Jamie and Matt Staples Take on Bill Perkins' Weight Bet

Bill Perkins made another high stakes prop bet, offering 50-1 on a whim to brothers Jaime and Matt Staples while they were in the Caribbean for Perkins’ Streamboat week on the billionaire’s popular Twitch channel. The brothers stand to win $150,000 if they can get to within one pound of each other in one year.

“We were hanging out after dinner one night on Bill’s patio and fired up the Twitch stream,” Jaime said. “Someone in the chat made a nonchalant comment about Jaime and Matt being the same weight. I read it out loud and Bill threw out 50-1 and I threw Matt a look before I asked how much we could book.”

“We were streaming and a viewer asked what were the odds of them being the same weight in a year,” said Perkins. “That’s when the discussion started and I came up with what I would lay for odds. Jaime was flabbergasted and excited, Matt not so much.”

All three knew it would be an incredible challenge with a 170-pound weight difference between the brothers. “He (Perkins) said $3K and I turned to Matt and said, ‘We have to take this bet.’ So we bet that within one year we have to be within one pound of each other to win $150,000 and only put up $3,000.”

They estimated their weights when they booked bet and only stepped on a scale six days after they booked the bet. “We actually didn’t have a scale there and don’t have one at our house,” Jaime said. He left the Caribbean two days later and traveled back to Vienna. “We went a park to weigh in – I’m at 305 and Matt was 134 lbs.”

The immensity of the challenge wasn’t lost on Jaime. “This is the thing I suck most at in life,” he said. “I’ve struggled throughout my history and developed some really poor habits since I was young kid.”

“So, I have to rewire who I am as a person to figure out how to do this,” he continued. “There’s a lot of motivation, so I believe I can get it done, but for Matt – he’s gonna have to add on a decent amount of weight to make this feasible. I can’t get down to 135 lbs on my frame. We think he’s going to have to bring it up to 175-180 to make it happen.”

Perkins feels that Jaime has the harder challenge of the two. “It’s easier to consume 1,000 calories than reduce it. This is a bet of discipline and Jaime has the least room for error as they plan to meet at around 175.”

The brothers hope that Matt can add 50 pounds of healthy weight while Jaime is cutting and hopes to share it with others. “I intend to blog this on my Youtube channel – tell the whole story and hope that if anyone who wants to get healthier, whether it’s losing or bulking up, I’m going to be an open book this whole process.”

“My first step is I’m going to turn to a central person for advice. I’ve gotten hundred messages from people giving me advice about how to go about doing this,” Jaime said. “I really appreciate the advice but it’s a lot of conflicting information. So, I want to have one, central guiding force in my path for the bet. I’m looking for a celebrity trainer, someone that’s interested in the story, to help me do this.”

Jaime already started a diet in the days before the weigh-in. “I’ve started ketosis, which is a low carbohydrate, almost no sugar diet,” he said. “Which is quick for weight loss, one of the takeaways from ketosis is that you spring back quickly if you fall off the plan, but speed is really important for the bet so I think it’s optimal for what I’m doing.”

He’s had experience with the ketosis diet before, losing 55 pounds during his first year of college. But Jaime also revealed he’s dealing with a double dose of stress – he quit smoking cigarettes two weeks ago.

“For the next month it’s going to be a bit of a struggle. I’ve quit and re-started twice in my life, so I’m familiar with the early process,” he said. “But these are there are my two biggest crutches for me. It’s going to be emotional for me, I’m sure I’m going to be scatter brained. I don’t expect to play my best poker of my life over the next month.”

Perkins shared how he would take on the challenge Jaime has. “I would focus on the weight loss, walking on max incline every day and reducing caloric intake with some weights mixed in as well,” he said. “It takes a religious adherence to what is put in my mouth is a must – the steps are simple, following them is tough.”

“One viewer said Jaime would have been better off betting more money at lower odds and psychology-wise, he is correct,” Perkins added. “Pain avoidance and fear have been shown to be more powerful than potential rewards for most people.”

Jaime intends to fill the month with studying and preparing for SCOOP by getting enough sleep and taking time away from the game. “Hopefully by the start of SCOOP I’ll put myself in a great spot to perform,” he said. “It’s a really important time of the year for me as a poker player.”

Jaime doesn’t have any plans to travel for poker until the PokerStars Championship Sochi series. “The biggest concern for me for as to tripping up will be going out drinking with friends,” he said. “That would be where I would make mistakes, so I’m going to try and stay clean and not put myself in that position.”

“For me there’s no downside. If I fail, then I lost $3,000, I’m embarrassed and the poker world can laugh at me,” said Jaime. “But say I lose like 90 lbs and Matt gains 20 lbs then we fall short of the goal, that’s not a loss. I’ll be in much better shape and it only cost me $3,000. People had something fun to rail on for a year. As long as that happens, we’re good to go.”

“I think people would say Matt’s side is harder, that’s a lot of weight to put on a small frame and really bulk up,” Jaime said. “I think it will take more effort for him but if you look at my history of being terrible at this, I would say it’s pretty close between the two us.”

Jaime shared a photo on their last day in the Caribbean.

Final day of hype on the #Streamboat ! @bp22 @JeffGrossPoker @PokerStaplesPA and I all firing the 1K on Stars. Streaming live soon! pic.twitter.com/MLvFibKvg6

— Jaime Staples (@jaimestaples) March 28, 2017