Zimbler Makes World Record Attempt at WSOPE

Endurance feats in poker are rare but there is one young man desperate to write his name in the record books this year. Paul Zimbler is attempting to beat Paul Cain’s current record of 74 hours and 12 minutes of continuous heads up play for charity. He is conducting this challenge at the World Series of Poker Europe event. The endurance feat involves him playing various heads up matches against well-known professionals and so far players such as Annette Obrestad, Doyle Brunson, The Hendon Mob and Vicky Coren have faced off against him. Zimbler said in a recent interview that he hoped to put a record in place that would be difficult to beat, with over 80 hours his target.

Zimbler is a successful poker player who had a great start to his poker career but a bad run during his early twenties that almost finished him as a player. He persisted with poker and managed a 5th place finish at the 888.com UK Poker Open in 2008 for $25,000. His largest cash came in the 2007 Irish Open where he placed 11th for a prize of $35,000. He will undoubtedly have the skills to remain sharp throughout his feat of playing poker for over 75 hours.

The feat of playing poker for this length of time in one session is so extreme that the St. Johns Ambulance are present to ensure that his health does not deteriorate to the point where it becomes dangerous for him to carry on. The record attempt reminds me of a TV show in the UK a few years ago where no-one was allowed to sleep and quite literally the participants were going crazy hallucinating and it became car crash TV because it was so dangerous for them to stay awake for such a long time. They were just lying around, so to play poker constantly is something quite extraordinary.

Poker players are well-known for their ability and propensity for playing long sessions without a break and it is not unheard of for a cash game player to sit at a poker table in the US for over 30 hours in one session. 75 hours, however, is another matter all together. Zimbler himself said that the first 50 hours or so are not that hard but then you hit the brick wall with every hour after that becoming increasingly difficult. If he manages to play anything like reasonable poker after this point he will be doing very well.

All proceeds of this endurance feat will be forwarded to the SPARKS charity, which Zimbler hopes will raise a minimum of £50,000 for the cause.

I hope that the charity gets the target amount of money and hopefully some more. Zimbler will be finished mentally and physically by the end of this challenge; I just hope players do not think this sort of poker activity is recommended for anything other than a feat of endurance. If you did this, or anything similar, whilst trying to make money from poker then your bankroll would be hit in a big way very quickly. The advice here is to respect the work done by Paul, but remember that regular breaks ensure you’re best game will always be used against opponents to win the optimal amount of money from your poker play.

I take my hat off to him. I do not think I could do anything for 80 hours with minimal breaks and no sleep. I would be super bored very quickly and I doubt Zimbler will play any poker for quite some time after this challenge – he will most probably be asleep.

By Malcolm Clarke

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Tags: live poker, paul zimbler, world series of poker, world series of poker europe, WSOPE, wsope record attempt