Jesse Lonis Makes $1M WSOP Main Event Prop Bet to Win It All
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Reigning GPI Player of the Year and current 2025 frontrunner Jesse Lonis has revealed he’s locked in a $2,000 bet on himself to win the WSOP Main Event at 500-to-1 (+50,000) odds with none other than poker's all-time money list fifth place Mikita Badziakouski.
Lonis announced the wager on X, explaining that if he goes all the way in poker’s biggest tournament, he’ll collect an additional $1 million from the Belarusian pro. “If I lose 2k, I won't remember in a couple of days. If I win the bet, I'll remember the rest of my life," he wrote.
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The Pair Agree to Terms
Speaking to PokerNews, the New Yorker shared how the high-stakes prop bet came together at the PokerGO Studio during last night's $15K event.
“I played the 15K last night and Mikita was at the table,” Lonis said. “We were talking about the 16-to-1 BetOnline was offering, and some of the players asked what I’d realistically book on myself.”
"I just want to be there on Day 5 so he can feel a little pain."
“Mikita asked if I’d take 300 to 1, and I said the lowest I’d go is 500 to 1. He goes, ‘Alright.’ I asked, ‘You want to book it? Want to do a couple thousand for fun?’ He thought about it, and when I went on break, he told me he was in.”
A far cry from the 16-1 (+1,600) available online, the two-time WSOP bracelet winner is currently building a nice stack as of dinner time on Day 2d, holding 120,000 chips (100 BB's), in pursuit of poker's world championship title.
“I just want to give him a sweat,” Lonis laughed. “I just want to be there on Day 5 so he can feel a little pain.”
Reigning Champion Reacts to "Insane" Bet
When it comes to judging the true odds of winning the WSOP Main Event, few are more qualified than the man who actually pulled it off in 2024, Jonathan Tamayo.
Speaking to PokerNews, the reigning champion didn’t mince words when asked for his assessment of the 500 to 1 bet.
“That wager is insane,” Tamayo said. “Unless he has like six starting stacks. Maybe. But I don't know. It's crazy.”
Earlier this week, Tamayo also weighed in on his own chances of a historic repeat and admitted they are vanishingly small.
“I’m definitely not defending this year,” he said. “I looked at my starting stack of 60,000 chips and thought, ‘You have to turn that into just over 600 million to win the Main Event.’ Once you realize that, you understand how absurd it is. But there’s always a shot.”
