When Phil Laak stayed up for 115 hours playing poker back in June, he probably wasn’t expecting all the controversy that went with it. It’s been a few years since Cris Collinsworth and Kriss Akabusi hosted regular shows on either side of the Atlantic championing the efforts of record breakers, it hasn’t meant that Laak’s record is immune from rival attempts on what seems like a very regular basis indeed.
The latest of these attempts has come out of New Zealand, as two players sat at the table for a total of 117 hours to apparently break the Guinness World Record for Texas Hold ‘em Poker. Of the eight players who started the record attempt at 5pm on Monday, the two remaining contestants were Christie Teki-Reu and “Chopper.” It’s not known yet whether a) a “Record Adjudicator” was present and b) if “Chopper” is his real name or that he’s the star of the film with the same name.
As the two players neared the end, Teki-Reu had reached one million chips but didn’t want to push her playing partner out of the competition as they’d got so far.
“When you have practically worked with someone for a week and you get to know them, you get to trust them,” Ms Teki-Reu told the Wanganui Chronicle.
It again begs the question as to how far people will go to break these records, as a fatality will only give them yet another stick to beat the gambling industry with.
