Esfandiari Wins Lunge Prop Bet With Perkins

When he’s not competing at the poker tables, Antonio Esfandiari likes nothing better than accepting prop bets offered to him by his friend and American hedge fund manager Bill Perkins. Past wagers include not eating bread for a year, which would have earned him $150,000 had he not bought out of the bet for $5,000 just 90 minutes later. Esfandiari even agreed to not have sex or any type of release for one year for $500,000, only to back out for an undisclosed sum nine days later.
While Perkins seems to be winning the battle of the prop bets, Esfandiari obviously started 2016 with high hopes of scoring a precious victory against his pal after agreeing to lunge everywhere for 48 hours in return for a “massive” $50,000 bet. The wager started on January 8th, but soon after Esfandiari realized he had underestimated the difficulty of lurching everywhere one knee at a time.
The wager even coincided with Esfandiari taking part in the 2016 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure $5,300 Main Event, which did not end at all well for the 3-times WSOP bracelet winner. During the tournament, Esfandiari needed to urinate, but rather than lunge all the way to the toilets, he decided instead to pee into a bottle, and as he later explained:
“My legs are on fire. What I didn’t realize is that, after all the lunges it took to get here, my legs would feel like putty. I literally couldn’t move. I wasn’t prepared to lose the bet, so I did what I had to do.”
Unfortunately for Esfandiari, his actions were deemed as a “breach of etiquette”, and the 37 year-old pro was subsequently disqualified from the tournament. It was not all bad news for Esfandiari, though, and after lunging away from the table he apparently went on to complete his challenge and win his bet with Perkins. Meanwhile, Esfandiari has apologized profusely for his behavior, and as he later tweeted:
“WHAT a day.Some highs,definitely some lows,but in the end my bet w @bp22 is over. A lot of lessons learned tdy. A LOT. #PerkeeGotTheBEstOfMe”