Approximately two weeks ago, poker superstar Sorel Mizzi announced via twitter that he had laid a 3:1 bet for $10k that he could swim from Ipanema Beach (Rio, Brazil) to one of the islands about 5km away.
Mizzi asked his followers on twitter for training advice after the annoucement: "anyone have any insight / training advice ? I use to swim quite a bit when I was a kid but haven't swam in a while and a bit out of shape."
Many were skeptical that he would make it due to under currents, waves, rising tides; jellyfish and sharks. Some of his friends/followers were worried about his life, including Team PokerStars Pro Liv Boeree who tweeted, "Omg Sorel please take a support boat. For real."
Liv Boeree and other worried friends were probably a bit relieved when he made it clear that a support boat would be following him all the way. He tweeted, "Will be a support boat if I touch bet is over and I lose."
So, how did it go?
On Friday, 24 May he successfully completed the 5km swim to win the bet. However, it was very close that he didn't make it as strong under currents kept pulling him away from the island with only 5-600 meters to go. After touching the rock of the island after over 4 hours of swimming, he screamed to the people in the life boat to pick him up. In other words, it was a close call!
