Prop Bets

I've never messed with prop bets, but I see the pros doing
it all the time on thing that look like chance or luck.
Are they so skilled at poker that they need an outlet for gambling?
Do you prop bet? On what? What % made compared to poker winning?

i good one when i play homegames is red or black flop for 2BB every hand. you pick one and whichever colour has the most on the flop wins.

other than that, i just prop bet w mates how many hands i can play in x amount of time

Most of the time when you see pros doing it they're just doing it because they're degenerates and they're happy to bet on anything.

You'll find pretty much all of them bet on stuff other than poker anyway, be it sports, table games, throwing things or whatever.

If you're talking about the card-based props at the table (predominant suit or colour on the flop etc) then most of those bets are zero-EV and it's just the players passing time. They wouldn't be doing that with the expectation of really making money.

Other ones (say, the weight loss ones or going vegan for a year or shooting four rounds of golf under 72 or winning X bracelets or whatever) they probably make because both parties thing they have an edge and those are the ones people can make some serious money on - for example, Phil Ivey apparently didn't claim the prize money from one of his 2010 bracelet wins from the Rio cage for weeks after the tournament, because the amount he won (a few hundred thousand) was so small compared to the what he won from other players in side bets on whether or not he'd win a bracelet.

The main dealer at my local poker club plays the following side games with players.

Red/Black board (all 5 only), $5 - suited $10, you can pay the Bad Beat $1 to run out a board

Pick a card (he always has 4's with 4 spades money card) $1 per card with a flop multiplier so that if flop is double (ie 44x) it's $4 and triple it's $9 and if it's the money card it's +$4 but if you don't call your card before the next turn it's 'Insecticide' and you lose

Black Jack - you muck preflop and your cards total 10 or 11 and you play each card on the board, 18+ you win $1, river is $2 - for example , I muck 83o, I tell the dealer 'Your Ace' since an Ace won't help me, flop is KQA I'm up $1 since the K & Q give me 21 each for $2 and the A gives me 12 so dealer get $1.

The club doesn't allow side games between players as it slows the game down too much. The dealer does a great job of not letting his side games effect the pace of play.

I'm not into gambling away my money that I win while playing poker. Some may say, " Hey but isn't poker gambling?". In my opinion the skill in poker outweighs the gamble so my answer would be no.

I have to agree with OzExorcist. After watching pro's on t.v. bet on anything and everything I came to the conclusion that most of them are degenerates.


I have however seen a couple players that refused to get in on prop bets during cash games even when they were being harassed by the entire table.
One of them being Chris Ferguson. He refused to play seven deuces prop bet and when confronted with the size of his bankroll he replied,"yes I wanna keep it that way".


That's how I look at it. I play poker for fun and to make money. I don't wanna lose it all gambling on dumb shit.

BigCountryAA said:

I have however seen a couple players that refused to get in on prop bets during cash games even when they were being harassed by the entire table.
One of them being Chris Ferguson. He refused to play seven deuces prop bet and when confronted with the size of his bankroll he replied,"yes I wanna keep it that way".


That's how I look at it. I play poker for fun and to make money. I don't wanna lose it all gambling on dumb shit.

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Barry Greenstein actually put forward an interesting perspective on this in his book - he suggested that sometimes, even if it's something you wouldn't normally do, it's a good thing to participate in those kind of bets in the interest of keeping the loose / loosing players at the table. If you show through participation in their side or prop bets that you're willing to gamble with them, then there's a good chance they're more likely to be willing to play with you and pay you off during real hands.

Obviously you don't want to be taking wildly -EV bets on that basis but if it's something that's pretty harmless (like 0EV bets on the predominant colour of the flop, or a small bounty on the seven-deuce game, which can actually work in the favour of tight players) then it might be worth reconsidering.