Phil Gordon of Jawfish with Launch organizer Jason Calacanis and Google's Don Dodge.
Phil Gordon of Jawfish with Launch organizer Jason Calacanis, left, and Google’s Don Dodge, right.

Jawfish Games CEO Phil Gordon applied to be a part of the Launch Festival on the last day. Good thing he got that application in.

Jawfish, which is developing an online gaming tournament platform, won top honors at the big San Francisco entrepreneurial pitch fest hosted this week by Jason Calacanis. Gordon tells us that it was a huge honor, since Launch is one of the preeminent entrepreneurial events in the country. Past winners have included Mint, Yammer and Room 77.

The judges obviously were impressed with Jawfish. Google’s Don Dodge proclaimed in his remarks that Jawfish “is going to make a lot of money.”

Choked up with emotion on stage, Gordon thanked his company’s 23 staffers and reserved some especially thoughtful remarks for his family.

“I think overlooked in the entrepreneurial landscape are the sacrifices that are made by kids, and spouses of entrepreneurs,” said Gordon, who commutes regularly between his home in eastern Washington and the Jawfish offices in Seattle.

Jawfish raised $2.6 million from The Founders Fund, the venture capital firm led by former PayPal CEO Peter Thiel, and others last summer. Gordon is a former Netsys exec and computer scientist who is perhaps best known as a professional poker player and commentator.

You can watch Gordon’s remarks in the video below, starting at 23:47.

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