Tuesday,
June 8, 2010 Longest poker game - Phil Laak sets
world record
LAS VEGAS, Nevada -- Poker star Phil Laak,
37, played live poker for over 115 hours with a net of $6766
at the Bellagio in Las Vegas during the World Series of Poker
- setting the new world record for the Longest
poker game.
Photo: Poker player Phil Laak. / AFP
photo (enlarge
photo)
The previous Guinness world record for the
Longest
poker game
was 72 hours and 2 minutes, held by Larry Olmsted set
at the Foxwood casino in 2004, but in poker circles the world
record set by Dave
Cain - 74 hours and 12 minutes at the Library Bar
in Lincolnshire, England.
"Wow, 115 hours, I should have my head examined,"
said Laak, as the number appeared on the running clock on
a laptop screen next to his seat at the Bellagio Hotel-Casino
in Las Vegas. "I am definitely sick."
He was permitted a five-minute break
for every hour he played and could bank those for longer breaks.
While he vowed he did not consume any caffeine or stimulants,
he did manage at least one 30-minute nap.
Laak is the boyfriend of Academy Award
nominee Jennifer Tilly, an actress who in recent years has
also become a poker professional.
Laak did it while playing $10-$20
at the Bellagio in Las Vegas during the World Series of Poker.
The World's Longest
Poker Game was witnessed live via a webcam by more
than 130,000 people each day from more than 90 nations.
He had a nutritionist providing meals every
five hours and he had been on a strict no-sweets, low-fat
diet since January to prepare for the feat. Laak said he did
not use any drugs or stimulants during the attempt.
Laak, whose poker nickname is “The
Unabomber,” won his first tournament on the professional poker
circuit in early 2004, and has cumulatively won over $1,975,000.
The Longest
poker game in The World was partly a promotion his
online poker room, unabomberpoker.com
(he’s known for wearing a hooded sweatshirt over his head
at the tables) but he was also pretty stoked about setting
a new world record.
Laak
promised to donate half his 6,766 dollars in winnings to Camp
Sunshine, a Maine camp for children with life-threatening
illnesses and their families. In addition, visitors to his
blog,
Twitter
site and the webcam feed were encouraged to donate to the
cause via text message.
