Paul Phillips (born August 9, 1972 in
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
,
California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
) is an American software developer, entrepreneur and
poker
Poker is a family of comparing card games in which players wager over which hand is best according to that specific game's rules. It is played worldwide, however in some places the rules may vary. While the earliest known form of the game w ...
player.
Programming
Phillips wrote the
Boa
Kwon Bo-ah (; born November 5, 1986), known professionally as BoA, is a South Korean singer, songwriter, dancer, record producer and actress. One of the most successful and influential Korean entertainers, she has been dubbed the " Queen of K- ...
web server while attending the
University of California, San Diego
The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Insti ...
, but no longer maintains it. In 1994, one of his colleagues at
college
A college (Latin: ''collegium'') is an educational institution or a constituent part of one. A college may be a degree-awarding tertiary educational institution, a part of a collegiate or federal university, an institution offering ...
discovered he had an interest in
blackjack
Blackjack (formerly Black Jack and Vingt-Un) is a casino banking game. The most widely played casino banking game in the world, it uses decks of 52 cards and descends from a global family of casino banking games known as Twenty-One. This fami ...
and subsequently introduced him to poker.
In 1996, he became Chief Technical Officer for
Go2Net
Infospace, Inc. was an American company that offered private label search engine, online directory, and provider of metadata feeds. The company's flagship metasearch site was Dogpile and its other notable consumer brands were WebCrawler and Meta ...
. This success is the basis of his nickname
Dot-com.
Phillips subsequently started working on the
Scala compiler and standard library. He is co-founder of
Lightbend
Lightbend, formerly known as Typesafe, is a company founded by Martin Odersky, the creator of the Scala (programming language), Scala programming language, Jonas Bonér, the creator of the Akka (toolkit), Akka middleware, and Paul Phillips (poker ...
(then known as Typesafe), a company specializing in the production and support of an open-source platform for software development based on Scala and
Akka
Akka or AKKA may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ''Akka'' (film), a 1976 Indian Tamil film
* ''Akka'' (TV series), a 2014–2015 Indian Tamil soap opera
* Akka, a character in the children's novel ''The Wonderful Adventures of Nils'' by Selma ...
. He left Lightbend in 2013 over differences in the architecture of the language, collections library and compiler.
Poker
Phillips is known as a controversial figure in the poker world. He was banned from competing in the
World Series of Poker
The World Series of Poker (WSOP) is a series of poker tournaments held annually in Paradise, Nevada and, since 2004, sponsored by Caesars Entertainment. It dates its origins to 1970, when Benny Binion invited seven of the best-known poker pla ...
(WSOP) in the early 2000s due to comments he made about the way in which the
Horseshoe
A horseshoe is a fabricated product designed to protect a horse hoof from wear. Shoes are attached on the palmar surface (ground side) of the hooves, usually nailed through the insensitive hoof wall that is anatomically akin to the human toen ...
split entry money between players and
casino
A casino is a facility for certain types of gambling. Casinos are often built near or combined with hotels, resorts, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships, and other tourist attractions. Some casinos are also known for hosting live entertai ...
employee
Employment is a relationship between two parties regulating the provision of paid labour services. Usually based on a contract, one party, the employer, which might be a corporation, a not-for-profit organization, a co-operative, or any other ...
s. Despite being reinstated as a competitor in late 2001, he only played one event in 2002 (placing 2nd to
John Juanda
Johnson "John" Juanda (born July 8, 1971) is an Indonesian professional poker player of Chinese descent based in Tokyo, Japan. He has won five World Series of Poker bracelets.
Personal life
Juanda was born into a Hoklo family in Medan, Nort ...
in the $1,500
triple draw
Triple is used in several contexts to mean "threefold" or a "treble":
Sports
* Triple (baseball), a three-base hit
* A basketball three-point field goal
* A figure skating jump with three rotations
* In bowling terms, three strikes in a row
* In ...
lowball Ace to Five event).
Despite choosing not to play in the WSOP, Phillips finished 2nd in the 2003 Tournament Poker Money List.
In 2004 he made three WSOP final tables (one in
Omaha hi-lo split and two in
no limit
No Limit may refer to:
Music Record labels
*No Limit Records, a record label founded by Master P
*No Limit Forever Records, a record label founded by Romeo Miller, son of Master P
Albums
* ''No Limit'' (Art Pepper album), 1977
* ''No Limit'' ...
hold'em
Texas hold 'em (also known as Texas holdem, hold 'em, and holdem) is one of the most popular variants of the card game of poker. Two cards, known as hole cards, are dealt face down to each player, and then five community cards are dealt fac ...
.)
He spoke out against the inclusion of
Phil Hellmuth Jr
Phillip Jerome Hellmuth Jr. (born July 16, 1964) is an American professional poker player who has won a record sixteen World Series of Poker bracelets. He is the winner of the Main Event of the 1989 World Series of Poker (WSOP) and the Main Event ...
,
Doyle "Texas Dolly" Brunson and
Johnny "Oriental Express" Chan in the 2005
World Series of Poker Tournament of Champions
The World Series of Poker Tournament of Champions is an invitational freeroll poker event. Wins in this event do not count as official WSOP bracelets, but the winner receives a large trophy in the shape of the official World Series of Poker logo ...
, and subsequently became the subject of message board
flame wars
Flaming or roasting is the act of posting insults, often including profanity or other offensive language, on the internet. This term should not be confused with the term trolling, which is the act of someone going online, or in person, and causing ...
.
Phillips has played in both of the first two
s, losing in second round play both years.
As of 2012, his total live tournament winnings exceed $2,300,000.
However, Phillips has no tournament cashes since 2009.
Paul Phillips' Poker Statistics: Hendon Mob Poker Database
Pokerdb.thehendonmob.com. Retrieved on April 23, 2012.
In an April 27, 2009, article in The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
on neuroenhancement
Neuroenhancement or cognitive enhancement refers to the targeted enhancement and extension of cognitive and affective abilities based on an understanding of their underlying neurobiology in healthy persons who do not have any mental illness. As su ...
, Phillips was quoted at length discussing his use of prescription drugs such as Adderall
Adderall and Mydayis are trade names for a combination drug called mixed amphetamine salts containing four salts of amphetamine. The mixture is composed of equal parts racemic amphetamine and dextroamphetamine, which produces a (3:1) ratio bet ...
and Provigil
Modafinil, sold under the brand name Provigil among others, is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant medication used to treat sleepiness due to narcolepsy, shift work sleep disorder, and obstructive sleep apnea. While it has seen off-label u ...
to improve his focus and concentration during tournament play.
Personal life
Phillips is married with two daughters, and has not played as many poker tournaments since 2005 to spend more time with his family.
Phillips is also active among internet
The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...
bulletin boards
A bulletin board (pinboard, pin board, noticeboard, or notice board in British English) is a surface intended for the posting of public messages, for example, to advertise items wanted or for sale, announce events, or provide information. B ...
and played tournament Scrabble
''Scrabble'' is a word game in which two to four players score points by placing tiles, each bearing a single letter, onto a game board divided into a 15×15 grid of squares. The tiles must form words that, in crossword fashion, read left t ...
regularly until 2007.
Phillips was popular on the platform LiveJournal
LiveJournal (russian: Живой Журнал), stylised as LiVEJOURNAL, is a Russian-owned social networking service where users can keep a blog, journal, or diary.
American programmer Brad Fitzpatrick started LiveJournal on April 15, 1999, as ...
in the early 2000s, where he opined on programming, poker, and lifestyle controversies.
References
External links
PokerLizard.com Interview
World Poker Tour Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Phillips, Paul
1972 births
Living people
American bloggers
American poker players
American Scrabble players
University of California, San Diego alumni
World Poker Tour winners
People from Bend, Oregon
People from San Francisco
American software engineers
Engineers from California