Tom Hall Worth His Weight in Gold

(Photo: Pokerportal.asia)

It’s not the first time a weight-loss prop bet among poker pros has hit the headlines, but Tom ‘hongkongtom’ Hall’s could see him winning more than his weight in gold if he completes the bet!

Getting 10-1 on his $100k bet sounds like a great deal, but there are some serious restrictions on what Hall can and cannot do as he attempts to drop from 253lbs to 227lbs.

The high-life of the Macau gambler will be out on hold as he will not be allowed to buy bottles of wine – a problem for the noted wine connoisseur. However, as he tweeted this week, if he does somehow lose the 26lbs he will make more per kilo than the cost of gold!

"Somebody pointed out. If I lose 13kg & win $1m that's usd70k a kilo or 1.7x gold per kilo. My excess fat is worth more than gold per KG ??!?”

His Facebook post and subsequent tweet explains the prop bet in more detail.

Do I take this bet? 10-1 on a sizeable sum. I have to drop from 115KG to 103KG, no time limit, but during time... https://t.co/iNFOlwrKiT

— Tom Hall (hongkongtom888) September 28, 2016

It seems like a no-brainer for Hall to take the bet – although so far there’s no mention of who he’s actually betting with – but weight loss bets have been seen before and haven’t always turned out to be quite so simple.

(Photo: Pokerportal.asia)

Mike the Mouth welches

Back in 2010 Mike ‘The Mouth’ Matusow and Justin Smith put up $2million that Ted Forrest couldn’t lose 50lbs in three months. Forrest did, but years later he was still waiting for Matusow to stump up the cash.

Forrest tweeted back in 2014:

"I weigh 180 but I'm light about 1.7 million. Please I am asking you Mike make some type of good faith effort to do the right thing.”

Matusow meanwhile was blaming all sorts of thigs for his refusal or inability to pay, including the collapse of Full Tilt and the fact he was drunk when he made the bet. Not an unusual defense, just ask Vanessa Selbst!

"4 yrs ago me and Ted made a bet,” stated Mike, “and were very drunk when we made it I then told him I don’t want the bet cause I can’t afford to lose."

For ‘hongkongtom’ however, it seems he can’t turn down such a good opportunity to make a million and he has even tweeted the contract!

Bet has been struck. we have fixed the typo and Date in Clause 3. Start Tuesday!! pic.twitter.com/YhsnLKTo2Y

— Tom Hall (@hongkongtom888) September 29, 2016