak (pronounced "lock"; born
September 8 1972 in
Dublin,
Ireland) is a
professional poker player, now residing in
San Francisco,
California.
Laak was raised in
Wellesley, Massachusetts, and now lives in
Los Angeles and
San Francisco. He graduated from the
University of Massachusetts at Amherst with a degree in
mechanical engineering and worked as an engineer, a
repo man and a
real estate investor, prior to getting into open poker games in California.
He is former roommates and good friends with fellow professional poker player
Antonio EsfandiariLaak won the
World Poker Tour (WPT) Invitational in
February 2004. He has made two other WPT final tables since - 6th place in both the season 2 Battle of Champions and the 2005 Five Diamond World Poker Classic. In 2005, he acted as host and dealer for the
E! entertainment network's
Hollywood Hold'em program.
At the
2005 World Series of Poker (WSOP), Laak finished second to
Johnny Chan in the $2,500
pot limit hold 'em event.
Laak defeated
Ram Vaswani to win the inaugural
William Hill Poker Grand Prix, taking home the £150,000 first prize.
He has also competed in numerous
Poker Royale series.
As of 2006, Laak's total live tournament winnings exceed $850,000.
Phil is currently appearing in the 2nd season of
High Stakes Poker on GSN.
Laak became known widely in the poker scene as the "
Unabomber" because of the hooded
sweatshirt (given to him by fellow poker professional
Gus Hansen) and
sunglasses that he wears at the table.
Laak is famous for pulling closed the drawstrings on his sweatshirt's hood to hide his face during large hands, and is well-known for his other antics at the poker table, such as doing push-ups to celebrate winning hands, and running behind the
dealer during showdowns to see which card will come up next. His behaviour makes him popular with some fans, but has drawn criticism from others who believe Laak is acting unprofessionally.
He is currently dating actress
Jennifer Tilly, who won a WSOP bracelet in
2005 in the $1,000 buy-in Ladies
no limit hold'em championship. Tilly has since been nicknamed "The Unabombshell."
*
World Poker Tour profile*
Poker Babes profile*
PokerPlayer magazine interview*
Hendon Mob tournament results
