The poker world is gearing up for the return of the biggest and most prestigious poker festival in the world, the World Series of Poker (WSOP). The 2019 WSOP takes place from May 28 to July 16 at the Rio in Las Vegas.
While players are salivating at the prospect of getting a slice of the $200 million in prizes to be given away throughout the tournament, another thing that keeps everyone pumped up are the prop bets.
Poker pro Kane Kalas is putting plenty of cash on the line via two different prop bets he booked against fellow player Shaun Deeb and retired poker pro Doyle Brunson.
Kalas was crushing online tournaments before shifting to the live felts. Kalas who has over $1.5 million in live tournament earnings said winning a bracelet is definitely on his bucket list but he’s not in a rush.
Prop Challenge With Shaun Deeb
Kalas is betting 5% of his and Joe McKeehen’s action against Deeb’s belief in 5% of Phil Hellmuth’s chances in the much coveted WSOP Main Event which is scheduled for July. Kalas is pretty confident he’ll win the bet.
Deeb mentioned the prop challenge in a video with Joey Ingram in which both talked about Deeb’s Twitter feud with Daniel Negreanu, comments on the poker mark-up controversy as well as preparations for the upcoming WSOP.
Prop Challenge With Brunson
Doyle Brunson learned about Deeb’s prop bet with Kalas after the latter talked about it on stream. The two-time WSOP Main Event champ then reached out to Kalas saying he also wanted to wager on Hellmuth’s action. It ended up with Kalas booking an entirely separate bet against Brunson.
Under the terms of the prop challenge, Kalas is obliged to pay $50,000 to Brunson if Hellmuth lands in the top 1% of the Main Event field. Kalas will in return pick ten players, valued at $5,000 each, to be paid by Brunson, if they manage to finish in the top 1% of the same event.
Kalas’s Top Ten Choices
In a Twitter post, Kalas unveiled his top ten picks for his prop bet against Brunson. They include, in no particular order, Joe McKeehen, Alex Foxen, Paul Volpe, Justin Bonomo, Jake Schindler, David Peters, Brian Yoon, Adrian Mateos and Ivan Luca. Kalas himself is also part of the list.
Interesting bet vs @TexDolly
— Kane Kalas (@KaneKalas) May 2, 2019
2019 @WSOP #MainEvent
I owe 50K if @phil_hellmuth places top 1%
He owes 5K for each of these ppl in top 1%@Jake__Schindler @dude904 @JustinBonomo @WAFoxen @KaneKalas@paulgees81@NegriinLuca@byoonz @Amadi_17@dpeterspoker17
Which side u like?