Laak Loses His Mind

(Photo: Cardplayer.com)

While some poker games can be dull and dreary affairs with hardly a word being spoken, that’s almost never the case when the indomitable Phil Laak is involved – and a recent hand from Poker Night in America shows this to the extreme!

Laak has long been known for his eccentricity, but as we are about to see, sometimes he just takes things a little too far. The cash game at Pittsburgh’s Rivers Casino pitted Laak against the likes of Jennifer Harman and Matt Glantz and was a loud but friendly affair – perfect viewing for the poker-loving public - but Laak’s ‘tilt factor’ was painful to watch as card-dead Phil decided to spew his chips left, right and centre.

First up was a horrific 4-bet jam with a suited 10 J running into Dave Elridge’s pocket kings, but in the craziest hand of the night – the very next hand actually - Laak decided that shoving his 8 5 offsuit was the best way to deal with Tom Schneider’s blind raise (blind as in he didn’t even look at his cards!)

It was a move which had commentators Chris Hanson and Joe Stapleton flummoxed and befuddled, but it was Dave Elridge who decided to take Laak on at his own weird and wonderful game, calling the $8K shove - also blind!

The 45-year old Irish-American is generally a lucky player, as evidenced by his dating the impressive (in many ways, including poker at times) Jennifer Tilly for over a decade, but could Laak somehow ‘unstick’ his evening by playing like a newbie?

Shoving any two cards pre-flop is usually a sure-fire way to burn your bankroll in double-quick time, so let’s see how Laak fared…