70 Miles, 24 Hours, $1 Million

By Pauly
Los Angeles, CA


Can you run 70 miles in 24 hours?

I couldn't do 7, but what if you had plenty of incentive, for example, what if you lost $1 million if you didn't run 70 miles in 24 hours.

The human body can do wondrous things. Poker players often do bizarre things. When you add the two together, you're flirting between absurdity and extreme moral hazard.

In 2007, Erick Lindgren played 4 rounds of golf in Las Vegas and shot under 100 each game. Last summer, Phil Laak played 115 straight hours of poker at the Bellagio. And last weekend, Ashton Griffin ran 70 miles in a 24 hour period during one of the most insane prop bets I've heard about. Kids don't try that at home.

I've heard about a few prop bets that I wish happened, but didn't...

1. My girlfriend offered me $2,000 to sit through the entire Sex in the City movie (credits included), but I politely declined. I should have said yes and shot an angle, like seeing it on mescaline, but looking back I'm pretty sure I considered mescaline and other psychedelics as an option, but probably came to the conclusion that there were so many other cooler things that I'd rather do on mescaline, and a Sex in the City movie wasn't one of them.

2. I offered an uber-stoner friend of mine $6,000 to stop smoking weed for a month. He knew he couldn't do it, so he never took me up on it.

3. John Caldwell has had a goatee for most of his adult life. Hootie & the Blowfish offered him a chunk of change (in excess of at least one WSOP Main Event buy-in) to shave it and he said, "No."

I've also lost money prop betting against friends. I'm not so proud of a couple of wagers (Keno crayons, the "tinny" water) and wouldn't do them again.

The stupidest thing that I did to win a prop bet? I held my hand in an ice cooler for over five minutes. I risked losing a finger or two for $100. One friend summed it up best as a... "Battle of Dumb."

With that said, if you haven't read about The Million Dollar Bet... then I suggest that you set aside 15-20 minutes of your time to read it.

The Million Dollar Bet - Part 1
The Million Dollar Bet - Part 2