Ivey and Dwan’s Vegetarian Bet Highlights High Stakes Poker$1 Million Bet Booked on Ivey’s Ability to Stay Away From Meat |
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Poker once again took a bit of a backseat on Sunday night’s episode of High Stakes Poker, as the most interesting development was a proposed — and eventually accepted — prop bet between Phil Ivey and Tom Dwan.
After a few minutes of discussion and negotiating the terms, Ivey accepted Dwan’s challenge on the show that he couldn’t eat any meat (including fish) for one year for $1 million.
“I’m going to become a vegetarian for a year for a million dollars,” Ivey declared to HSP’s cohost, Kara Scott. “I was thinking about doing it for a while, so this is kind of like an added incentive.”
The episode was filmed just days after Ivey finished seventh at the WSOP main event final table, losing out not only on a $8.5 million first-place prize, but millions in side bets — including $1 million from Dwan, himself.
“I’m used to having million-dollar sweats with you,” Dwan reasoned.
Ivey was pretty deferential during the episode, when he was trying to get Dwan to wager up to $2 million in order to provide a greater incentive for him to indeed give up all meat for 365 days.
“I’m gonna lose. I know I’m gonna lose,” Ivey said at the table. Afterward, in his interview with Scott, he was much more confident. “(Dwan) thinks he’s stealing right now. He thinks I have no shot … He’ll learn the hard way.”
It seems doubtful that the bet will ever make the one-year mark. Dwan reportedly mentioned to Sammy George during the Million Dollar Challenge in Europe that Ivey was already trying to buy out of the bet.
In terms of poker, no player stood out more in this episode than Italian pro Dario Minieri. The young phenom was fearless and correctly read Gus Hansen as weak when he five-bet all in preflop with just A-9. Hansen, who had been playing relatively tight compared to his image, seemed flustered that his four-bet with A-8 failed as he threw his cards into the muck.
Minieri has three-bet frequently this season, including once in the most recent episode when Antonio Esfandiari opened from the cutoff with a raise with 5-4. Minieri was surprisingly bluffing with the best hand when he three-bet with 8-3, but he was forced to relinquish it when Esfandiari re-popped it.
Minieri seemed to be legitimately pondering a five-bet with his modest holdings, but eventually let it go.
After Phil Hellmuth was felted early in the first episode and Andreas Hoivold fell in the second, High Stakes Poker has now seen two straight episodes where everyone has survived (although Daniel Negreanu needed a fortunate river card against Dwan to make it through episode three). However, the preview for next episode promises that an absurd four players will go broke next week.
Be sure to check back to CardPlayer.com for a recap of the action.
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