- Commissioner’s statement on Ventura, Marte
- Ronnie O’Sullivan: Masters champion ‘felt so vulnerable’ in final
- Arron Fletcher Wins 2017 WSOP International Circuit Marrakech Main Event ($140,224)
- Smith challenges Warner to go big in India
- Moncada No. 1 on MLB Pipeline’s Top 10 2B Prospects list
- Braves land 2 on MLB Pipeline’s Top 10 2B Prospects list
- Kingery makes MLB Pipeline’s Top 10 2B Prospects list
- New Zealand wrap up 2-0 after Bangladesh implosion
- Mathews, Pradeep, Gunathilaka to return to Sri Lanka
- Elliott hopes for rain for Poli
Top 10 Stories of 2016, #6: Prop Bets Grab Headlines
- Updated: December 27, 2016
This year’s Top Stories are brought to you by the VerStandig Law Firm, LLC. Combining a keen understanding of the gaming world and an equally keen understanding of the law, Mac VerStandig and his colleagues are devoted to fighting on behalf of the poker community and its members.
Anyone who has spent more than five minutes immersed in the poker world knows that poker players are action junkies. While the top levels of the game may be filled with people whose mental mastery, aversion to tilt and game theory optimal approaches make them seem like robots to many, deep down, plenty of poker players still live for the adrenaline rush of a good sweat.
Sometimes, action at the poker tables just isn’t enough. Everyone knows that in full-table poker, it’s correct to fold the majority of hands almost regardless of the game. So, what happens when a bunch of action junkies are seated together and mostly folding hands?
Often, the answer is that they discuss and come up with all manners of prop bets to keep themselves in action.
Prop betting in poker has a rich history.
Indeed, some players like Ted Forrest and Huck Seed are as famous for some of the wild prop bets they’ve booked as they are for their poker exploits. In one of the most well-known prop bets in poker history, “Johnny World” Hennigan accepted an offer to live in the middle of Iowa for six weeks and famously lasted only a couple of days. He was driven mad without being in action, making that prop perhaps the ultimate reflection of many a poker player’s mindset.
The year 2016 seemed to be a particularly rich one for prop bets. A number of prop bets had the poker world buzzing this year, and the fun started almost from the first day the books closed on 2015.
Esfandiari Lunges His Way to Infamy
Antonio Esfandiari is a well-known proponent of prop betting, so much so that he’s gotten his own reality TV show, I Bet You, centered around his prop bets with poker buddy Phil Laak.
At the 2016 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, Esfandiari engaged in a prop bet that will live on in infamy forever. High roller Bill Perkins bet “The Magician” that he couldn’t lunge everywhere he went for 48 hours. Those that have been to the PCA know that Esfandiari, who was staying in a tower that’s a solid 15-minute walk from the main tournament area, was committing to a serious amount of lunging.
Though early photos of Esfandiari’s antics show him smiling and lunging his way across the colorful Atlantis Resort carpet, things had grown dire for the popular pro by the time he had made it to the later stages of the bet.
Legs aching, Esfandiari was struggling to merely move across the tournament room and was enlisting the help of friends and family in order to acquire food and drink.
Needing to relieve himself with the clock winding down on Day 2 of the tournament and the bet, Esfandiari faced a choice. His legs were completely done in by muscle exhaustion and he felt he could not make it to the bathroom and back. In a moment he would later regret, he chose to urinate in a container under the cover of the poker table during a break in the event.
Tournament officials disqualified Esfandiari upon being made aware of the situation. Esfandiari had around 100,000 at the time, which was …
