Phil Laak Poker Strategy

Matt VIP• 8,585 Views • on 25/10/16

Phil Laak proved his skill many times by winning a WSOP bracelets, millions of dollars in live tournaments and showing us some solid poker in televised cash games.

Phil Laak is one of the most entertaining players to watch in the history of televised poker. It's not because of his betting patterns mastery or his tremendous hand reading ability but rather his winning personality, humility, and endearing optimism.

He's also no slouch at a poker table and he proved his skill many times by winning a WSOP bracelets, millions of dollars in live tournaments and showing us some solid poker in televised cash games.

Poker is Fun!

This is the essence of Phil Laak. No other pair of players would react in the same way with $120,000 on the line. Phil and Antonio showed that they clearly value good fun, friendship and even quality TV entertainment more than money which - while not necessarily optimal from the EV standpoint - is great for the soul (or rather poker mindset).

The ability to disconnect himself from the money aspectof the game allows Phil to keep a healthy mindset and makes him a very likable character.

A Mad Scientist

Speaking of things no other player would do the same way, in this bizarre hand Laak shows that he's capable of making an extremely exploitable play out of the blue. He had the right idea too.

Given the villain's line, he can't possibly have a strong hand and therefore there is some merit to putting the maximum amount of pressure on him with the overbet.

Unfortunately for Laak, Brian Rast is a very good player and he correctly recognized that Phil's line makes very little sense for value and therefore his range should be weighted heavily towards the air.

Not Just a Funny Guy

In this hand against Patrik Antonius, Phil Laak really shows that he's not just a funny guy with more money than he knows what to do with. His preflop raise with AJ was obviously very standard but it's important to point out the straddle adding dead money into the pot.

With a gutshot, overcards and a backdoor flush draw cbet is also fairly standard especially because Antonius should have a relatively wide range preflop. What happens on the turn and river is definitely not obvious and while a good number of players would be able to fire of the turn barrel on the scare card Phil Laak had enough discipline to follow through with a triple barrel bluff given favorable board texture and the massive amount of dead money in the pot.

Unfortunately for him, he played against one of the best players in the world and while his line should have a very high expected value against most of the player's population Patrik Antonius is certainly an exception to the rule.

Mixing it Up

While the preflop raise with 53o in this hand from Poker After Dark was highly questionable the rest of the hand was fairly elegant as far as Laak's line goes.

He correctly recognized the fact that one of the things that made Dwan's game so successful was his willingness to get aggressive in those small pots other players were quick to give up on. Some players would instantly release a bottom pair on the flop (especially three way) but Phil avoided this unnecessary addition to the bottom of his range.

Lastly, his reaction to Dwan's hesitant check on the river reminded us why we love him so much.

You Can't Get a Read on Him

Just like in the hand against Dwan, here's another questionable preflop hand selection followed up by a solid post-flop play. In a live poker setting where you only have a chance to play around 15-20 hands per hour, it's easier to get away with those marginal preflop decisions, since table dynamics are more important than strict hand selection.

Laak's flop call is totally fine given great implied odds and two players behind him that could potentially come along for the ride further increasing the odds. Turn is very impressive. Many players couldn't resist the temptation of going over the top but Phil is disciplined enough to know that raise wouldn't make much sense on such a dry texture.

The river practically plays itself and Seiver's reaction seems to give some more validity to Laak's questionable preflop call.

"Dream Big, Work Hard, Be Humble"

Phil Laak lives a life of a high stakespro but he remains humble. He always mentions how lucky he is, he doesn't hide his fascination with other players like Dwan and he's not trying to pretend that he's on the same level of skill.

He's fun, easy going and a tiny bit crazy which is such a great breath of fresh air in the field dominated by introvert nerd-wizards, old school 'all-business' pros and herds of up-and-coming players who take themselves way too seriously. Poker is in a desperate need of more colorful, interesting characters and Phil Laak provides exactly that.

Lastly, we could all learn a thing or two from him when it comes to having a healthy approach to playing cards and simply enjoying this incredible game that is poker.