Fifty50 Poker Specialist Wins Prop Bet After Shaky Start

A poker pro from the Czech Republic has just succeeded in a prop bet that required him to play in 24,000 Fifty50 SitnGos (SnGs) throughout the month of October and turn a profit, rakeback not included.
Martin “phasE89“ Balaz, 22, is a Fifty50 or ‘double-or-nothing’ tourneys specialist, as well as one of the most successful players at this format in the world.
However,because of the huge volume of games he was profitably required to play, Martin Balaz found no trouble getting takers for his $4,500 proposition bet at odds of  3 to 1.
Winning the bet would earn him a potential $13,500, and so playing up to 50 SnGs at a time at stakes of between $15 and $200, Balaz began his quest in earnest on October 1st at PokerStars.
“Usually I woke up at 10:00 a.m., took a shower, got some breakfast and read the news on the Internet. At about 11:00 a.m. I went shopping and when I came back home I began to grind. I played three to four sessions a day of three to five hours. I was eating light food regularly, drinking mostly water and from time to time some energy drinks. I went to bed at 4:00 a.m. I believe that the regular schedule is the key for these kinds of challenges,” explained Balaz.
Unfortunately for Martin Balaz, he got off to the worst possible start after suffering a horrendous downswing followed by technical problems with his computer, and then a spell of sickness. Thus by October 22nd, he was down by about $16,000, and could already hear his detractors prematurely celebrating.
Nonetheless, in the last week of the month Martin “phasE89“ Balaz miracalously managed to turn his fortunes around and went from being $16,000 behind to almost $3,000 in profit, with a total of 24,035 tournaments played.
All told, not only did Balaz win $2,898 playing the Fifty50’s, he also collected his $13,500 prop bet, as well as a further $25,299 in rakeback (46%) for having attained PokerStars 600k milestone status
After a shaky start, all’s well that ends well for the Czech pro, who said he is now considering a 36,000 Fifty50 SnG challenge for 2012. Reflecting on his recent challenge, Balaz said:
“I always liked prop bet challenges. I like to show to other people what is possible when you are truly motivated.”