Friday’s Hot Clicks: Pro Poker Player Locks Himself in Dark Bathroom for a Month for $100,000 Bet

Is $100,000 enough to get you to spend a month in total darkness?

30 days, no light source whatsoever, $100,000

David Butow/Getty Images

It might shock you to learn that pro poker players will bet on just about anything. There are stories of guys eating $1,000 worth of McDonald’s in 36 hours, running 70 miles on a treadmill in 24 hours and even getting breast implants, all to win some money off their friends and rivals. The latest example might be the most extreme, though. 

An American poker pro named Rich Alati will attempt to spend 30 days locked inside a bathroom in total darkness, with no human contact and no way to tell how much time has passed. If he can do it, he wins $100,000. If he can’t, he owes $100,000. 

The bet was made by an Australian player named Rory Young, who says he posed the idea to Alati within a few days of meeting him at a poker table in Las Vegas. Young asked Alati how long he thought he could spend in total darkness, completely isolated, which he told PocketFives “is one of my go-to questions” when playing a game popular among poker players called Lodden Thinks. People usually say 20 to 25 days, but Alati said 30 and so they made the bet. 

These are the terms, according to PocketFives:

“The conditions are complete darkness, so no electronics, no light-emitting devices, no drugs of any kind,” said Young. “He is allowed any type of food that he wants. He has a bed in there, he has a shower and a bathtub. He has pretty lavish toiletries like Epsom salts, sugar scrubs, that kind of stuff.”

Along with food from Flower Child (a Las Vegas restaurant), some sliced fruit, almond milk, cereal, and Pop Tarts he has in his fridge, meals are being delivered to Alati during the 30 days, but not on a regular basis so as not to give him any indication as to how much time has passed.

“Food is delivered every three to six days and we’ve randomized what days it’ll be delivered and we’ll drop off six days worth of food so he doesn’t know how long it’s been,” said Young. “It could be three days, it could be six days. He’ll have no idea of how long it’s been, so no watches or clocks or things like that.”

There are five night-vision cameras broadcasting around the clock and the only privacy Alati gets is when he’s in the shower or the toilet cubicle. Alati’s family and a few select others have access to the feed.

That’s some real horror movie stuff, especially when you hear how gleeful Young is about the whole thing. 

“For me, this is the bet of a lifetime,” Young told Poker News.

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