If you tuned in yesterday, you were probably left thinking, “Man, I sure would love to read more about prop bets!” Well you wanted it, you got it. And by you wanted it, I mean this is what you’re getting, and by you got it, I mean enjoy part two of the magical world of pro poker prop bets.
Starting things off, after years of evading weight loss bets, Doyle Brunson couldn’t resist the 10-1 odds on the $100,000 pooled together by a plethora of Vegas pros in 2003. At the height of Atkins and with the help of Weight Watchers, Doyle dropped below 300 pounds, but gained a little back when he put the $1 million he cleared in his pocket.
Mike Svobodny, a famous backgammon player, once bet Ted Forrest $7k that he couldn’t run a marathon at the University of Nevada Las Vegas track field. As if running isn’t unbearable on its own, the blistering heat made the track so hot, it melted the soles of Forrest’s shoes during his 26 mile run. He reached the finish line and immediately went to the hospital with the feet of a Kenyan.
If you thought Huck Seed was just a great poker player and a distant relative to Johnny Appleseed, you were wrong. He is also one of the most notorious prop betters on the pro poker circuit. The following are some of his most famous wagers:
- He once took a six-figure bet that he couldn’t break 100 four times in one day on a golf course in sweltering Vegas heat using a sand wedge, five iron, and putter. On a day where the mercury nearly popped out the top of the thermometer at 120 degrees, it only took him six rounds.
- He was given two months that he couldn’t learn to do a standing back flip towering like the Jolly Green Giant at 6′7″. He did one before the end of the 60 days and another after he collected his $10k.
- Phil Hellmuth once bet Seed $50,000 that he couldn’t stand up to his shoulders in the ocean for 18 hours. He was right three hours later, when Huck came in to shore pruned up and smelling like high tide.
- Man of betting legend or stubborn pride? Seed’s most recent wager involved him proclaiming that he could run a mile in 4:39. If and when he transforms into an Olympic runner at the age of 40, his 33-1 payout will be brought to him upon by a yeti wearing a clown suit riding a unicorn.
When you’re as ballin as Phil Ivey, winning hundreds of thousands of dollars playing some of the biggest cash games in the world is just another mundane day at the office. So how do you pass the time in your ho-hum life in between quarter million dollar hands and casino buffets? Prop bets.
There was no worse form of merchandising for poker once Chris Moneymaker won the 2003 World Series of Poker (WSOP) than video games. They spread faster than the snail mail disease known to the world as AOL discs. In fact now, they are probably less valuable.
Some successful poker players like to re-invest winnings back into their bankroll, some like to gamble with winnings, some like to party, and a few will save up their money. But rarely do players – or anyone for that matter – donate a large portion of their money towards a charitable cause.
Season 6 of NBC’s hit show Poker After Dark had quite a beginning as the announcers hit the tables in what was entitled “Commentators III”. High Stakes Poker hosts Gabe Kaplan and Kara Scott (who was just recently named a host), Joe Sebok, Mark Gregorich, and of course Poker After Dark host Ali Nejad all took a seat in the Season 6 opener.
Typically, if you show me 5 poker movies, I can show you at least 4 bad poker movies. However, sometimes a film comes along that gets poker and gets film making at the same time.
