Brian Rast endured and prevailed his prop bet bike ride starting from Las Vegas to Los Angeles, but those who strictly tuned in would say that it was a close call. Halfway through the 48-hour allotted deadline, because of the high winds and without the help of a drafting van, Rast was not yet even at the mid-way point near Barstow, CA.
However, on the final day, with his strong will and the aid of the painkiller Vicodin, he triumphed over his bad back pain and reached Los Angeles with merely an hour to spare. With that, Rast clearly won $600,000 from high stakes gamblers Dan Bilzerian and Bill Perkins.
Brian Rast put up only $100,000 of his own cash against $600,000 laid out by both Dan Bilzerian and Bill Perkins, which gave him 6-to-1 odds on his biking challenge with just 3 days of training.
It has now been done three times. The ones who completed the grueling Vegas-to-LA bike journey were: Samantha Abernathy (won $10,000 from Dan), Dan Bilzerian (won $600,000 from Bill), and now Brian Rast (won $600,000 from both Dan and Bill).
Even though Rast hardly ever got any training for a 320-mile bike ride, he was somewhat in the in the best top-shape of his life since last December, he had training for a boxing match against Sorel Mizzi. Mizzi won the match, but everything went well because the two raised money for a Swiss charity organization called Raising for Effective Giving (REG).
Rast left the "Welcome to Las Vegas" sign at 7:32pm on April 25 (Monday). That Monday evening, he braved rigorous winds and only took a break after just 60 miles (in 7 hours).
On Tuesday, he pressed on through more tough winds as he tried to rendezvous with Bill Perkins' caravan in Barstow, where he took another break and bunked for a couple of hours before resuming his ride with over 150 miles more to cover. Rast said, "The beginning of the first night was super hairy. I was very worried. I knew that if the head wind did not die down, then I wouldn't be able to do it."
On Wednesday morning, Bill Perkins posted on his Twitter feed that Rast is located outside Palmdale, CA, which meant that he took the somewhat easier yet longer route to avoid going through the hard-to-navigate Cajon Pass. The remaining 60+ miles from Palmdale into the Los Angeles city limits was basically downhill.
With an hour to spare and definitely exhausted, Rast successfully completed the journey around 6:30pm local time. He collapses at the finish line, admitted that he experienced a mild panic attack 20 miles before reaching his goal, and that he was in serious pain, mostly from butt burn due to sitting too long. He also suffered severe back pains due to hunching over the handlebars - clearly a result of just 3 days of training.
When asked what made him push through, he shouted, "Hydrocodone!" (the generic name of the painkiller Vicodin)
Rast explained, "I was having a problem staying seated with the saddle sores. I brought hydrocodone. My legs could handle it... but I was having a big problem staying in the biking position because of my back (pain)... Hydrocodone!"
Source: http://www.cardplayer.com/poker-news/20288-poker-pro-brian-rast-wins-600k-in-biking-prop-bet
