Jennifer Tilly moments after winning the 2005 WSOP Ladies event.
I've noticed the wave of media attention Jennifer Tilly has been receiving of late and I'm not surprised. The lady seems to have the touch of success in most everything she takes on. The Academy Award nominated actress is now an accomplished poker player with two championship wins and she is a card magnet. The poker thing all happened after she played in a Pro/Celebrity tournament held at the Joint in the Hard Rock, met a professional poker player, won a WSOP bracelet, and won a major WPT championship event. Jennifer is also set to star in the new TV series, Out of Practice.
I might be indirectly responsible for the friendship between Jennifer and the Unabomber. I photographed the tournament at the Hard Rock including the 'VIP meet, greet and eat' before the tournament. The Poker Prof selected one of my Tilly/Laak images for the tournament photo gallery, some friends of both Jennifer and Phil saw it, told them what a great couple they made...and the rest is history.
The photo of Jennifer Tilly and Phil Laak that may have started it all.
The two players made quite an impression at the 2005 WSOP and came away with a gold championship bracelet, ample on-TV time, and some serious cash. Jennifer topped a field of 601 ladies that bought into the $1,000 No-limit Hold'em event # 26. Jennifer played a tough game through the three day affair and outlasted a pack of strong, professional competitors. Apparently the playing lessons from the 'Unabomber of Poker' provided Jennifer with the essence of winning poker. The hours spent online practicing substituted for the lack of live experience and enabled the actress to stay the course. Dr. Pauly provided a great live blog and a final wrap-up of the ladies' event. He provides all the interesting details of the 2005 WSOP Ladies Championship turned marathon poker event. Did you know that on the second day of play when the event was scheduled to be playing the final table they played 15 straight hours and finally called it a day at 4:00am, agreeing to return that afternoon to get down to and play a final table? The Doctor and I were there to witness and record this record setting event. I posted an article and photo essay for the event. The entire three days of the ladies championship event was one continuous photo op.
Jennifer Tilly on day one of the ladies' 2005 WSOP Championship.
A couple of days before Jennifer won her first WSOP bracelet her boyfriend and poker coach, Phil "Unabomber" Laak, had survived a field of 425 players in the $2500 Pot-limit Hold'em event #25 to make the final table. He was in the presence of one of poker's royalty, nine bracelet winner Johnny Chan. The two got down to heads up and provided the crowd with some first rate entertainment and some great poker. Johnny Chan shared the record for most WSOP bracelets, nine, with Doyle Brunson and Phil Hellmuth, so no great surprise to see both of them standing together on the sidelines watching Johnny play for ownership of the bracelet record. Phil Laak entertained the crowd with his trademark bag of tricks while the stoic Johnny Chan made the bomber's stacks of chips disappear. Early on, during one of the pivotal hands when Phil decided to call all-in Jennifer left her table at the ladies event day #1 to come over and stand on a chair to see over the crowd. Of course, Phil won the hand and then he became the only obstacle between Chan and the record setting tenth bracelet. This was some of the most entertaining poker of the entire 2005 WSOP and watching the two time WSOP Champion, Johnny Chan, sit patiently, while the hooded shirtshirt Uanbomber danced around shadow boxing attracted a large crowd of fans and players. Unfortunately, the ESPN people couldn't have predicted having such an interesting table so it wasn't on the broadcast schedule and no production crew was there. You can see our gallery of more than a thousand photos of the 2005 World Series of Poker Photo gallery for shots of all the events including Chan winning his tenth and the ladies championship going to Jennifer. Dr. Pauly live blogged the event on TaoPoker.com.
Phil 'Unabomber' Laak playing at the 2005 WSOP.
Jennifer Tilly and Phil Laak are good for the sport of poker. The two are bigger-than-life people that represent the positive side of the poker industry. They provide glamour, drama and excitement to the world of live tournament poker. They will continue to play and win thus providing the poker world with the kind of good publicity that's hard to buy, and best of all they often do it for free. Remember, in all of the major poker tournaments the players are playing for their own money, the entry buy-in; nothing is added, no corporate money, no nothing. The young professional poker players are all hoping to become good enough to attract a backer that will fund their venture into the live tournament circuit.
The WPT sanctioned Bellagi's Festa al Lago Tournament with the Doyle Brunson North American Championship begins at the Bellagio this Saturday, October 8. Satellites begin on Friday.
Vegoose is coming! Vegoose is coming! Vegoose is coming to Vegas!
Jennifer and Phil share the thrill of her victory in the 2005 WSOP Ladies' Championship event.
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