With cards going into the air for the first two gold bracelet events of the 2024 World Series of Poker on Tuesday, there’s an excitement in the air. For poker players making the trip to Las Vegas, the potential is infinite and confidence is high. For most, the action at the table is reason enough to get out of bed with an extra bounce in their step, but a little bit of extra motivation and pressure can help push them just a little bit hard.
That’s the position Jeremy Becker and Landon Tice have put themselves in with a highly publicized crossbook bet of their entire summer’s worth of action. In every tournament each of them play over the next seven-plus weeks (with one notable exception for Tice), their opponent is on the hook for whatever amount they profit in any given tournament up to $250,000.
“With the crossbook and the way that we’ve finalized it, it’s become a summer versus summer bet,” Tice said back in April, while playing WPT Voyage. “It doesn’t have to be mutual events, and it’s anything $10K and under is just crossbooked at 100%. So whatever JBex plays, it’s crossbooked 100%. If it’s dailies, if it’s a $5K, it’s all the same. And if I’m playing a $10K 6-Max, a $3,500 or even a daily myself, that’s gonna be crossbook 100% capped to $250K.”
This battle between up-and-coming pros originated with Daniel Negreanu dangling out a carrot by Tweeting a list of potential heads-up bets for the summer between players with commonality. One of the matchups on that list pitted Tice, an analytically-focused player with a lot of online poker experience, against Tice, who made a name for himself by grinding out a tremendous volume of success in low buy-in tournaments including a famous run of six victories in daily tournaments at Wynn Las Vegas.
Tice took the bait, and thus discussions of a bet began. With the support of his mentor and OnlyFriends podcast co-host Matt Berkey, terms were agreed upon. On Becker’s side, Negreanu carries all of the action and the risk. Tice booked his own side of the bet, but Becker has reason to believe Berkey has at least some of Tice’s action.
And as if the bet wasn’t big enough, Berkey even went so far as to book additional action with outside parties, some of whom allegedly gave him a better than even money price on Tice’s side of the bet.
Becker immediately jumped into event No. 1 on the 2024 WSOP schedule, a $5K No Limit Hold’em tournament with bounties on WSOP Main Event champions. But Tice finds himself at a slight disadvantage in terms of his ability to play events covered in the bet over the next two days, though it’s for a very good reason. That’s because on Wednesday, Tice will be playing for almost $840,000 and his first major title at the delayed final table of the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown.
While whatever prize Tice wins at HyperX Arena at Luxor won’t count towards his bet with Becker, it could give him a boatload of confidence and momentum as well as the potential for a deeper bankroll to take more shots at bigger buy-in events as the summer goes on.
Becker has plenty of reason to like where he’s at heading into the summer as well. He recorded a career-best tournament cash in a side event during the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown, and as he’s taken more shots at bigger buy-in events Becker has found successes with multiple PokerGO Tour final table appearances.
He’s been working hard to try to make sure that he takes advantage of a potentially life-changing opportunity this summer. And despite his comfortability and success with smaller buy-ins and daily tournament formats, Becker doesn’t want to win the bet by nickle-and-diming it.
“If I wanted, I could just play a daily every day and try to win it like that,” said Becker. “But I’m actually going to go for the glory. I’m going to try to play the bigger stuff. And if I do bust out during the day, and registration is closed, then sure, you might see me in a daily at night – but the plan really is just to play big stuff.”
“He has ‘it,’ and he just loves to grind,” Negreanu said of Becker. “He just needs to keep doing what he is doing, and he is in for some big scores this summer,” said Negreanu. After backing Becker last summer, and seeing it pay off with a deep run in the 2023 WSOP Main Event, Negreanu is throwing even more resources and energy behind his young protege.
Both players have been working intently on their games in the leadup to the summer in their own way. As noted by online poker standout and streamer Patrick Leonard, Tice has been putting up results in the online realm as well in the leadup to his WPT final table.
Each side of this bet loves where they’re at, and despite the potential of a massive financial swing in either direction, each party is excited to see how everything plays out when Tice and Becker start putting together runs inside Horseshoe Las Vegas.
It’s all about maximizing the action and excitement, and even as the bet has generated significant buzz beyond the small circle of players involved, when the dust (and the bet) are settled, it seems unlikely that there will be lingering hard feelings. Tice literally owns Negreanu’s old car already, so it seems likely that the transaction at the end of the summer should be fairly breezy.
“There’s no beef between JBex or Daniel and I, he just kind of has his stance, I have my stance and we’re both just trying to make each other pay. But at the end of the day, it’s all fun.”