Tag: Daniel Negreanu

bonomo-wsop
My wife is a ‘should of’ person.
I should have had what you ordered.
I should have bought the other pair.
I should have chosen the other guy.
“I’m selling action to the $1,000,000 buy-in 1 Drop tournament at 1.05 markup. I will be donating all the money from the 5% markup to charities meeting the tenets of Effective Altruism. Contact me for 5%.”
That’s Justin Bonomo’s pinned tweet.
I should have…
In many ways, Justin Bonomo’s assault on the Big One for One Drop felt a little like England’s World Cup campaign.
Before the Big One, the two most significant buy-in events of the year have been the $300,000 buy-in Super High Roller Bowl (SHRB) in Las Vegas, and the $267,000 buy-in SHRB in China, and Justin Bonomo had won them both for a combined $9.8m.
He couldn’t win all three, could he?
Like England facing an ageing Croatian side, was this one tournament too many for the ultimate End Boss?
Let’s find out.
 
David Einhorn Bubbles The One Drop
27 players found $1m to compete in the most massive buy-in event ever created, raising $2,160,000 for charity.
After two days of incredible action here was the final table.
 
Final Table

  1. Justin Bonomo – 48,950,000
  2. Fedor Holz – 22,125,000
  3. Dan Smith – 21,450,000
  4. Rick Salomon – 19,650,000
  5. David Einhorn – 12,300,000
  6. Byron Kaverman – 10,525,000

$2.6m was the starting point from a charitable angle. There would be more donated, for sure. Justin Bonomo was a Raising For Effective Giving (REG) Ambassador, so you knew some of his profits had been set aside to help ease suffering in the world. Dan Smith is a known philanthropist, and Fedor Holz is also recognised to donate a bob or two.
But none of them raises money for charity with the girth of David Einhorn, the man who donated his entire $4.3m prize when finishing third in 2012.
So, it was a topsy-turvy feeling when Einhorn’s involvement ended on the bubble. Had he won the $10m, he would have saved many lives, but the poker community as a whole would have been staring at a large chunk of change missing from the fabric of its structure.
“I almost feel guilty for knocking out David Einhorn,” Bonomo told PokerNews.
I’m sure it was only a fleeting thought, Justin.
Einhorn raised to 1.1m on the button, and Bonomo called from the big blind. The dealer spread the 7c5c5h across the felt. Bonomo checked, and Einhorn bet 1.6m before Bonomo check-raised to 7.5m. It was enough to cover Einhorn, and after some deliberation, he made the call.
Bonomo: 74o
Einhorn: AQo
Bonomo had connected with a big blind special and was two cards away from guaranteeing everyone at the table a $1m profit. The 2h and Kc changed nothing. Einhorn was out.
 
Fedor Holz Eliminates Byron Kaverman & Rick Salomon
When you’re playing in a $1m buy-in event, the last person you want to see peering over a chip stack the size of the Burj Khalifa is Fedot Holz, and that’s the sight that befell both Bonomo and Dan Smith, after an incredible double knockout.
Byron Kaverman moved all-in for around 8 million in the first position. Holz made the call from the next DXRacer, and Rick Salomon moved all-in for 26.9m out of the big blind.
Pain.
Agony.
Anguish.
Or was he figuring shit out?
I don’t know, but Holz went into the tank, using four-time extension chips before making the call.
Holz: TcTs
Kaverman: Ac5c
Salomon: AhKh
Kaverman wanted clubs, Salomon wanted hearts, and Holz wished to close his eyes, press ‘teleport’ and open them five cards later.
The dealer faced the AdKs2c onto the flop, and the Iris’s of Salomon flexed as he realised he had flopped the top two pairs. And then we had the most incredible turn card.
Turn: Qc
Salomon remained in the lead, but now, everyone had a piece of the pie. And it was a lovely pie. The type of pie that gets stuck in your moustache, and you’re licking it all day.
Kaverman had a flush draw, and Holz added Broadway outs to his tens.
River: Td
Holz had done it again.
When it mattered, the young man from Germany, got precisely what he ordered from the Poker Gods.
A few handshakes later, and Holz was able to relax.
 
Three-Handed Chip Counts
Fedor Holz – 66,500,000
Justin Bonomo – 50,100,000
Dan Smith – 18,400,000
A relaxed Holz put his pedal to the metal.
Fedor Holz – 91,100,000
Dan Smith – 26,100,000
Justin Bonomo – 17,800,000
There could be only one.
 
Dan Smith Eliminated in 3rd Place for $4m.
Bonomo picked up a couple of pots to pick up some slack on Holz, but you felt if the American was to win, he needed to eliminate Smith, and that’s what happened.
The action folded to Bonomo who moved all-in, and Smith made what would be the final call of his tournament.
Bonomo: KTo
Smith: QTs
The dealer laid the Ad9s6s in the middle of the Thunderdome. Not bad. Things became more interesting when the Js provided Smith with flush and straight outs, but the Qh disappointed every Smith fan in the building. The man with the ten-gallon hat was out. Bonomo would face Holz for all the marbles.
 
Bonomo v Holz
No two players have won more money playing live tournaments in the past three-years than Fedor Holz and Justin Bonomo. The pair are incredible in many ways, and the audience was fortunate to see two of the very best going at it for the top prize of $10m.
 
Chip Counts
Fedor Holz – 84,300,000
Justin Bonomo – 50,700,000
Holz began the brightest, winning a plethora of pots to extend his lead to 54m chips. But then Bonomo started buzzing, doubling through the German when his A8 turned an ace to beat the pocket fours of Holz who was two cards away from victory.
Then came the moment of the tournament for both players.
Holz opened to 2.8m, Bonomo raised to 9.5m, and Holz called. Qc4c3s flew out of the deck, and Bonomo bet 5m; Holz called. The 8h arrived on fourth-street; Bonomo checked, Holz bet 11.5m, and Bonomo called. The river card was the 6d. Bonomo tapped felt; Holz moved all-in, and Bonomo made a quick call.
You could tell by the look on Holz’s face that all was not good in that corner of the world. The German showed KJo for the middle of a doughnut, and Bonomo took a 110.4m v 24.6m chip lead after showing 84s, for eights-up.
It was time to see if Holz had the stamina, grit and luck to turn things around.
Early doors, the prognosis was excellent.
After Bonomo ground him down to ten bigs, Holz doubled with QTo versus K5o after turning a lady, and then he pulled things back to a 3:1 deficit when his J4 found a twin on the flop to beat the pocket tens of Bonomo.
Bonomo – 101,000,000
Holz – 34,000,000
And then Bonomo had a Gandalf moment; you know, the, you shall not pass bridge moment, only unlike the grey-bearded wonder, Bonomo didn’t fall into the abyss, his opponent did.
Bonomo called from the button; Holz James for 23.6m and Bonomo called.
Bonomo: AJo
Holz: A4o
Bonomo had Holz in a dominated position.
You could sense this was it.
The final hand of a fantastic tournament.
It was the perfect moment to play some Hans Zimmer.
The dealer placed K832Q on the board with minimal fuss, and Bonomo had won the trifecta of SHRB, SHRB China and the Big One for One Drop all in a single year.
And they don’t even have an accolade for it.
It’s time they made one.
 
Final Table Results

  1. Justin Bonomo – $10,000,000
  2. Fedor Holz – $6,000,000
  3. Dan Smith – $4,000,000
  4. Rick Salomon – $2,840,000
  5. Byron Kaverman – $2,000,000

It was an incredible moment for Bonomo.
Not only did he had another $10m to his vault. But in doing so, he overtook Dan Colman’s record annual haul, with $24,945,435 earned with five months of the year remaining.
Most significantly, Bonomo now stands on the very top of the Live Tournament All-Time Money Earned Leaderboard, replacing longtime throne holder, Daniel Negreanu with $42,979,591 taken from poker tables around the globe.
Man, I should have…

We can frame poker’s pride and hang it on the wall.
The bitch is back.
The propeller is whirring noisily.
It’s time to take off.
The 49th Annual World Series of Poker (WSOP) has been a spectacular success. Hoards of people have managed to evade sexist mobile phone sellers on their way to millions of dollars in prize money, and more bad beats than The Handmaids Tale.
And it’s not ended yet.
For the first time in history, the organisers moved the $10,000 WSOP Main Event forward. It’s a sound move that gives those who fall out of that competition a reason to live and provides the $1m Big One for One Drop with the Rolling Stones like presence it deserves.
And it was a humdinger.
7,874 entrants created a prize pool of $74,015,600, making it the second-largest WSOP Main Event in history behind the incredible Internet-driven Jamie Gold win in 2006.
The winner will pick up $8.8m.
Each final table member earns $1m minimum.
But we have a long way to go before we can talk about a winner.
Until then, I want to get you up to speed on bracelet wins for three men who each have a role to play in our high stakes economy.
We will begin with a legend of the online high stakes world, and a man often touted as the next Daniel Negreanu, when it comes to the perfect ambassador for poker.
 

Phil Galfond Wins Event #60: $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo Championship.
Phil Galfond won his third career bracelet after beating 237 players in a format of poker he has never played online, and has only played during mixed game action in the live realm.
Speaking to PokerNews after his win, Galfond said, “I was figuring it out as I went.” 
A man who has earned close to $11m playing cards at the highest stakes in the business is apt to do that.
Galfond rose to prominence in the game as one of the most fearsome competitors in online cash games earning a $6.6m profit playing cash games under the handle OMGClayAiken on Full Tilt. He is also up $1.4m profit competing as MrSweets28 on PokerStars.
Not only is Galfond one of the best high stakes online poker players in the world, but he is also one of the most excellent coaches. After building an impressive reputation on BlueFirePoker, Galfond created RunItOnce (RIO), an online training site providing top quality coaching for the best players in the world. He is also in the midst of creating RIO Poker, an online poker room, due for release this summer.
You won’t see Galfond playing many live tournaments, preferring to compete in the more lucrative cash games. He has only cashed in three events that carry a buy-in of $25k+ or more.
Back in 2008, he finished 70/545 in the $25,500 buy-in World Poker Tour  (WPT) Championship banking $39,570. In 2011, he got his money back in the $25,000 buy-in NBC National Heads-Up Championship with a min-cash. In 2013, he finished runner-up to Steve Sung in the $25,000 High Roller at the WSOP for $744,841, in what remains his most significant live score to date.
He has won three career titles, and all of them ended up with a bracelet. In 2008, he defeated 152 entrants to win the $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha for $817,781. Galfond’s second piece of gold came in 2015 when he beat 77 entrants in the $10,000 2-7 Draw Lowball No-Limit Championship for $224,383.
He has won $2.9m playing live.
 
Final Table Results

  1. Phil Galfond – $567,788
  2. Michael McKenna – $350,922
  3. Ali Abduljabbar – $240,497
  4. Chad Power – $168,275
  5. Chris Lee – $120,263
  6. Marco Johnson – $87,830
  7. David “ODB” Baker – $65,579
  8. Chase Steely – $50,086

 

Chance Kornuth Wins Event #63: $3,200 WSOP.com Online No-Limit Hold’em High Roller.
Things will get very interesting indeed when more states allow fully regulated and licensed online poker. This year, the WSOP hosted a record four online events, with the High Roller buy-in set at $3,200.
How long before that’s $10,000?
$25,000?
$50,000?
$1m?
It will come.
In the meantime, a legitimate High Roller won the second iteration of the $3,200 Online High Roller.
Chance Kornuth defeated a 480 entrants (356 unique and 124 rebuys) field, 56 more entrants than this time last year when the former November Niner Thomas Cannuli took the title.
It was Kornuth’s sixth cash of the series, and to date, he has cashed in six events carrying a $25k+ buy-in
In 2016, he defeated 122 entrants to take the AUD 790,560 (USD 547,874) first prize by winning the AUD 25,000 (USD 19,000) Challenge at the Aussie Millions.
The following month, Kornuth finished runner-up to Mustapha Kanit in the 58 entrant field €25,750 European Poker Tour (EPT) Main Event in Dublin earning €360,150.
In July of that year, he finished eighth in a 63 entrant $25,000 buy-in ARIA High Roller for $60,480. In October 2016, he won a 19-entrant $25,000 High Roller at the World Poker Tour (WPT) best bet Bounty Scramble for $186,672.
There was only one score in 2017 as Kornuth finished seventh in a 117 entrant $25,500 High Roller at the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open (SHRPO) for $93,600.
His latest HR score came in the CAD 25,500 (USD 19,000) buy-in High Roller at the partypoker MILLIONS North America Festival earning CAD 125,000 (USD 97,863).
Kornuth’s lifetime earnings exceed $5.9m.
His most significant score to date is $641,140 for finishing third in the 2015 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) Main Event.
He has won two WSOP bracelets, his first coming in 2010 when he beat 460 entrants to take down a $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha (PLO) event for $508,090.
 
Final Table Results

  1. Chance ‘BingShui’ Kornuth – $341,598
  2. David ‘bewater’ Goodman – $212,021
  3. Timothy ‘poker.’ Nuter – $144,168
  4. Noah ‘ ThePunter’ Bronstein – $99,809
  5. Frank ‘flcrivello’ Crivello – $70,625
  6. Taylor ‘ReadyGambo’ Black – $50,926
  7. Justin ‘kingfortune’ Liberto – $37,355
  8. Jonas ‘LobyPewis’ Mackoff – $28,016
  9. Pete ‘petechen’ Chen – $21,596

 

Jean-Robert Bellande Wins Event #58: $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em Six-Handed
Jean-Robert Bellande is an integral part of the High Stakes live cash game scene. I like to think of him as a ‘gateway drug’ for the biggest games in the world – a bridge from mid to high stakes cash game action.
Talking to him in Montenegro, during the Triton Poker Festival, where he was organising and competing in high stakes live cash games, Bellande spoke humbly of his abilities, particularly in No-Limit Hold’em.
Bellande is a mixed game man.
So it was a shock to him and me both when he beat 621 players in a highly competitive $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em to win the first bracelet of his career, all the while sipping on a $400 bottle of plonk.
It was a sweet moment for one of the most loved men in the game. In 2008, he finished runner-up to Matt Graham in a $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em Shootout for $173,564. In June 2015, he finished runner-up to Mike Gorodinsky in the $50,000 Poker Player’s Championship for $784,828, his most significant score to date.
He finished 12/87 in this year’s $50k for $88,627.
 
Final Table Results

  1. Jean-Robert Bellande – $616,302
  2. Dean Lyall – $380,595
  3. Andrew Graham – $254,684
  4. Tan Nguyen – $173,598
  5. Eric Blair – $120,669
  6. Kacper Pyzara – $85,570

The next big WSOP High Roller is the $50,000 No-Limit Hold’em schedule for July 13th. The WSOP experience ends with the $1m buy-in Big One for One Drop on July 15th.

shaun-deeb-wsop
The 2018 World Series of Poker (WSOP), Player of the Year Leaderboard, has a new mug sitting at the top of the rogue’s gallery.
“Shaun Deeb”.
The mixed-game specialist overtook fellow mixed-game supremo, John Hennigan, as the favourite to replace Chris “Please Forgive Me” Ferguson as the most consistent player at the most iconic festival in poker, after taking down Event #42: $25,000 Pot-Limit Omaha 8-Handed High Roller.
The event goes down as the most significant $25,000 buy-in Pot-Limit Omaha (PLO) event in history, but the introduction of a single re-entry clause for the first time in the game’s short four-year history gave it a bunky over that particular wall.
Day 1 attracted 192 entrants.
101 remained, parachute intact, at the end of ten hours of play.
The man of the moment, Michael ‘The Grinder’ Mizrachi was one star that ran out of nuclear fuel on Day #1. Joining him was the three-time World Poker Tour (WPT) Champ, Anthony Zinno, and the man who last year won more live tournament dollars than anyone alive, Bryn Kenney.
Konstantin Beylin was the overnight leader.
Daniel Negreanu was third.
 
Day 2 Belongs to Ben Yu
By the end of registration, the total field size had increased to a record 230 entrants. 49 players bought-in twice, meaning the actual picture was 181 entrants, making it the second lowest unique field size in history, down 12% on last year’s record field size of 205 entrants.
After 14 levels of play, it was Ben Yu leading the way. The man who set the Triton Poker Tournament alight in Montenegro, Jason Koon, sat in second and Deeb was in third. Other contenders included the former WSOP Main Event Champion, Scotty Nguyen, Jason Mercier, Erik Seidel, and the defending champ, James Calderaro.
 
Day 3
Here is how the final table looked heading into the last day.

  1. Scotty Nguyen – 7,010,000
  2. James Calderaro – 6,445,000
  3. Shaun Deeb – 6,305,000
  4. Ben Yu – 4,775,000
  5. Jason Koon – 2,905,000
  6. Ryan Tosoc – 1,300,000

It was interesting to see Nguyen make the final table. This year, the former champ must have hired a publicist, because he landed two very public sponsorship deals: an online cryptocurrency poker room, and a company that creates shit that you smoke to get high.
Last year, Calderaro outlasted 205 entrants to win the $1.3m first prize, so it was a stunning success for him to make back-to-back final tables. Koon once again showed that if you give him a game, any game, he will beat it.
But neither Calderaro, Koon or a spliff smoking Nguyen could get within touching distance of the bracelet. The only two players to cast eyes on the sliver of gold were Ben Yu and Shaun Deeb.
Interestingly, the pair clashed in last year’s $10,000 Limit 2-7 Lowball Triple Ball final, which Yu won.
But Deeb was unperturbed.
“I made a joke to him at the unofficial final table,” Deeb would later tell PokerNews. “I said we both missed the $10K 2-7, the event we got heads-up in last year. I go, ‘We might be able to do it again, another game I’m a favourite on you heads-up.’ Ben’s a great poker player, but I have so much experience playing mixed games longer.”

There wasn’t much separating these two concerning form.
Deeb was making money in his tenth event of the summer, appearing in his second final table. Yu had cashed in nine games and was also appearing in his second final table.
There was a degree of separation in the chip counts.
Once Yu had eliminated Nguyen in third place, he took an 18.1m v 10.6m chip lead into his heads-up clash with Deeb. Two hands into their little tete-a-tete and Deeb had evened things up. One hand later he took the lead. Another hand and he was a 21.3m v 7.4m leader, and then before he had a chance to create a few Leaning Towers of Pisa he had won.
Yu opened up with a pot-sized raise to 900,000, Deeb three-bet pot to 2.7m; Yu called. The dealer placed the lowly looking 5h4c2h onto the flop, Deeb bet pot to put Yu all-in, and Yu made the call.
On your backs gentlemen.
Deeb: AsAh9s8c
Yu: Jh6h6d5d
Deeb’s pocket aces were ahead, but Yu had plenty of outs, hoping for either a flush or straight draw. Neither came. Deeb had revenge, $1.4m and his third bracelet.


Here are the final table results:
Final Table Results

  1. Shaun Deeb – $1,402,683
  2. Ben Yu – $866,924
  3. Scotty Nguyen – $592,924
  4. James Calderaro – $414,134
  5. Jason Koon – $295,606
  6. Ryan Tosoc – $215,718

35 players made enough money to buy a medieval torture rack in this one including David Benjamin (7th), Jason Mercier (12th), Robert Mizrachi (15th), Craig Varnell (16th), Sam Soverel (24th), Mike Leah (25th), Erik Seidel (26th), Tom Marchese (29th) and Paul Volpe (32nd).
Deeb has now earned more than $5.5m playing live tournaments. It was his tenth career title. His previous best score was a million bucks, collected in a controversial $25,300 Mega Satellite for the 2012 Big One For One Drop when Deeb dumped his stack to Gus Hansen during heads-up because the Dane wanted the seat, and Deeb wanted to see if he could build a house out of one million tournament Lammers.
 
The History of the $25k Pot Limit Omaha High Roller
In 2015, 175 players created a $4,156,250 prize pool, and Anthony Zinno capped off an excellent summer with the win for $1,122,196.
In 2016, the field rose to 184 entrants, and the Finnish high stakes player, Jens Kyllönen took $1,127,035 from the $4,370,000 prize pool after an excellent win.
Then last year, James Calderaro earned $1,289,074 for besting a record field of 2015 entrants. The prize pool was $4,868,750.
 
Remaining WSOP High Roller Events
July 13-15 $50,000 No-Limit Hold’em High Roller.
July 15-18 The Big One For One Drop $1,000,000 No-Limit Hold’em.
So far, 30 players have paid a non-refundable deposit to appear in the 48-player cap event. Here are the names of the ones that aren’t shy at letting you know about it.

  1. Daniel Negreanu
  2. Antonio Esfandiari
  3. Christoph Vogelsang
  4. Bryn Kenney
  5. Nick Petrangelo
  6. Rainer Kempe
  7. Dominik Nitsche
  8. Steffen Sontheimer
  9. Jason Koon
  10. Phil Ivey
  11. Adrian Mateos
  12. Phil Hellmuth
  13. Rick Salomon
  14. Talal Shakerchi
  15. Leon Tsoukernik

Poker player Mike Noori’s bet to supersize himself on McDonald’s this weekend is part of a long tradition of outrageous prop bets. From Paul Ivey to Dan Bilzerian, Paul Phua picks out 10 favourites 

Starting from today (Friday May 19), poker player Mike Noori has just 36 hours in which to eat $1,000 of McDonald’s food. Many people believe it cannot be done, estimating that he will need to consume about 70,000 calories – the recommended daily amount is less than 3,000! Others say it can: hundreds of thousands of dollars have by now been wagered on the outcome by poker players.
And why is Mike Noori putting his body through this ordeal? Because he was challenged to do so in a prop bet.
Some poker players will gamble on just about anything: whether it’s as small as what the next woman to enter the room will be wearing, or as big as eating several weeks’ worth of food in 36 hours! The most outrageous of these prop bets make great stories. Here are just ten of them, starting with some old-timers:

Titanic Thompson and the golf ball

Titanic Thompson, who hosted the very first World Series of Poker, is one of the most famous gamblers of all time. Sky Masterson, the hero of the musical Guys and Dolls, was based on him. He was no fool: when Titanic Thompson made a prop bet, he always had an angle. He would first secretly count all the watermelons in a truck and later wager, during a seemingly casual conversation with bystanders, that he could guess the exact number. Another time he bet he could throw a walnut over a building, having first secretly weighted it with lead. And when he bet he could drive a golf ball 500 yards, further than any golf pro had managed at that time, he found no shortage of takers for this seemingly impossible feat. But he simply waited till winter, then drove the ball, bouncing, over a frozen lake!

Amarillo Slim and the ping pong battle

Amarillo Slim was one of the great old-school poker players, who won the first of his four WSOP bracelets in 1972. He, too, would bet on almost anything. Perhaps his most famous prop bet was when he challenged Bobby Riggs, a former tennis champ, to a table tennis match. Slim’s one condition was that he could choose the paddles they used. He showed up with two frying pans, having secretly practised with them for months beforehand. He won the match. He successfully repeated the trick years later against a Taiwanese ping-pong champion, though this time his weapon of choice was Coca-Cola bottles!

Brian Zembic and his 38C breast implants

A magician and high-stakes gambler, Brian Zembic was famous for his bizarre prop bets: he lived in a box for a week and in a bathroom for another week. For another bet he slept the night in Central Park with $20,000 on his person. But one prop bet in particular made the headlines. In 1996, for a $100,000 bet, he agreed to have breast implants – 38C, to be precise – and keep them for a year. He even won the $4,500 cost of the operation from a cosmetic surgeon at backgammon. Not only did Zembic go through with it, he kept the implants for two decades. It was only last year that he appeared on the reality TV show, Botched, saying he had finally decided to have them removed.

Antonio Esfandiari and the lunges

What is it with magicians? Poker pro Antonio Esfandiari is also a former magician, and one of the most entertaining people you could share a card table with. His willingness to take a prop bet is legendary, though he often lives to regret it: he once swore off eating bread for a year, but cracked after a few minutes; a bet to remain celibate for a year was cancelled after nine days. But the prop bet that made the headlines, for all the wrong reasons, was one where for 48 hours he was not allowed to walk, only to lunge forward (going down on one knee then the other). It caused him so much pain that at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, rather than face going to the toilet, he made use of an empty water bottle at the table, and was promptly disqualified for “breach of tournament etiquette”. To Antonio Esfandiari’s credit, he offered up a sincere public apology for taking things too far, and donated his $50,000 winnings from the prop bet to charity.

Phil Ivey and the $150,000 steak

Phil Ivey is another player who is never afraid to take a big bet. His golf course wagers with Doyle Brunson and Daniel Negreanu are the stuff of legend, and he famously had a $5 million wager on whether he could win two WSOP bracelets in two years (despite his 10 bracelets overall, he only managed one bracelet in that period). But his craziest prop bet was when Tom Dwan challenged him to go vegetarian for a year. Phil Ivey stood to take down $1 million if he could swear off meat, something he had been thinking of doing anyway. But in the event, Phil Ivey said, he was too busy to work out how to eat healthily, and found eating pasta three times a day affected his poker. So he bought out of the bet after just nine days. The cost of that first juicy steak? $150,000…
Read part two of this Top 10, along with the eagerly awaited result of this weekend’s McDonald’s prop bet.