INTRO

We got the call at about 1:00 am while we were just wrapping another shoot. Phil Laak, Thomas Wahlroos, Patrik Antonius, Amnon Filippi, Michael Binger, Glen Bean, Jani Vilmunen and Dave Wells were headed out to Mesquite at 8:45 am to go skydiving. We rallied at the Bellagio, made the drive out in record time and spent the next eight hours or so at the Mesquite Airport taking turns falling to the earth from 10,000 feet.

Frank Frisina from lifesabluff.com cornered Phil for long enough to delve into the mind of the man who has become internationally known for his choice of poker attire.

What's the origin of the grey hoodie and the hiding in the hood bit?

When I first started playing cards it was in New York. The hood was a fixture for a few different reasons. The most notable was that I wanted to shield myself from the other energy at the table. I had a lot of tells at the time so I figured covering them up would be smart. Over time it became sort of a Linus and his blanket thing.

I have become really attached to the hood thing. I like it. I can observe without being observed. I can block out nasty drafts, I can shield my eyes from overhead lighting, I can cover up on my bad hair days, and friends can find me in the tournament rooms easier. There are all sorts of random ancillary benefits.

Did you ever read The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams? There is a whole section in there about always having a towel handy. (The hooded sweatshirt has all the benefits of a towel, plus more.)

What's the biggest pot Antonio has ever taken off of you and vice versa?

I have been holding over him for the longest time ever. It is like one really long 5th sigma event unfolding over time. After crushing him for about 5 years straight we got heads up on Poker After Dark. $120k was on the line and we didn't hedge a nickel. I won it.

Winning that put me so far ahead of him that he pukes whenever he thinks about our lifetime tally. It is really nice, considering that beating him gives me more pleasure than beating anyone else on the planet. Why is it like that? No idea. It just is.

Does it bother him? Probably, but you cant worry too much for the guy. He seems to beat everyone else and has over $2.7 million in tournament wins to date.

What percentage of the world's poker players are not as smart as you?

It is funny that you ask that. I would first need to know how much above (or below?) the average poker player's intelligence is from the average (non-poker playing) persons. Then I could give you an accurate answer. However this would only be as it is measured according to an IQ test. And even then we have a problem.

IQ tests have one major flaw. They don't measure emotional intelligence (EI), only intellectual intelligence (IQ). This is a shame, as emotional intelligence is actually the more important of the two. A person's EI is a far greater indicator of how they will do in life. There is greater correlation between EI and personal well being/happiness than there is for IQ. And as far as success within the fabric of society, it is not even close. EI crushes.

How would you recognize true artificial intelligence? When do you think it will happen?

With regards to the whole debate on artificial intelligence Edsger Dijkstra said it best. "The question of whether a computer can think is no more interesting than the question of whether a submarine can swim." He obviously thought that the debate was of little import.

I sort of agree with him.

Do you believe in God?

God. How many angels can dance on the head of a pin? And other such questions. Basically God comes and goes with the flops. There is a God when I have set over set. And when the guy makes quads on the river, well then maybe there is no God.

Do you know of anyone who "gets you"?

There was this guy at the commerce, who used to. He was hopeless at cards and has since gone broke. (A total Hopelatron.) But while he was around he used to 'get me'. He would hum very inaudibly. Normal humming is fine. Never bothered me, but my Achilles Heel has always been very very faint humming. Thank the good people at Bose for those noise canceling head phones. Truly a brilliant piece of technology.

Anything left out of the Burning Apartment in Europe story? Have you or your crew torched anymore buildings with late night cooking lately?

The epilogue to that story was pretty nutty. About a year later, I was in my apartment in San Francisco. I was trying to get a wick to stick out of a candle. It was snubbed at the top so the candle was useless. In order to get the wick out I took the candle, turned it on its side, and started to burn away the wax around the wick. Eventually I succeeded and the wick was ready to go. I put the candle on a shelf and forgot about it.

I went about my business and about 5 minutes later I left the apartment. It was very sunny out so I hurried back to the apartment for some sun glasses, I went into the kitchen and there it was... Another disaster brewing. A fairly decent sized fire had got its start in the waste basket. I had left a bit of flame behind I guess. I extinguished the fire and realized that I was just a step away from burning down yet another apartment. This time it would have been mine, and it would have been all my doing.

I was so stoked that it didn't happen. It was better than the pre-cog stuff in Minority Report because this wasn't movie land... this was Phil Land. And having all your stuff not burn to the ground is a great feeling, let me tell you.

Many of my people believe we have a spirit animal. What would yours be?

After I saw the movie Carrie, I used to sit around and try to make things happen with my mind. I was not successful. Then some years later I stumbled into one of those psychic bookstores in San Francisco. They had different workshops. One of them was to help you develop your psychic powers. I signed up. I think it was 20 or 30 bucks for the session. There were about 15 people there. Some fruit cake comes out wearing hippy attire and I thought. Perfect, at least we are on the right track.

However, the hippy chick kept talking about spirit animals and all this rubbish. I was so disappointed. Spirit animals?? Lady, I want to read peoples minds, I do not want to talk about spirit animals...

I never returned. I never felt that I got hustled, I only felt that I had wasted precious time. If spirit animals are your thing, then have a good time. Just count me out. I was never dissuaded in my pursuit for unraveling some of the universe's mysteries. Later on in life I stumbled upon a veritable gold mine of cool info. I somehow got lucky and found Princeton's Engineering Anomalies Research web site. Must read stuff. (here is the link... http://www.princeton.edu/~pear/)

Origin of the word "hopelatron"?

Hopelatrons, and actionauts both guys you want in your game. The first time I ever heard the term actionauts was at Lucky Chances, Colma, about 2002. The first person I heard use it was Rob Fullop (the guy who invented Missile Command). I have no idea who first came up with actionauts; it may or may not be Rob. Now I wonder... who came up with that? I wouldn't be surprised if it was Rob... Hmmm...

But hopelatrons... that for sure came out of my head. Around the same time frame. The best way to describe a hopelatron would be to imagine the middle earth soldier guys from Lord of the Rings. Collectively very strong, but from individual to individual very weak. None the less, their strength is that there are so many of them. You are sure to take a beating from a hopelatron from time to time. Even thought they can nail you in a hand, they are lifetime losers at poker. It is the hopelatrons that keep the pros in the money. Thank the good lord for each and every one of them.

Basically it is a term of affection for all the army of weak players that comprise the poker universe.

You appear to be a man of strong convictions. Has your idealism ever gotten you into trouble in the real world?

I was being hustled for about forty-five cents in Vietnam when I was traveling once and I knew I didn't owe the money and I knew the guy knew that I didn't owe the money. It was clear he was just extorting me. I was just so perturbed that he knew he was getting away with this, I just decided, nope, I'm never paying that forty-five cents.

So I took off my shirt, put my stuff in my whatever, and I realized, wow this is a really bad spot to be in. It's like three o'clock in the morning, I'm on the beach side, there's no police, nothing. His four friends are there, there's like a car passing every twenty minutes. But I didn't owe this money, so I was not going to pay. I was like, do I have to die for this? I was like no, but at the time I wasn't being smart, I was being principled. Right then, I was being an idiot. He could have been a 27th degree black-belt, I have no idea.

So I just started running, and I was like, this is the right solution. The guy is hurling rocks and he's got good aim, I've got to run faster. Eventually enough space and confusion and dissolution and the whole thing, but yeah, I've been stupid over forty-five cents before. But, I learned a lot from that.

Sometimes it's right just to take the pain and swallow it and forget about it. You only have X number of life units and how many do you want to spend on principled moments? You've got to choose your battles. The version of me now is such a mellow, like, "it's all good," version compared to the principled manic nutball that I was when I was super-young.

Life is good, thank god I found poker.