Community hub
Recent from talks
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
Phil Laak
Philip Courtney Laak (born September 8, 1972) is an Irish-American professional poker player and poker commentator residing in Los Angeles, California. Laak holds a World Poker Tour (WPT) title, a World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet, and has appeared on numerous nationally aired television shows.
Laak was born in Dublin, Ireland and his family moved to Wellesley, Massachusetts, when he was four years old. He was raised on the East Coast of the United States, and he lives in Los Angeles and Las Vegas.
Laak graduated from the University of Massachusetts Amherst with a degree in mechanical engineering and worked in varying jobs prior to getting into open poker games in California. He is a former roommate of fellow professional poker player Antonio Esfandiari. Prior to moving to the west, Laak lived for several years in New York City where he honed his skills as a backgammon player before turning his focus to poker.
Laak learned to play poker as a child. His first major tournament victory was at the World Poker Tour (WPT) Celebrity Invitational in February 2004. He has made two other WPT final tables since his victory: sixth place in both the season two Battle of Champions and the 2005 Five Diamond World Poker Classic.
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. Laak appeared on seasons two through seven of High Stakes Poker on GSN, and served as the dealer on the short-lived television series E! Hollywood Hold'em.
Laak was a winner of NBC's Poker After Dark, earning the weekly prize of $120,000. The tournament was titled "Phil Phil" because both Phil Laak and Phil Hellmuth were contenders. Apart from Laak and Hellmuth the table consisted of Doyle Brunson, Antonio Esfandiari, Jennifer Harman, and Erik Seidel. He again won $120,000 in the "Nicknames" episode, defeating Annette Obrestad, Mike Matusow, Antonio Esfandiari, Erick Lindgren and Phil Hellmuth.
At the 2007 conference of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence in Vancouver, British Columbia, Laak and fellow professional player Ali Eslami competed against, and beat, Polaris, a poker playing computer program developed at the University of Alberta, in two of the four rounds with the remaining rounds being a loss and a draw.
In 2008, Laak made a cameo appearance in the Knight Rider television movie, where he was credited as "Poker Pro".
Hub AI
Phil Laak AI simulator
(@Phil Laak_simulator)
Phil Laak
Philip Courtney Laak (born September 8, 1972) is an Irish-American professional poker player and poker commentator residing in Los Angeles, California. Laak holds a World Poker Tour (WPT) title, a World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet, and has appeared on numerous nationally aired television shows.
Laak was born in Dublin, Ireland and his family moved to Wellesley, Massachusetts, when he was four years old. He was raised on the East Coast of the United States, and he lives in Los Angeles and Las Vegas.
Laak graduated from the University of Massachusetts Amherst with a degree in mechanical engineering and worked in varying jobs prior to getting into open poker games in California. He is a former roommate of fellow professional poker player Antonio Esfandiari. Prior to moving to the west, Laak lived for several years in New York City where he honed his skills as a backgammon player before turning his focus to poker.
Laak learned to play poker as a child. His first major tournament victory was at the World Poker Tour (WPT) Celebrity Invitational in February 2004. He has made two other WPT final tables since his victory: sixth place in both the season two Battle of Champions and the 2005 Five Diamond World Poker Classic.
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. Laak appeared on seasons two through seven of High Stakes Poker on GSN, and served as the dealer on the short-lived television series E! Hollywood Hold'em.
Laak was a winner of NBC's Poker After Dark, earning the weekly prize of $120,000. The tournament was titled "Phil Phil" because both Phil Laak and Phil Hellmuth were contenders. Apart from Laak and Hellmuth the table consisted of Doyle Brunson, Antonio Esfandiari, Jennifer Harman, and Erik Seidel. He again won $120,000 in the "Nicknames" episode, defeating Annette Obrestad, Mike Matusow, Antonio Esfandiari, Erick Lindgren and Phil Hellmuth.
At the 2007 conference of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence in Vancouver, British Columbia, Laak and fellow professional player Ali Eslami competed against, and beat, Polaris, a poker playing computer program developed at the University of Alberta, in two of the four rounds with the remaining rounds being a loss and a draw.
In 2008, Laak made a cameo appearance in the Knight Rider television movie, where he was credited as "Poker Pro".