Top 10 weird bets
1. Poker face
A contender for the strangest ever ‘poker’ game came in 1784 in Spalding, Lincolnshire, when a man in a local inn bet his fellow drinkers that he could carry a red-hot poker between his teeth as far as the obelisk in the market place and back again.
According to the Leeds Intelligencer of June 1784, the man won his bet – but died “in great agonies” the following day.
2. Man boobsDuring the late 1990s Canadian gambler Brian Zembic won a $100,000 bet with a professional backgammon player by having breast implants, which he had to leave in place for one year.
The false breasts cost Zembic $4,000 while the operation confined him to his bed for a fortnight.
3. Look – no hands
Irish poker player Nicky Power once won a no-limit Texas Hold’em pot despite having no cards in his hand.
Sitting in the big blind position, Power went all-in after the player on the small blind raised and all the other players had folded. He then realised the dealer had swept all his cards into the muck with the folded hands.
Fortunately his opponent hadn’t noticed and folded, leaving Power to win the pot.
4. Sleeping aroundIn 1994 a Baltimore, Maryland, man called Ray Ladwell won a $1 million bet by sleeping with a different woman every day for a year.
The 39-year-old celebrated by taking a round-the-world holiday – alone.
5. No peekingNorwegian poker star Annette Obrestad once won a 180-player sit-and-go internet tournament without once looking at her cards.
Obrestad, the first woman to win a World Series of Poker main event, played the sit-and-go according to table position and her reading of her online opponents – and won the tournament.
6. Put your house on itWycombe man Chris Boyd sold his house in 1994 and took the proceeds to Las Vegas. He bet the lot on one turn of the roulette wheel, staking everything on red.
The ball landed in red, and Boyd came straight home, having doubled his money.
7. Clocking inIn 1992 pub landlord Richard Connolly celebrated his 23rd birthday on 23rd September by staking £23 on number 23 at 23 minutes past 11pm – or 23:23 – at an Isle of Man casino. The number came up, winning Connolly £805.
A similar occurrence came in 1995 when Robert Edge turned 24. He bet £24 on number 24 at 24 minutes past midnight (or the 24th hour) and won £840.
8. Bookies’ runnerDavid Bedford – a man who would later claim to be the inspiration for TV advertising’s 118 runners – once bet someone £250 that he could run the London marathon.
Not such a strange bet, perhaps, seeing as Bedford was one of the UK’s best-known long-distance runners at the time – except the bet was struck in a Luton nightclub while Bedford was drunk, and the race was later that day.
Bedford completed the race despite throwing up en route – but never saw the man he’d bet with again.
9. Medium goes largeClairvoyant Francine Hodges once bet £50 at odds of 25/1 that she would lose six stone within six months.
After the six months had passed, it was found that the 16st 13lb medium had actually put weight on.
10. Water versus wineIn 1814 two London gentlemen placed a bet on which of them would win a drinking contest in which one of them drank only wine and the other drank only water.
Perhaps surprisingly, the wine drinker won the bet, while the water drinker became ill with gout and was confined to bed.
