Most professional poker players spend the lion’s share of their playing time in live games. The big-name tournament players are famous because of the television coverage of their live play. Lots of these players play online, but it’s not like the live tournament scene. Most celebrity poker players are sponsored by an online poker site. They wear the site’s logo in live events and play on the site for periodic promotions or whenever they want to.
Full Tilt Poker has professionals Howard Lederer, Phil Ivey, Chris Ferguson, John Juanda, Jennifer Harman, Phil Gordon, Erick Lindgren, Erik Seidel, Clonie Gowan, Andy Bloch, Mike Matusow, Gus Hansen and Allen Cunningham on their team.
PokerStars has Chris Moneymaker, Greg Raymer, Joe Hachem, Barry Greenstein, Isabelle Mercier, Daniel Negreanu, Tom McEvoy, Victor Ramdin, Vanessa Rouso, and Humberto Brenes.
UltimateBet sponsors professionals Phil Hellmuth, Antonio Esfandiari, Jim Worth, Devin Porter and Annie Duke.
Phil “The Unabomber” Laak has made name for himself in the poker world by playing winning poker and by being a character at the tables.
You can usually identify Laak by his hooded sweatshirt and sunglasses. His poker-playing apparel earned him his nickname “The Unabomber”, because he looked like the forensic sketch of the real Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski. You can also pinpoint Laak by his antics around the poker table, which include jumping around and doing push-ups after winning big hands, and kneeling down beside the dealer so he can be the first to catch a glimpse of the river card at the showdown.
Even before getting into poker, Laak led a rather interesting life. He was born in Dublin, Ireland, but was raised in Wellesley, Massachusetts. Laak earned a mechanical engineering degree from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and before beginning his poker career in California he worked as an engineer, a repo man, a stock day-trader and real estate investor, and he was even a sports betting broker.
Since leaving all that behind and focusing on poker, Laak has won the 2004 WPT Celebrity Invitational and made it to two other WPT final tables. Laak is still searching for his first World Series of Poker bracelet, but came extremely close in the 2005 $2,500 Pot Limit Hold’em event when he finished second to winner Johnny Chan.
Anyone that doesn’t know Laak from his famous poker apparel or his performances at the tables likely knows him because of his famous girlfriend. Laak is going out with actress and poker player Jennifer Tilly, who won the WSOP $1,000 Women’s title in 2005. Laak may trail his girlfriend in WSOP bracelets, but with his game and his antics providing him with as much info on his opponents as attention from the public, he’ll likely catch up to her soon.
