Jeff Haney interviews Phil Laak
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Jeff Haney’s got a good article on the always-entertaining Phil Laak in today’s Las Vegas Sun. In the feature, Haney gets Laak’s comments on how Laak predicted the takeover of poker by the ‘internet kids’, sites like Cardrunners, the importance of striking a balance between poker and life, and the recent Absolute scandal.
Below are a couple of excerpts of Laak’s quotes from the article.
On training sites:
“Now these (teaching) sites like Card Runners, you pay your $20 or $30 a month and learn that way. Hey, here’s a guy who turned $50 into a million playing online. Listen to what he has to say. Watch his video tutorial. He did it. It’s like if you’d just start blowing glass yourself, or you could watch Chihuly giving a video lecture on his thoughts on how to do it. No comparison. Maybe you can’t absorb it all right away, but it’s going to be packed with a lot more nuances.”
On the Absolute scandal:
There will be pattern dynamics that just can’t exist (in a clean game). When it becomes a fifth-sigma event, OK, it’s just as likely as all the atoms in this console thing (a coffee table in his suite) lining up and making this teacup float in the air. If you see it start to float, you just know it’s more likely there’s some kind of device than all of the atoms lining up just so.
Online small stakes is a great place to learn the game. Playing high stakes online I’m always nervous. No. 1, the guy I’m playing might be one of those uber geniuses that have filtered through. No. 2, if somebody’s going to cheat, it’s going to be at $50-100, not $1-2. That’s why I love live play.
