The prop bets have always been part of the lifestyle of the amount of professional players. Wherever you turn your head, someone is saying goodbye to one or two $ 100 bills because his friend (or stranger) has guessed the exact color of the flop. Or, he managed to cover the trash without leaving his seat. Many pros have already wagered amounts to six figures playing stack-or-face.
Once, Huck Seed, the giant 2m, even bet he could learn in two months to do a back flip. And he did.
I must say that Seed is a regular prop-bets’ It was seen, for example $ 50,000 bet with Phil Hellmuth he could take 18h straight into the sea, with water up to his shoulders. This, he has lost. But there are many more famous anecdotes. Jon Hennigan bet one day a six-figure sum he was able to spend six days in a row in Des Moines, the capital of Iowa, very provincial. It held two days. Joe Sebok, Gavin Smith and Jeff Madsen have ever developed a ‘last longer bet (note: who held the longest in the tournament) which the loser was sentenced to a tattoo face the winner on the body permanently. Another story: Andrew Robl Jay Kwik paid $ 40,000 for it to live for 25 days in a bathroom at the Bellagio …
Of all the available examples, writing PokerNews has selected five, in our opinion the most memorable of all time. Here they are, ranked from 5th to 1st place:
# 5: Phil Ivey became vegetarian for $ 1M
In Season 6 of ‘High Stakes Poker’, a conversation starts at the table between Phil Ivey, Tom “durrrr” Dwan, Gus Hansen, Daniel Negreanu and Eli Elezra. Ivey is looking for someone to bet against him on the fact that he happens to not eat meat for a year. “It’s been quite some time that the idea running through my head and I say a little bet to help me make the leap” says Ivey. Dwan says it is willing to bet a little ‘ Ivey and tries to place bids at $ 5M. Dwan think rather Ivey $ 500,000 but does not hear it that way. “I am willing to try for two million,” sighs Ivey. But it’s still too much for Dwan .
Finally, Ivey made ??a final proposal: “I do it for a million. Unable to conclude less. I’m going to lose. I know I’ll lose. I’m sure you go see me cry in four days to reach an agreement. ”
Later during the show, Kara Scott interviewed two champions on this prop bet. “I like my side of the bet,” laughs Dwan. “Sometimes a good steak is so tasty …”
“Is it something you could do?” he asks her.
“For a million dollars?” Dwan thinks. “No. Definitely not.” When asked how much he would bet that he starts to think about it, Dwan says, “Give me three or four million., It might interest me.”
Ivey showed quite confident at the time of the interview. Speaking of Dwan: “He thinks he is telling me to fly. He thinks that there is no chance that I get there. It will be quite a surprise.”
The result of all this? Twenty days later, Ivey has withdrawn from this bet, minus $ 150,000.
# 4: Erick Lindgren wins $ 340,000 in Golf
You know how this stuff works. You are at the bar with some friends. One of you talking about a golf weekend. The other benefit to tell how badly you play. To defend your honor in jeopardy, you start throwing ridiculous challenges in the wings and someone takes you at your word.
Something similar happened to Erick Lindgren, who found himself involved in a golf bet with Gavin Smith, Chris Bell and Phil Ivey. During the 2007 WSOP, Lindgren claimed that she could complete four full golf course within 24 hours and make a score below 100 in each course while wearing his / her own clubs. His friends bet $ 340,000 to the contrary, the only additional condition that they can choose themselves the precise day when the attempt would take place.
And so at 5:45 am, a very hot June morning, Lindgren started his first term. If the morning was already hot, the afternoon is a real furnace. Lindgren and having to perform na 25km in the day, with frequent elevation changes and towing his clubs behind him. If the first two paths are going well, began to experiment Lindgten the pangs of fatigue and dehydration early in the third. It s’allongee increasingly in the shade, trying to recover a bit. When the light begins to wane, Lindgren has just completed the third of four courses are.
It is imperative to conclude the last 20h before and sunset. Minutes before the fateful hour, Lindgren makes his final put and reached the 72nd hole of the day, winning on this occasion the biggest reward of his WSOP cash.
# 3: Ted Forrest loses 22 kilos for $ 2M
This bet has a story. During the 2007 WSOP, Mike Matusow and Ted Forrest began to discuss weight. It turned out that Mike ‘The Mouth’ Matusow weighed 82kg in his youth and he was made to 109 today. Hearing this, Forrest puts $ 100,000 on the table and challenge Matusow get his ideal weight before the kickoff of the WSOP 2008, a year later. Matusow hurry to accept the challenge.
He immediately upset his lifestyle, hired a coach and begins to work. Nine days before the start of the WSOP, it remains to lose 6.8 kg Matusow and decides to stop eating and get to the sauna at high doses. On the day of weighing it finally reaches 81.9 kg.
Fast forward. We are at the Commerce Casino, May 5, 2010, Matusow and Justin “BoostedJ” Smith exchanged roles. Forrest, who has a track athlete, weighs 85kg more than the return of a good dinner. He therefore decided to bet $ 50,000 against anyone who defy falling to 63.5 kg before September 15 of that year, and Matusow and Smith agree, giving it a rating 20 / 1. Even better, they bet more than 10 / 1 $ 100,000 that Forrest can not do it before July 15. Forrest finally agrees to invest $ 150,000 cons a chance to win $ 2M.
The weeks that followed were for Forrest beautifully narrated by Michael Craig on the blog anglophone Full Tilt Poker . To make fast, everything happens in a more relaxed that, given the sums involved. Justin is such a huge bear steaks and cakes to the table, Ted. Which laugh by saying that if this bet kills, he insists that Justin still weighing his body. Unlike the bet with Matusow in 2007, it now transpires that suffers and Forrest to win the bet.
While Matusow moves quickly to sweat too. On 12 July, he expressed his concern on Facebook: “Damn. Ted Forrest already does more than 64.7 kg. He remains three days to lose 1.2 kg more. I’m brown. He says he has not eaten for nine days. Good bye my 2 million. ”
Forrest spent the last days without sleep, preferring to move permanently to burn his last calorie. July 13, two days in advance, he went on stage at the Pavilion Room at the Rio Casino in Las Vegas. There is a balance that awaits him and sent a television crew from ESPN. The whole world sees this figure then register magic on screen: 62.6 kg.
Undermined by the efforts, Ted Forrest is a mere shadow of himself. But a richer shade of $ 2M.
# 2: Ashton Griffin travels 113km in 24 hours for $ 300,000
The second best ‘Prop Bet’ of all time is very recent and has a lot of talk these past two weeks. On the morning of Friday, February 4, 2011, Ashton Griffin, a professional poker player of 22 years, is at home in Orlando, busy trying to find an opponent for a crazy bet he just had the idea. Griffin claims to be able to run 113km in 24 hours and moved to Justin “BoostedJ” Smith, he has on the line, a rating of 5 / 1, but Smith does not act on the proposal. Griffin, not discouraged, then turns to her roommate Haseeb “INTERNETPOKERS” Qureshi. The latter finally agreed to risk $ 70,000 against the $ 210,000 Griffin. These figures will soon rise to $ 285,000 and $ 855,000, respectively, Griffin continues to take Paris en route.
After a long night filled with lots of drinking and little sleep, so Griffin dons a pair of tennis and trots up local gym, where the starting signal shall be given at noon and a half. He has 24 hours to travel 113 km in maintaining a constant rate. Any portion of the race conducted under this rate will not be counted in the final. It is nevertheless allowed to do as much pause as he wishes. Griffin, who has a lot of wrestling and cross country, according to his friends has an excellent physical condition. But anyway, 70km …
The next 24 hours are filled with energy bars and Gatorade for Griffin, drama and doubt for all others involved in this bet. Qureshi is worried for the health of her boyfriend and parents Griffin even make the trip from Ft Lauderdale to end the bet. But Griffin does not leave deflected. He runs over and over again, not allowing herself only short breaks near his home to replenish carbohydrates. 23 hours and 15 minutes after the start of the bet, Griffin, absolutely exhausted and in extreme cases of syncope, folding his 113th mile and puts his hand over $ 300,000.
# 1: Phil Ivey won two bracelets in two years for $ 5M
As prop Bet ‘No. 1, we could have chosen Tom Dwan and his huge WSOP bracelet bet which runs over three years. The problem is that too many players in own shares and that the exact sums involved are difficult to obtain. While similar numbers of committed gamble by Phil Ivey are known and proper striking: $ 5M. No less.
As Dwan, full details of the bet are not known and the wildest rumors circulate. In early 2010, Dr. Howard Lederer and Phil Ivey Ivey has bet $ 5 million would not be able to win two bracelets in two years. The bookies give Ivey one in four chance to win a bracelet every year, and Ivey himself considers his chances at 40 / 1 to win any tournament in which he is engaged. We know Ivey should attend about 80 tournaments throughout the WSOP in 2010 and 2011. It needs only two victories on the 80 Events. Remember the two bracelets he has landed in 2009, he still managed to win three bracelets in the last two years …
$ 5M for even bankrolls Ivey and Lederer, is not nothing. But that threat does not decay. For now, the contract is already half full side of Ivey: During the 2010 campaign, after two cashes and final table narrowly missed, and finally needed Ivey won his first bracelet in the $ 3,000 HORSE . How it reports its first place? “I have no idea,” Ivey admits to the cameras. Somewhere, Howard Lederer should be trying to use a double whiskey firmly packed …slot machine
We do not yet know how this will end but we still know enough to avoid the temptation to break the cardinal rule of poker: never bet against Phil Ivey.
