A Very Interesting Bet

Over the years, I have made lots of proposition bets and have won and lost my share of them. People often ask me about the most interesting bet I have been involved in, and I tell them the story of the "pick the World Series of Poker champion" bet.

In 1998, Mike Sexton offered Bonnie Damiano, Jan Fisher, and me a piece of a bet he had with Erik Seidel. The bet was for $5,000 and required us to select who we thought would win the WSOP. Erik got to pick 10 players who would be considered "neutral," meaning they would belong to neither side. If any of these 10 won, the bet would be a push. I can't remember everyone who was on the neutral list, but I know it included Stu Ungar, Johnny Chan, and T.J. Cloutier. We got to pick the next 60 players, and the rest would be in the field and would belong to Erik.

Every day, the four of us met to review our list. Mike was our guru, as he had the most player knowledge and provided the most input on selection. Daily, we added or deleted names depending on who was playing well at the time, who was happy, who was sad, who was drinking or using drugs, who needed the money, and so on. The final list that we ended up submitting on the day before the championship event looked nothing like the list we had originally put together.

On the day of the championship event, we were a bit dismayed to learn that 350 players had entered (this was more than we expected), which meant that after deducting the 10 neutral players, we had 60 players and Erik had 280 on his side. We weren't feeling too good about our bet.

That year, six players were supposed to make the final table, but something unusual happened. With seven players remaining, Scotty Nguyen knocked out two players on the same hand. Suddenly, we became huge favorites to win the bet, because out of the remaining five players, one (T.J. Cloutier) was on the neutral list, three were on our list (Dewey Weum, Scotty Nguyen, and Lee Salem), and only one was on Erik's field list (Kevin McBride). We couldn't believe how well we had handicapped the event, because, after all, in 1998, Scotty Nguyen was not yet a household name, and very few people would have put Lee Salem and Dewey Weum on their top-60 list in those days (good selections, Mike!). We were already counting the money and celebrating, when all of a sudden, it came down to Scotty Nguyen and Kevin McBride. Kevin could have been a "spoiler," but as most of you know, Scotty became the 1998 world champion, thus making us victorious in our bet. Scotty has since gone on to become one of the best in the world, and would certainly be on everyone's top tournament player list today, but we have to credit Mike Sexton for selecting him in 1998. Anyway, thanks, Scotty, and good job!

Change of subject: As Thanksgiving is here and the holiday season is beginning, I hope we all take time to count our blessings and reflect on the things in our lives for which we should be thankful. I feel very fortunate to be blessed with such great friends and family, good health, a nice home, a wonderful job with the World Poker Tour, many travel opportunities, and a Card Player column, and I am happy to be part of the poker industry. I am grateful to all who have made this possible. Happy holidays!

Now, let's play poker!

Linda is available to host poker events and can be contacted through her website at www.cardplayercruises.com.