Poker Star Makes Bid for Marathon Playing Record

LAS VEGAS (June 3) -- As a kid, Phil Laak tried to break the Guinness World Record for hopping on a pogo stick, but he lasted only 10 minutes. Then he considered memorizing pi, until he found out that the record-holder had gone more than a day reciting the infinite number's digits.

So now, at 37, he's settled for a different -- though still extreme -- stab at immortality: Laak hopes by Saturday night to set the mark for playing the longest continuous round of poker at 80 hours. That's 3 1/3 days.

Known as "the Unabomber" for his trademark hoodie and shades, Laak is a ubiquitous presence on TV poker shows. He began his quest Wednesday at the Bellagio, with cameras recording his every move for posterity and a Web feed broadcast to fans around the world. He also has a blog and is tweeting about the effort.

Laak's girlfriend of six years, Academy Award nominee and World Series of Poker champ Jennifer Tilly, visits periodically, as do other poker celebrities.

It all begs the question: Why?

"Because I can, because it's attainable," Laak told AOL News on Wednesday evening, seven hours into the effort. "It would be cool to satisfy my childhood dream of having my name in the Guinness Book of World Records, even if it's only for a year. It's not like the guy who has the record for holding the most number of golf balls. That guy's gonna hold it forever -- I don't know how he did it."

Playing by the Rules

The current official record for continuous poker play is 72 hours, 2 minutes, set by Larry Olmsted at the Foxwoods casino in Connecticut in 2004. But in poker circles, the unofficial record -- not sanctioned by Guinness but still part of lore -- is Paul Zimbler's 78-hour, 25-minute stint in September in London.

To prepare for his record-breaking attempt, Laak began a strict diet and exercise regimen in January. He said he's dropped his weight from 211 to 186 and cut out all fried foods, cheeses and ice cream. A personal chef is delivering meals to his table every five hours -- the first one consisted of brown rice, broccoli and chicken.

He plans to drink only water until later in the run, when he'll drink green tea, black tea and eventually Red Bull as needed to stay awake. A yoga instructor is also nearby to help him exercise.

There are, of course, rules. Laak gets a five-minute break for every hour played; he can bank those minutes for a longer break later, but he can't use any stored-up time at the end of the run to shorten his overall stint at the table. In other words, he must be at the table taking a hand at 7 p.m. PT on Saturday to meet his goal of an 80-hour poker marathon.

Laak is playing No-Limit Texas Hold 'Em at a relatively low-limit table where the blinds -- the compulsory antes that each player at the table takes turns playing -- are $10 and $20. Anyone can play with him if there's a seat open and they're willing to buy $800 in chips.

As of this morning, Laak was crowing on Twitter that he'd broken even. He bought in with $4,000 in chips and had been down as much as $3,000 late Wednesday; he may buy more chips if he goes bust.

Laak said he'll give half of any winnings to Camp Sunshine, a Maine camp for children with life-threatening illnesses and their families.

Poker Faces All Around

Laak, who won the World Poker Tour championship in 2004 and has nearly $2 million in career tournament winnings, is a popular presence in the poker community for his goofy, happy-go-lucky attitude. Other poker pros are on call to come play with him during the record attempt, should the crowd in the Bellagio poker room thin out in the wee hours such that there's nobody to play.

In fact, Laak tried to plan against running out of opponents by staging this effort this week, the second week of the two-month period of the World Series of Poker, a 57-tournament season that culminates in July with the so-called Main Event.

Las Vegas is flooded with poker players and enthusiasts, and many of them flock to the Bellagio to sharpen their skills or to play when they're not in tournament events at the Rio casino, where the World Series of Poker takes place.

On Wednesday, Tilly sat with Laak for a few hours. The pair have been a couple since 2004; she won the 2005 World Series of Poker $1,000 Ladies-Only No-Limit Hold 'Em event and has won more than $500,000 in tournament poker in her career. One of her poker nicknames, in fact, is "the Unabombshell."

"I was a little worried when Phil said he was going to do it, but I know from experience that you cannot stop Phil once he says he has set his mind to it," Tilly told AOL News. "He likes to do dangerous things -- he jumps out of planes and drives really fast."

So far, so good for Laak. After taking his first bathroom break in the fifth hour, he resolved to go relieve himself every four hours so as to not feel pent up. He admitted he toyed with the idea of wearing a catheter until he, uh, learned what exactly a catheter was.

Laak is comfortable with the notion that this record can be toppled.

"There are a lot of us poker players that are high-level degenerate vampire-style gamblers who as a regular thing do 48-hour sessions," Laak said. "Sixty hours is not that big a stretch, and 80 is a mental stretch.

"But I dunno, I'm talking all this smack now, but maybe I just start melting down tomorrow."