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Zach Gensler to Try and Break Phil Laak’s Record at 2019 WSOP

Back in 2010, Phil Laak set a world record for poker longevity by playing 115 hours of cash game poker. This broke a previous world record set by Paul Zimbler in 2009. While it sounds incredible that anyone would play such a long streak of poker without interruption, there’s someone else that believes that they can do it.

Low-stakes grinder Zach Gensler believes that he can break Laak’s record and claims that he will play 120 straight hours of poker at the 2019 World Series of Poker. Laak’s record is one that few think will be broken, and some even think is not even wise to attempt.

Gensler to Play 120 Hours at $1/$2 NL

According to a report at CardChats.com, Gensler is planning to play 120 hours of cash game poker during the 2019 World Series of Poker. His plans are to grind $1/$2 NL Hold’em, a game that’s guaranteed to run non-stop during the series, in an attempt to break Laak’s record.

CardChats reached out to Gensler and he stated that he’s giving himself a solid 85% chance of playing the 120 hours. Gensler is apparently trying to do something positive with this record, claiming that he will give half of his winnings to various charities. That’s a lofty goal, assuming he is actually able to turn a profit during the time.

In an interview with CardChats, Gensler also claims that Laak is not interested in talking with him about the record-breaking attempt. According to Gensler, he reached out to Laak for advice on the attempt and Laak failed to respond to him.

Gensler also tried to place a prop bet with Laak, and again did not receive a reply. He tried to get Laak to agree to put him into the 2019 WSOP Main Event if he can break the record. Adversely, he offered to do the same for Laak if the failed.

Also, Gensler attempted to get Laak to help him raise money for charity and he claims that Laak was also unresponsive to those requests. Details about what he proposed to Laak were not revealed in the story, so it’s hard to say why Laak rejected him.

Is It Wise to Attempt to Break Laak’s Record?

If you’ve tried to stay up for a prolonged period of time, you’ve probably experienced some of the symptoms that come from sleep deprivation, such as lack of concentration and mental impairments, but most of us have not tried to stay up over 100 hours like Laak.

Attempting to break Laak’s record could have some serious health consequences ranging from delusions to even psychosis. It can also lead to a weakened immune system which could result in Gensler becoming sick over the attempt.

If successful, Gensler would be awake for over nine days. While technically possible, even Laak didn’t truly stay up for the entire 115 hour period. According to reports, he was allowed the occasional short nap.

Regardless, this endeavor is not the wisest of moves and one has to wonder if the accomplishment is worth the potential health risk.

We Don’t Give Him Much Chance of Setting the Record

Gensler gives himself about 85% to set the record and CardsChat gives him about a 75% chance. In all honesty, we give him about a 40% chance of setting the record. While Gensler has apparently played as much as 80 hours straight in the past, that is still almost two days shy of setting this record.

Next, we frankly don’t see where the motivation really lies for Gensler to set this record. If he had struck some type of deal that would award hundreds of thousands of dollars to charity, then maybe we could see him being properly motivated for the attempt.

As we see it, this is going to be some good publicity for Gensler, but we see him maybe hanging tough for a couple of days and then realizing that the risk to his health is too great. Also, we also wouldn’t be surprised if the Rio or WSOP officials stepped in to put a stop to this attempt or at least force him to sign a waiver.

In the end, we will be surprised if Gensler actually goes through with the attempt, and monumentally shocked if he succeeds.

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