Could you do it?
That’s the question on everyone’s lips after American poker pro Rich Alati agreed to live in a dark room in Las Vegas for 30 days straight for a shot at $100,000.
The bet was conceived at a poker table where Alati’s colleague and friend Rory Young asked everyone at the table how long they thought they could last in a room of total darkness with no human contact.
One thing led to another and Alati and Young agreed to a $100,000 EVEN-money bet where Alati would spend a month confined to a room with the lights out.
The outlandish bet was announced last month but since then it’s recently gained international exposure with stories in newspapers from the U.K. to New Zealand.
Humans typically don’t do well when confined to small dark spaces for 30 days and several poker players have called the bet potentially dangerous to Alati’s physical and mental health.
The bet began last month, however, and Alati is close to three weeks into it. By all accounts he’s doing fine but it’s only going to get more difficult from here on out.
No Light, No Drugs, but Plenty of Pop Tarts
Rory Young, who hails from Australia, has since talked in-depth to PokerFives about how the bet came to be in the first place.
Essentially, Young and Alati were seated at a poker table together and conversation turned to how long each player at the table would last in a room of complete darkness. Young offered the bet and Alati took it on the spot.
Young was surprised that Alati took the bet without getting odds and later admitted he wouldn’t have done it for the same figure. He put his price closer to $5 million.
If Alati wins the bet, he will receive $100,000 from Young. If he loses, he owes Young the same amount. The stipulations behind the bet are restrictive and fairly comprehensive:
- No light-emitting devices of any sort
- No drugs
- One bed
- Shower and bathtub
- Toiletries including epson salt, sugar scrubs, soaps and more
- Food from Flower Child (a Las Vegas restaurant)
- Slices of fruit, almond milk, cereal and Pop Tarts in the fridge
Food is delivered to Young but at varying times so he cannot tell how much time has expired.
Interestingly, there is also a private webcam that has been set up for friends and family of Alati to make sure he’s doing all right.
Alati’s friends and family were understandably concerned about his well-being over the course of the bet and in the beginning tried to persuade him not to take part. Alati would not give it up, however, and a webcam was eventually allowed as a compromise.
Young himself is slightly worried about Alati’s health but ultimately doesn’t have ethical hang-ups about the bet.
Incredibly, longtime poker pro and legendary prop better Huck Seed allegedly reached out to Young and said he’d be interested in doing the bet for a bigger payoff with harsher conditions.
Seed wanted a million to do the bet but was willing to do 40 days. The first 20 days of the bet he would forgo a bed and food. Seed also said that Young could add cockroaches to the room.
Other Famous Poker Prop Bets
Bizarre pro bets are essentially a time-honored tradition in the poker world at this point.
Some of the most famous off-the-wall bets include attempting to eat $1,000 worth of McDonald’s food in 36 hours, playing ping pong with frying pans and getting “exiled” to Iowa.
One of the more outlandish bets in recent years included poker-playing brothers Jaime and Matt Staples attempting to weigh the same amount in one year’s time.
It was particularly difficult for the pair because when Jaime started the bet he weighed 305 pounds while Matt was at just 135 pounds. Incredibly, the brothers managed to meet at 188.3 and won $150,000 from businessman Bill Perkins.
Unfortunately for the Staples brothers, they agreed to another bet this year, where they would attempt to get to 9.9 percent body fat in less than a year for a shot at another $150,000. This time around they got 3-1 odds and will potentially lose $50,000 if they can’t achieve sub-10 percent body fat. The bet is not going well thus far.
Another famous recent bet had “Instagram King” Dan Bilzerian biking from his home in Las Vegas to LA. Bilzerian had just 48 hours to complete the trip but managed to do it in 33 hours and won $1.2 million.
Want to win some cash but avoid any of the pain associated with live prop bets? You might want to check out OddsShark’s prop betting guide.
Update: The Alati/Young bet is over. After 20 days Young offered to buy out for $62,400 of the original $100,000 wager. Alati decided decided to take the payout and early release.
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