Phil Laak has started the clock on his bid to break the marathon poker playing record.
Phil Laak is known for a lot of things, and among poker players mostly for his trademark getup of a cinched hoodie and sunglasses that earned him his “Unabomber” nickname. But he’s also known as a bit of a loose cannon and someone who goes after what he wants and doesn’t rest until he achieves it or breaks himself trying.
Right now he’s trying to achieve the Guinness World Record for playing poker.
The 37 year old poker pro is aiming to play poker until that point on Saturday night when he will hit the record for playing the longest continuous round of poker at 80 hours. Wednesday at the Bellagio cameras started rolling and he started playing – and tweeting.
When asked why he wanted to try for the record, he gave his variation of the “why climb Mt. Everest” response – but instead of “because it’s there” Laak said “Because I can.”
The Guinness official record is 72 hours, 2 minutes, set by Larry Olmsted, while the unofficial record is Paul Zimbler at 78-hours, 25-minutes. Laak wants to beat them both at 80 hours.
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