| Prop betting is short for "proposition" betting, and it is | | | | poker. International television networks broadcast |
| exactly that - you bet on the outcome of a proposition. | | | | coverage of players like final table finalist Mike |
| Or, seen another way, someone makes you a | | | | Matusow, playing various prop bet games against |
| proposition and you place a bet on whether or not you | | | | each other. |
| agree with it. It's the most natural form of betting, and is | | | | This is a hybrid form of prop betting, where the players |
| essentially no different from a bet among friends on | | | | place money in a pool and try to beat each other at |
| anything imaginable. | | | | various games like card tossing, with the winner |
| In a formal betting environment, such betting on the | | | | claiming the pot. High stakes prop betting is a rarefied |
| 2006 Soccer World Cup, proposition betting would | | | | world where the pressure of playing for huge sums of |
| typically cover elements of the games that are not the | | | | money is the main challenge in itself. Top high stakes |
| central ones to the game. A typical proposition bet | | | | gamblers will often play against top professional |
| would be on the result of the pre-match coin toss, or | | | | golfers for huge sums of money, and regularly beat |
| who will score the most goals in a game, during the | | | | them. One would think that the professionals would |
| pool stages, and for the whole tournament. | | | | clean up, but they are not used to playing with such |
| Another would be who will make the first score, or | | | | vast sums of their own money at stake on each hole, |
| who will score last. The obvious candidates are the | | | | and literally buckle under the pressure. The |
| strikers for the opening match between Germany and | | | | experienced prop bettors are used to it, and invariably |
| Costa Rica. | | | | win the games and the money. |
| This is what one could call the tamer side of | | | | This year's Soccer World Cup will have hundreds of |
| proposition betting. Top professional poker players at | | | | proposition bets available. Some present serious |
| the recent World Series of Poker indulged in some | | | | opportunity to make money, and others are just for |
| highly publicized proposition betting while not playing | | | | fun. |