In 2004 Phil Laak broke out into the poker scene with a win at the World Poker Tour’s Celebrity Invitational’s. Since then Phil Laak has become a trademark name in poker along with his alias the “Unabomber”. Phil Laak gained the nickname the Unabomber because he frequently wore a hooded sweatshirt with sunglasses at the table. Phil would put up his hood and seal it as to hide his face from other players reading tells.
Laak was born in Dublin, Ireland however he was raised on the east coast of the United States where he learned to be an excellent backgammon player and started his poker curiosity that led him to the west coast. Phil Laak moved to the west coast where he would eventually master the game of poker alongside of his best friend and once roommate professional poker player Antonio Esfandiari. After the WPT win Phil Laak had a big break out year in 2005 when he raked in over $700,000 in tournament earnings.
Phil has just recently added another impressive win to his already stacked record by taking down the 2010 WSOPE 6-Max NL Hold’em. With the 2010 WSOPE win Phil Laak has had the best year since his breakout year in 2005. Phil Laak so far has brought in over $630,000 in tournament earnings in 2010. Phil Laak had a win in the PartyPoker World Poker Open however besides that win he has been lacking on big tournament wins for a while, Phil Laak welcomes this big WSOPE event win.
The 2010 WSOPE event was a star studded event where Phil Laak would make it to the final table as one of the bigger stacks along with two time WSOPE bracelet winner Chris Bjorin and Andrew Pantling as the two other big stacks. The three lower stacks were Willie Tan, David Peters, and IIan Rouah who would all become the first three to bust out of the final table.
Phil Laak didn’t get a chance to accumulate too many chips after the first three busts out however after a double up through Andrew Pantling and busting out Chris Bjorin, Phil Laak went in prepared for heads up battle. Phil Laak slowly chipped away at Pantling’s stack until he out chipped him 3 to 1. Phil Laak put in the final blow to Pantling’s stack after an all in showdown revealed Phil Laak’s K5 connected against Pantling’s A10. Congratulations to the 2010 WSOPE event winner, Phil Laak.