“Can you imagine a buff Shaun Deeb showing up at the table?” – Bill Perkins
Is the poker world ready for a ripped Shaun Deeb?
Well, Deeb, the 2018 WSOP Player of the Year and five-time gold bracelet winner, is planning on giving it his best shot after being the latest poker pro to book a body fat percentage prop bet against the king of weight loss bets, Bill Perkins.
The deal, which was agreed to over Twitter on Tuesday, has Deeb putting up $100,000 to Perkins $1 million (10:1) with a goal of getting Deeb down to 17% body fat in 14 months.
The conversation first got started after Deeb’s close friend, poker pro Josh Arieh, posted a video of Deeb snacking on some chicken strips while battling in the $1,700 Main Event of the WSOP Circuit in New York. The good news for Deeb was, he not only won that tournament – taking home the $275,916 first-place prize – but the video sparked the conversation about what it would take for Deeb to take getting into shape seriously.
Enter Bill Perkins. Perkins, a professional trader and high-stakes poker reg/enthusiast has been known to offer wagers in order for fellow poker players to get in better shape. The most recent example was his $200k body fat percentage bet with Doug Polk (which Polk narrowly missed out on winning.)
Before the details were finalized, Perkins was a guest on the Only Friends Podcast and spoke about Deeb and whether he thinks Deeb would have a shot at winning such a bet.
“I think he could benefit and I think 14 months though…I think he can do it. Just do the straight math on calories and what you can burn in 14 months, it’s not really that painful of a race,” he said. “There’s definitely going to be pain, right? Because you are changing habits and behaviors which is always painful.”
“But there’s glory on the other side. There’s happiness. There’s fulfillment,” Perkins continued. “So I just laid him a really big price. I think he can do it. And I think he could get close and fail but I think he wins no matter what.”
Soon after, the negotiations were complete and the bet was booked. Deeb, who according to him first weighed in at 306 lbs, has one year to get to 17% body fat and if he does it he’ll be a million dollars richer.