Bill Perkins one year ago. Doug Polk narrowly lost $200,000. He admitted on Thursday that he came close to winning.

The bet, which began on February 11, 2022, did not have a lot of terms and conditions. The founder of Upswing Poker must lose at least 50% of his body fat by 1:30 p.m. CT on February 10, 2023, dropping from around 28% body fat to 13.85%, or else he will lose. He could follow whatever diet and exercise plan he wanted.

He was down to 15.1% body fat at the challenge’s conclusion, just 1.3% body fat away from winning. Instead, he loses $200,000 to avid prop bettor Perkins.

Early Mistakes in Prop Bets World Series of Poker bracelet winner to learn more about how he managed to win a six-figure prop bet and improve his health over the past year. He did the latter, but he was unsuccessful in the former.

According to Polk, “I was primarily planning on trying to build up some muscle, but not super focused on losing weight” for the first five or so months.

Polk explained that he was not making any progress during those first few months. He was actually going backwards and needed to reevaluate. “A lot of people (paid to help me trim body fat) that either didn’t know what they were doing or were just trying to keep their job” were hired by the owner of The Lodge Card Club in Austin, Texas.

He claimed that six weeks into the challenge, a nutritionist attempted to persuade him that he was making progress despite having increased his body fat. So, he had to make some changes, one of which was getting rid of his personal trainer and nutritionist, or he wouldn’t be able to do it.

I came to the conclusion that I had to take control of the situation. Therefore, I fired everyone on my own, Polk stated. Since August, my advancement has been great. I’ve just been losing weight month after month.

Poker Star turns it around

At around that time, Perkins suggested another mentor who was useful in Polk’s change. Since then, he has been working out and eating healthy by lifting weights early in the morning five to six times per week, doing some cardio, and eating six small meals per day that only contain about 1,800 calories. He would increase that to 2,300 calories once every fourth day.

The heads-up poker star eventually succumbed to the effects of eating only a few egg whites and some raspberries for breakfast, followed by equally small meals throughout the day that consisted of rice, fruit, and grilled chicken.

According to Polk, “the number one problem I’ve had is I can’t sleep when I’m on a big caloric deficit.”

According to Polk, he noticed that there was a misperception regarding the kind of prop bet Polk entered from social media comments. This was not a bet on losing weight. Truth be told, Polk might have possibly put on weight during the test yet won had he supplanted muscle to fat ratio with bulk. However, he has lost approximately 30 pure pounds since the challenge began one year ago.

A DEXA scan, which measures body composition such as body fat and muscle mass, was performed on him three weeks ago. He had lost 39% of his body fat since the beginning of the challenge, according to the results, which showed 17.2% body fat. In any case, he actually had a critical work to be finished to get to precisely 13.85% muscle versus fat to win the prop bet.

In the latter stages of the challenge, Polk would encounter some challenges, the most significant of which was becoming a father for the first time. Kaitlin Polk, the wife of the Texas poker room owner, gave birth to Otis Douglas Polk on January 27, roughly two weeks after the prop bet ended. What’s more, he attempted to get to the exercise center and eat appropriately during a huge ice storm that hit Austin last week.

“Change my initial strategy” is what Polk would do if he could do it over again. However, “because I have the fundamentals in place now,” he does not believe it is likely that he will return to his previous fitness and diet routines.

In spite of the fact that he discovered that betting against a College of Iowa graduate, for example, Perkins isn’t normally a triumphant recommendation, he doesn’t think of it as a total disappointment.