Boku87 Challenge

by Bodog Poker | Mar 24 2009

Prop bets are a big part of many professional poker players’ action. Anyone who plays poker for 40-80 hours a week gets bored with the action after a while, so many players look to spice up their day with prop bets. The bets have been part of live poker for decades, and lately they’ve become popular online with the young internet professionals who don’t know what to do with their oversized bankrolls. Tom “durrrr” Dwan recently made a million-dollar challenge to anyone who would play him for a half million head-to-head for 50,000 hands. The latest famous prop bet that has everyone’s attention is online poker pro Thomas "Boku87" Boekhoff’s $100 to $10,000 sit-and-go challenge.

The bet was that Boku87 had to turn $100 into a $10,000 bankroll in 15 days playing only low-limit sit-and-go events. He was taking bets up to $20,000 and would get 3:1 on his money if was able to do it. He started playing $1 tourneys and was able to rise in entry levels as his bankroll grew, but the highest he could play was $16 tourneys. The online poker room set up an escrow account to take bets, which totaled over $36,000, and at 3:1, Boku87 stood to make over $100K.

During the challenge he was filmed playing so there would be no doubt that he didn’t employ anyone to help him. Playing that volume of low limit action was the skill that was put to the test in this prop bet, and Boku87 passed with flying colors. At one point he was filmed playing 51 tables. But most of the action consisted of 30 tables at a time, predominantly in 18 and 45 man SNGs. His ability to handle that level of action over a long consistent time period was an amazing display, and it paid off in a big way after he completed the task in 14 days.

"I thought playing micros would be fun, and I thought most people would underestimate my edge in these games and also underestimate the volume I can put in," Boekhoff said. "So I thought I might make some decent money through this prop bet."

This wasn’t Boekhoff’s first attempt at making a public prop bet. He said he could earn $25,000 in two months back in 2006, but fell short by more than $10,000. Fortunately there wasn’t much money on the line in the prop bet. In a similar challenge Chris “Jesus” Ferguson said that he would win $10,000 from nothing, playing only freerolls until he earned enough to play in bigger stakes games and tournaments. These types of challenges are very popular because they demonstrate that a skilled player can make a good amount of money just by playing low-limit stakes online.

"$100 is something that basically anyone can deposit," Boekhoff said of his own challenge. "I think seeing that it is possible to turn this rather small amount of money into $10k, by just playing low limits in only two weeks, is amazing to a lot of people because it appears as if everyone can do that."

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