Many of the most successful poker players in the world got to where they are because they’re truly gamblers at heart. Whether that involves going all-in time and time again in pressurized situations or throwing some money down at casino games, you’d better believe that many professional poker players are pretty loose with their cash. And nowhere does this little fact ring truer than with the prop bets that they make at the table. 

For those who are unfamiliar with prop bets, they’re when two or more people engage in a side bet based on some proposition or outcome. And they seem to be literally everywhere within the poker world! But not all prop bets are created equal and some definitely stand out over others. Here’s a list of the best ones in history.

Best Poker Prop #5: Howard Lederer and the $10,000 cheeseburger

There are many people out there who just have to eat at least one cheeseburger a day. The idea of the hamburger patty slapped in between two buns with a slice of cheese thrown in the middle just makes their mouth water. But poker pro Howard Lederer is definitely not one of these people. In fact, after having gastric bypass surgery, Howard hasn’t touched a cheeseburger since….except for one time. And that time happened to be when David Grey bet Lederer $10,000 that he wouldn’t break his vegan status in order to eat a cheeseburger. Realizing that he could have $10K in his pocket for doing this simple deed, Lederer ended up eating the cheeseburger and pocketing the money.

Best Poker Prop #4: Daniel Negreanu and Patrick Antonius play a “friendly” game of golf.

There’s nothing like going out on a nice day and hitting the golf course with a buddy to play a friendly game. One day Daniel Negreanu and Patrick Antonius decided to do just that, only their idea of a friendly game might make a lot of other people very uncomfortable. That’s because Negreanu and Antonius were playing golf for $20,000 a hole. Over the first half of the 18 hole game, Negreanu was down quite a bit to Antonius but he was able to fight back and bill Patrick for $20K at the end of their golf outing.

Best Poker Prop #3: Huck Seed and the back flip

Some people have virtually no fear of doing anything and when you take this into account, you’d probably come up with somebody capable of doing a standing back flip. Huck Seed does not really fit into this category and, like most of us, had probably never even thought of attempting a standing back flip – especially since he stands 6’7”! But with $10K on the line, he was willing to learn to do one given a two month span to accomplish the feat. And, without any injuries, Seed was able to do the standing back flip and collect his money within the allotted amount of time.

Best Poker Prop #2: Back on the golf course with Erick Lindgren

Professional poker players must really love to throw money around on the Links because our next great poker prop bet is once again a golf wager. And it’s a big golf wager too! It was so big in fact that it took several pro players including Phil Ivey and Gavin Smith to ante up the money. Theses players collectively bet Lindgren $350,000 that he couldn’t shoot four consecutive rounds of golf in the sweltering heat. But that wasn’t all as he also had to carry his own bags, hit from the pro range, and shoot under 100 for all 4 rounds. Sound impossible? Not for Lindgren, who fought off heat exhaustion that occurred due to the 106 degree heat to win the $350K. Lindgren did lose something along the way though in the form of 12 pounds.     

Best Poker Prop #1: Going for a jog with Ted Forrest

Ted Forrest used to be quite the athlete in high school and Mike Svobodny wanted to see if Forrest still possessed any of that athletic prowess. So Svobodny put $7,000 on the table saying Forrest couldn’t run a marathon on the University of Nevada Las Vegas track. Forrest took him up on the bet and set out to accomplish his task in unbearable heat much like Lindgren and his golf challenge. But Ted Forrest would go through even more pain than Lindgren as the track got so hot that the soles of his shoes melted to his feet. He ran the 26 miles and won his $7K but had to go to the hospital afterwards because of his feet injuries.