Phil Laak's World Record Attempt Started Earlier Today

Published on 2010-06-02 16:12:00

Earlier today, Phil Laak took his seat in a $10/$20 NLHE cash game at the Bellagio and officially started his attempt at setting a new World Record for longest ever poker session.

The current record is held by Paul Zimbler, who played for over 75 hours straight in 2009.

Phil Laak has publicly stated that his goal is to play for 80 hours straight, which would beat Zimbler's mark by a few hours.

From Poker-King.com, here is a brief history of the record over the past couple of years:

"2004 - Larry Olmsted sets the record by playing for 72 hours straight at Foxwoods (Olmsted took short breaks every 8 hours to change his clothes and brush his teeth, and ended up running his $100 in chips to just under $1,000 by the end of the session).

2008 - Dave Cain breaks the record in September of 2008 after playing for about 74 hours straight. Cain decided to play heads up poker, which ended up making the challenge more mentally taxing. Cain was initially going for 100 hours, but ended up quitting shortly after breaking the record

2009 - Paul Zimbler breaks the record in September of 2009 after playing for over 75 hours straight. Zimbler played heads up poker against roughly 200 different opponents during that time, including the likes of Annette Obrestad and Mike Matusow"

According to Laak's Twitter page, he didn't get a very good sleep last night, so we'll have to see what kind of an impact that has on Laak as the attempt moves into Day 2 and beyond.

I believe that Laak initially bought in for $4,000. According to his Twitter page, he is down about $1,200 after 45 minutes.

People who are interested in this attempt at a new World Record can watch a live stream from the Bellagio here.

Laak will be using this attempt to try to raise money for Camp Sunshine, which is "an organization that provides respite, support, joy and hope to children with life-threatening illnesses and their immediate families through various stages of the child's illness." Laak will also be donating half of the money that he wins during the session to Camp Sunshine.

According to his blog, Laak has been training for this attempt since the beginning of January.

We'll have more on Laak's attempt over the next couple of days.

Notes:

-early June at the Bellagio was chosen for this attempt because it would be easy to find people to participate in the game (due to the World Series of Poker taking place)

-unlike Cain and Zimbler, who played heads up poker during their record-breaking attempts, Laak will be playing in a full ring game

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Filed Under: Random Poker News