According to a Twitter update by Phil Hellmuth this week, Team Full Tilt Poker member Mike “The Mouth” Matusow and five-time World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner Ted Forrest are involved in a weight loss prop bet that could see Matusow lose up to $2 million.
Hellmuth posted the details of the bet on his Twitter page on Wednesday, claiming that Forrest will win $2 million from Matusow if he weighs 139 pounds by July 15th. If he doesn’t make weight by then, he has until September 15th, at which point Matusow will owe Forrest $1 million. If Forrest doesn’t reach the goal by that date, he will pay Matusow $150,000. Forrest weighed 188 pounds at the time the bet was made.
Full Tilt Poker pro Justin “Boosted J” Smith commented on the bet on the TwoPlusTwo forums: “I have a sizeable piece of this… it’s July 15th and September 15th and I was there at weigh-in at the Commerce gym scale… Ted is about 188 lbs with jeans, sneakers, and a shirt on and extremely muscular at the moment.” Smith said that he has a piece on Matusow’s side.
Matusow and Forrest were involved in a similar weight loss bet in 2007, but then, it was Matusow taking the challenge. At the time, Matusow weighed about 241 pounds, but during an event at the 2007 WSOP, Matusow said he used to weigh 181 pounds. Forrest and Matusow then agreed on a bet. If Matusow could get back down to 181 pounds by the beginning of the 2008 WSOP, then Forrest would pay Matusow $100,000.
With 19 days to go before the 2008 WSOP, Matusow weighed 189 pounds, needing to drop only eight more to win the bet. But with a cruise with his girlfriend looming, Matusow tried to settle the bet with Forrest for $70,000. Forrest declined the offer and Matusow gained seven pounds during the seven-day cruise, forcing “The Mouth” to lose 15 pounds in the remaining nine days. According to Matusow, he went five days without eating and spent a lot of time in the jacuzzi during the final week, ultimately weighing in at 179 pounds to win the $100,000.
In other prop-related news this week, Victory Poker pros Antonio Esfandiari and Brian “tsarrast” Rast agreed on a three-month no-drinking bet that began on Monday, May 3rd. The bet will run all the way through the 2010 WSOP, meaning that Esfandiari will once again be forced to cut down on his normally party-themed lifestyle during the biggest poker series of the year. Last year, Esfandiari’s life coach forced him to stop drinking during the WSOP Main Event; Esfandiari promptly finished 24th for $352,832.
Said Rast about the bet, “I realized that I needed to stop partying and start playing some poker! I also wanted to get ready for the series and make sure that during the WSOP this year, I was focused and playing my A-game.”
With the 2010 WSOP just around the corner, we expect many more poker prop bets to surface. Poker News Daily will bring you all of the updates in the coming months.
