Laravel pattern validation pipe character issue

The answer, essentially, is that you cannot use a pipe if you're specifying all the rules in one string like you're trying to do. The pull request that m.buettner mentioned was closed. However, Tayler Otwell mentioned an alternative method you can use: specify the rules in an array. An example of this would be:

$rules = array(
    'field' => array('size:5', 'match:/foo|bar/')
);