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You’ve probably
seen some odd things in your life, but when
betting comes into the equation you’ll see
people do some crazy things in search of a
quick payday. With that
in mind, let’s take a look at some of the
weirdest and craziest bets ever documented
in this zany world of ours.
We’ll start with
Brian Zembic, a gambler who generally sticks
to backgammon and blackjack. This
guy has two awesome stories to tell so
we’ll start with the lesser of two evils
which pales in comparison to the second.
Zembic was paid $15,000 to live in a
bathroom for an entire month, a feat he
accomplished with ease. As
odd as that sounds, this is where his story
gets weird. On a $100,000
bet from a friend, Zembic had breast
implants installed that he had to keep for
an entire year. As if
that is not strange enough, Zembic has
elected, on his own free will, to keep the
breasts for no apparent reason. If
anyone wants to actually see these things,
there are clips floating around on the
internet of Zembic’s appearance on “The
Man Show”. Unfortunately,
I saw the clip and now I wish I hadn’t.
Betting on things
like breast implants and bathroom living is
one thing but betting against your own death
is another altogether. Poker
legend Doyle Brunson got wind of an article
written by Mack Rawden that was titled
“100 Most Likely To Die In 2009” where
Brunson was listed at #16 with a 10% chance
of expiring before the year was up.
Always the gambler, Brunson got ahold
of Rawden and arranged a bet where Rawden
put up $1000 at 10-1 odds that said if
Brunson passed then the author of the
article would receive $10,000. The
only good part about his morbid bet is that
the two decided that all winnings would go
to charity no matter who came out on top.
One of the funnier
bets ever made was between retired pitcher
and Twins announcer Bert Blyleven and
then-Twins’ Cy Young winning pitcher Johan
Santana. For no reason in
particular, Blyleven bet Santana that he
couldn’t throw a shutout in that day’s
game against the Mets with the announcer
having to shave his head in the result that
the game’s most dominant pitcher managed
to achieve the shutout. Johan
apparently wanted to win the bet because he
threw a 4-hit shutout with a final score of
9-0 and Blyleven had to shave off the hair.
A fellow by the name
of Matthew Dumbrell may have the award for
the all-time stupidest bet ever made.
He was given solid underdog odds of
1,000,000-to-1 that the world would end
before the year 2000. Now
I have no problem with taking a shot on such
a huge underdog, but how the heck did
Dumbrell expect to get paid if the world
ended?
Things went just as
bad for Matthew Webb, the first man ever to
swim across the English Channel way back in
1875. Webb apparently had
a big head after his achievement and decided
to bet his own life against a $10,000 payday
that he would be able to swim across the
whirlpool at the bottom of Niagara Falls.
With roughly 10,000 people in
attendance for his ground breaking attempt,
Webb made it half way through before he went
under and unfortunately passed away, losing
the bet and his life.
On a cheerier note,
a London man by the name of Ashley Revell
decided that he either needed to double up
his money or start fresh at ground zero so
he sold everything he owned and ventured off
to Las Vegas. He ended up
at the Plaza Hotel with $135,000
accompanying him and put everything he had
earned to that point (including selling his
possessions) on a roulette spin.
Revell chose red and sure enough he
was victorious on his bet, doubled up his
money, and started the next day with double
the net worth.
In a classic story
of a bet backfiring, Andrei Karpov was short
on cash and offered up his wife, Tatiana, as
collateral in a local card game.
Sergei Brodov ended up winning the
hand and when he went to collect his prize,
Karpov’s wife was so angry at him that she
ended up leaving him for Brodov.
Wherever there are
people with money and too much time on their
hands, you can be sure to find more crazy
bets like these in the near future.
Anyone want to bet that there will be
some crazy new bets to replace these in the
next year? Nothing should
surprise anyone after reading this list. |
