Tony G, has a reputation for being a smart-mouthed poker player, whether he plays online or off. He is the player who drove up the bidding on Peter Eastgate's WSOP Main Event bracelet, when it was sold on eBay to raise funds for Unicef. He caught people's interest when he said he would buy it to make his dog a collar. However, he was out-bid and by his own admission, also out-of-his league. He does have a huge reputation for speaking his mind, and we believe that much of this is his own way of creating PR, Tony G. is certainly not publicity-shy.

He seems to have not been as controversial since the Peter Eastgate eBay auction. Although, he has been considering suing the Alderney Gambling Control Commission for the way in which they handled the FTP fiasco. Now he is making poker news again, by taking a proposition bet on himself to cash in the recent World Series of Poker Europe Main Event. The reason why it's making news is because he won! He took a bet at 5 - 1 for $20 000. So, not only did he cash in the event to the tune of $37 000, despite being short-stacked, he also lucked out on the prop bet and was paid $100 grand.

Sit around the poker table or your computer for long enough and even poker starts to get just a bit tedious. Hence the reason why poker players have reputations for taking prop bets. Something off-the-wall will come up in conversation; one player says 'impossible' the others say 'let's put our money where our mouths are'. This is the birth of a prop bet, and boy have there been some high-stakes doozies! The challenges are outlandish, even disturbing to say the least, and the wagers are titanic in many instances. This Tony G. foray into proposition betting is tame compared to some!

Brian Zembic's breast implants for example, he won, but this is what creepy nightmares are made of. In the case of Doyle Brunson; this is a much more reasonable example. Over the years this poker playing stalwart has lost hundreds of thousands of dollars and very little weight. He is always being prop bet that he cannot shed the pounds. Eventually a consortium of players offered him 10-1 on $100 000; the pot was too rich for him to resist. So he went the Atkins and Weight Watchers route, lost the pounds and won $1 million. All he had to do was drop below 300lbs?

John Hennigan made a six-figure wager that he could spend six weeks living in Des Moines; sans casinos - he lost, he lasted two days. David Grey bet vegetarian Howard Lederer $10,000 that he could not eat a cheeseburger. Lederer said he could and did. Lederer returned the favor and wagered Grey could not eat olives, Lederer was right and doubled his money.

As you can see, despite the publicity, Tony G's bet on himself for the WSOPE is tame compared to what some guys get up to. There are also many more interesting stories.