Phil has won nearly $1,100,000 in poker tournaments since taking the poker world by storm in the 2001 World Series of Poker championship event where he finished 4th and won $400,000 as well as a spot on the Travel Channel documentary ("Inside the World Series of Poker"). In 2002, Phil followed up his performance with 2 final table appearances, including a 6th place finish in Pot-Limit Hold'em, and a 3rd place finish in Omaha 8/Better. Later that year, Phil was invited by UltimateBet.com to play in the professional division of the World Poker Tour's inaugural tournament in Aruba where he beat out seven of the top players in the world to win the professional division and claim the $250,000 first place check. In 2003, Phil led expert analysis for the World Series of Poker championship event for Binion's Horseshoe live internet broadcast as well as daily reports for a national radio audience on Sporting News Radio's Murray in the Morning show. In March 2004, Phil won the World Poker Tour's "Bay 101 Shooting Stars" tournament in dramatic fashion and claimed the winning purse of $360,000. Phil's poker experiences have been chronicled in Cigar Aficionado, National Public Radio's "This American Life" with Ira Glass, Smithsonian Magazine, CNBC's "Squawk Box", Card Player Magazine, a classic episode of "Blind Date," and many other publications throughout the world.

Phil came to the world of professional poker via the high-tech industry. After entering college as a National Merit Scholarship Finalist at age 15, Phil graduated from Georgia Institute of Technology at 20 with a degree in Computer Science. After a 2 year stint at Lockheed Missiles and Space, Phil joined Netsys Technologies, Inc. in Palo Alto, California as its lead software engineer and first employee. Three years later, Cisco systems purchased Netsys for 95 million dollars in stock and cash.

Phil grabbed the money and took flight. He packed a backpack, gave almost everything else to Goodwill, and bought a one-way ticket to Africa. During the next 5 years, Phil traveled solo to over 50 countries on 6 continents. In Africa, he has dived with the Great White Sharks, climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro, tracked gorillas in Uganda, snowboarded down the highest sand dunes in the world, and rafted the Zambezi River. In South America he built a balsa raft to float the Amazon River Basin, trekked the Inca trail, sailed through the fiords of Patagonia and explored the pristine wilderness of the Galapagos Islands. In Australia, Phil covered 20,000 kilometers solo in a Land Cruiser, dodged kangaroos and wallabies, climbed Ayer's Rock, dove on the Great Barrier Reef, and judged a wet t-shirt competition in the middle of the outback. Phil's travels and travel narratives are available to the public on the internet at the award-winning site.

 In 2003, Phil bought a monster RV with his best friend and poker professional Rafe Furst and set out for what they describe as "The Greatest Road Trip in Sports History." They kicked off the tour at the Super Bowl in San Diego, January 26th, 2003. They criss-crossed the country in "Big Blue" , attended more than 140 sports events in 40 states including the Final Four, the Stanley Cup Finals, all three triple crown races, the Daytona and Indy 500, the Masters, US Open Tennis, 25 baseball stadiums, the top 25 public golf courses and everything in between. All during the journey, Phil and Rafe are raising money and awareness for the Cancer Research and Prevention Foundation . At tailgate parties, sports bars, poker tournaments, and by autographed memorabilia donated by sports organizations, they raised $100,000 for CRPF. The tour concluded at the Super Bowl in Houston on February 1st, 2004. Daily journals from the road and more than 5,000 pictures and video clips are available. The USA tour is sponsored by ShowMeTickets.com, American Tailgater, and Appleton Estates Jamaican Rum.

Phil has completed work on a book titled "Poker: The Real Deal" that will be published by Simon and Schuster. The book is scheduled for nationwide distribution in September.