September 17 – Sporting sun glasses that covered his surgically repaired right eye and a cast on his right arm that was adorned with the Union Jack, Phil Laak used a strong final day to propel him to the first WSOP bracelet of his career at the 2010 WSOP Europe tournament. Laak overcame a field of 244 runners to take first place
and £170,802 of the total prize pool of £610,000 in the No Limit Hold’em 6-Max event which included players such as Phil Ivey, Tom Dwan, Barry Greenstein and more.
Anyone watching Laak play wouldn’t have been able to tell that he was only six weeks removed from a serious ATV accident that nearly took the vision in his right eye. Starting in third place at a final table that would last less than seven hours, Laak began slowly while chip leader Andrew Pantling marched over 1 million chips. Laak survived
several all-ins and began climbing, earning his way into the heads-up battle.
Although Pantling held an advantage of almost 2-to-1 over Laak going into heads-up, the momentum shifted to the “Unabomber” almost immediately. Within 90 minutes after starting, Laak pulled even with Pantling in their race to the finish. Mixing devastating
bluffs and nice hands to keep Pantling off balance, Laak passed his opponent on the
way to victory.
Announcing his win via Twitter, Laak said, “Maximum cheeze shippage. £170,802 ($267,010). Plus some gold! Holla!!” Now a member of the bracelet wearing fraternity, Phil Laak is no one’s lackey, thanks to his breakthrough victory at the WSOP Europe.
