The Man Under the Hood

One minute, he is at the table with a stoic look on his face; the next minute, he is gone. But if you look down at the floor, you will find him there, doing crunches and push-ups. His name is Phil Laak, and his nickname is "The Unabomber." He was given this nickname because of the gray hooded sweatshirt that he always wears.

He uses it to his advantage, tying the drawstrings so tight that the other players cannot see his face and get no sort of tell from him.

Laak doesn't just sit there quietly when he is making a bluff; he is all around the room. He can force another player to completely change his game to play against him. They may think he is crazy, but he really is a highly intelligent, calculating player, just using all this to his advantage.

Question: Tell us about your childhood. Where did you grow up?

Answer: I am a citizen of the world. That seems to hit it. No, really, I am actually a dual citizen: Ireland/USA. It is a rare thing, but there are more of us than you'd think. At the age of four, my family moved to the East Coast. After College, I was affected by the gravitational pull of California. I currently live in Los Angeles, with about two or three months of the year in Las Vegas.

Question: How and when did you start playing?

Answer: I was hanging out a lot in New York backgammon clubs, primarily a place called the Ace Point. It used to be on East 60th Street. It has actually kept its name and moved to a new location. About two years ago, it morphed a bit and now is a poker club. Anyway, about five years ago, it happened I overheard two guys always going on about poker this and poker that at the backgammon club. One day, out of curiosity mainly, I went with a friend to check out a place called the Diamond Club. It was another, now-defunct, poker club in New York's card club history. I will never forget it. I was sitting in some limit 4/8 game, getting acclimated to the rudiments of limit hold'em, when from the back room I heard a lot of commotion, and I investigated. Wow, this was where the action was!

I didn't bother with the limit game that night. Instead, I just watched the other game. I remember it clearly. Later I was told that it was the second-biggest game in town. It was 2/5 pot-limit hold'em. It's hard to believe, but it's true. There was a bigger game at the also-now-defunct Mayfair Club, but not really knowing what was going on, I though that the stakes were perfect for me. The game was four times a week, and I made sure I had a seat the next night the game went off. I got there early, as they rarely had two games. Arriving before 6:30 pm was the best way to get a seat. That was in about 1999.

Question: What drew you to poker?

Answer: The action. Backgammon was starting to fade a bit, as far as how much action there was, and how often people wanted to play. It is funny to me now, but I was amazed that it was available four days a week (10 hours or so before the game would break). Amazing, to me that was huge!

Now, of course, poker is a 24-hour-a-day thing. And you don't even need to be in a casino! With online poker, the game is always at your beckon.

Question: What are your future poker plans?

Answer: Play cards, have fun. Simple.

Phil makes it look simple. He had two big finishes in 2003, finishing sixth at the Legends of Poker World Poker Tour event and twelfth at the Bellagio Five-Diamond World Poker Classic. In 2004 he made one of his most interesting final tables, when he took first place at the WPT Invitational. And 2005 treated him similarly well as he finished sixth at the Five Diamond World Poker Classic No-Limit Hold'em Championship and fell just short of a bracelet when he finished second at the World Series Pot-Limit Hold'em event.