Unabomber Laaks out in Heat 2 of the World Open V

It was a true rollercoaster ride for Phil Laak in the second heat of the PartyPoker.com World Open V.  After dominating the first session’s play yesterday evening the Unabomber struggled to keep up the momentum as play reconvened today.

Maybe it was the early start that affected the American pro but whatever the reason Laak was in serious danger of busting out at one point; with only 50,000 chips left after losing one huge hand to the second chip stack AK V 10s, the blinds threatened to eat away at his stack Laak began his come back doubling up time and time again.

As other players fell by the wayside Laak maintained his fightback all the way to the heads-up scrap with PartyPoker Palladium Loune Elite player Patrick Funke.  The heads up battle didn’t last too long, unlike yesterday’s heads up between Luke Schwartz and Christian Schafer the chips were being pushed around with abandon finishing with an all-in face with Laak holding A8 and Schafer strong favourite with AK. To say the poker gods were with Phil Laak would be an understatement as he hit a flush on the river.

Harsh on Funke but that’s poker, our VIP player goes into the round robin heat and Phil progresses to Thursday’s final with heat 1 winner Luke ‘FullFlush1’ Scwartz.

As the evening came attention turned to Heat 3 featuring The Unabomber’s partner actress turned poker pro Jennifer Tilly. On paper this looks like one of the best heats in the tournament along with Tilly we have Tom ‘Durrr’ Dwan, the fast talking Sammy George and recent WSOP bracelet winner Roland De Wolfe.  Play got underway at 6pm and after an hour or two sizing each other up the players have begun to make some big moves.

We’ll have a full summary of the third heat tomorrow but if you can’t wait that long you can join our facebook fan page www.facebook.com/partypoker and at www.twitter.com/partypokernews for all the latest live updates.