American poker pro Kane Kalas who last year captured the biggest-ever televised cash game pot in history is excited to play at the 50th World Series of Poker (WSOP) which is just around the corner. Kalas wants to check an item off his bucket list and that is to win a WSOP gold bracelet.
But that’s not all that Kalas has on his mind at the 2019 WSOP. He has decided to add to the excitement by engaging in two prop bets: one with four-time WSOP winner Shaun Deeb, the other with Poker Hall of Fame inductee Doyle Brunson. The 50th WSOP returns at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas on May 28 – July 16.
Prop Bet With Shaun Deeb
Last year, Kalas won a record breaking $2 million in a televised cash game, defeating his opponent Jason Koon who is one of the top high rollers in the game. Now, Kalas is willing to bet a combined 5% of his action and another 2.5 percent of Joe McKeehen’s action during this year’s WSOP Main Event. He is putting this up against Deeb’s backing of 5% of Phil Hellmuth’s action. Deeb talked about the prop bet, alongside his recent Twitter clash with Daniel Negreanu in a YouTube video uploaded by poker vlogger Joey Ingram.
Kalas is pretty confident that he can walk away with a win against Shaun Deeb.
Prop Bet With Doyle Brunson
After Kalas’s prop bet with Deeb had been announced via a live stream, poker veteran and hall of famer Doyle Brunson wanted to get in on the challenge. This resulted in both him and Kalas making a separate agreement.
Kalas will owe Brunson $50,000 if Hellmuth places in the top 1% of the Main Event field. In exchange, Kalas will choose ten players and Brunson will pay him $5,000 for each player who finishes in the top 1% of the field.
Phil Hellmuth is among the most accomplished players when it comes to the WSOP. He won a record 15 bracelets and has the most WSOP cashes and the most WSOP final tables. Kalas recognizes Hellmuth’s tremendous success at the world’s longest-running poker festival but believes he has better odds of winning since the Poker Brat misses most of Day 1 since he usually registers on the second day.
Kalas Pick Of Top 10 Players
Picking the 10 best players was a difficult task for Kalas as there is a lot of money at stake for him. as he wanted to include other great players on the list if only he was allowed to do so. Kalas has picked a number of top poker pros in his top 10 list including Justin Bonomo who is ranked number 1 on the Hendon Mob’s All Time Money list.
Some of the other players he selected include Paul Volpe and Alex Foxen, Brian Yoon, David Peters, Adrian Mateos, Joe McKeehen, and Kalas himself.
The poker pro is a bit disappointed that he could not choose more poker players as he wanted to get Christoph Vogelsang and Timothy Adams on his team. However, he wasn’t able to as Doyle Brunson limited his player selection to only 10.
Kalas Looking To Make A Mark At WSOP
Before taking part in live tournaments, Kalas was an online crusher. His main goal now is to take his online poker success and convert it at the live poker tables. There is no better place for him to do it at the 2019 WSOP. However, he is not putting himself under any pressure as he is young and realizes that he has a lot of opportunities before him. While winning a WSOP gold bracelet is a big dream for him, he is more keen no making his mark by winning the WSOP Main Event.
The prop bets with Brunson and Deeb will add to the excitement and in some ways help to release the stress that comes with playing at a high profile event like the WSOP. Kalas has already made attention with his WSOP prop bets and a win at the WSOP in any event will help build his brand.