Canada Poker Pro Bros Matt & Jaime Staples, 34lbs to $150k

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Poker pros Matt and Jaime Staples are 34lbs away from winning a year-long $150k weight loss prop bet in March.

Hailing from Alberta, Canada, brothers Matt and Jaime Staples are career poker pros who’ve gained celebrity status in recent years. Being world-traveling Twitch streamers, they’ve made quite the name for themselves. But it was a rather unique prop bet on March 26, 2017 that really got the attention of fans.

On that fateful day, Matt Staples and his older brother Jaime were relaxing in the Virgin Islands with their good friend Bill Perkins, a fellow poker pro best known for his 3^rd place, $2M win in the 2013 WSOP One Drop High Roller. They were streaming live via Perkin’s StreamBoat when something incredible happened.

One of their Twitch viewers made a simple, offhand comment:

“Imagine Jaime and Matt at the same weight”.

You see, Matt Staples was a mere 134 pounds at the time – all skin and bones, as my grandmother would have said. His ‘big brother’ Jaime, on the other hand, weighed in at 305. That was a rather significant difference of 171lbs.

Jaime read the comment aloud as they continued to stream poker and day-to-day happenings in the tropics. As the elder Staples brother recalled last fall, Perkins responded without hesitation, “I’ll give you 50 to 1!”

Jaime knew in a heartbeat that he had to take the bet, and it didn’t take much convincing to get Matt on board. “Within a minute we had booked the bet,” said Jaime. The picture below, shared on Instagram, shows the two brothers, and their difference in weight, as they spoke with Perkins about the terms of the prop bet that day.

Prop Bet Rules – 1 Year, Same Weight

According to the quickly negotiated terms of the prop bet, Matt and Jaime had exactly one year to weigh within a pound of each other. There could be no surgery, steroids or other unnatural means of weight loss/gain.

At precisely 5:00pm on March 26, 2018, an official weigh in will take place. They can weigh themselves all they want up until then, but only this particular weighing will count towards the bet.

The Canadian poker pros put up $3,000 between them, $1,500 each. At 50 to 1 odds, they stand to win $150,000 ($75k each) from Perkins.

As Jaime Staples confirmed, it was also decided no further bets could be taken on the challenge. “So we can’t book side action to get up to a million dollars or something; it has to stay at $150K max incentive for us.”

34lbs to Paydirt for Canada Poker Pros

This week, Pocketfives caught up with the Staples brothers in their worldly travels. In a brief interview with the Team PokerStars Online Pro, Jaime revealed that only 34lbs now stand between the brothers and Perkins’ six-figure payout.

“I weighed in about six days ago and I was 212 pounds, and my brother was 178 (Monday) morning,” said Jaime. Although 180 was the original goal, they now believe the best, realistic match in weight is to shoot for 187. That leaves Matt with 9lbs to gain, and Jaime with 25 to lose.

The photos below reveal a drastic difference from the photo taken almost 10 months ago. If it’s a bit harder to recognize them, that’s Matt on the left, Jaime on the right.

They’ve both been working diligently with personal trainer Matt Vacanti, who’s been traveling with them as they continue to play poker events both online and on land. Jaime said it hasn’t been easy watching Matt chow down on potatoes, rice, pizza and potato chips every day, whilst he consumes a portion-controlled chicken breast and salad (approx 1300 calories a day). But he’s stuck to it, and has no intention of quitting while the prize looms so close.

The biggest incentive, says Jaime, isn’t the money, but the accomplishment of losing weight and living a healthy lifestyle. In reference to his potential win, Staples admitted the money “doesn’t really cross my mind at all. Because I think the equity of being healthier — extending my life, being able to do more, having higher energy, even just vanity — is worth a lot more than $75,000.”