Rob Kuhn has made it to the halfway point in his water fast bet against Shaun Deeb, but there's still work to be done.
The wager, which began back in March, requires Kuhn to last 30 days whilst consuming only water, coffee, and electrolytes. The 20/1 odds will see him collect $60,000 for his efforts, if he goes the distance. If not, he'll pay Deeb $3,000.
PokerOrg spoke with Kuhn on Day 15 of the wager to see how his confidence levels are at and how he's feeling.
Rob, you’ve just passed the halfway point on your 30-day water fast bet against Shaun Deeb. How are you feeling?
Rob Kuhn: Great. Actually, yesterday was interesting because I flew back from Costa Rica and part of the bet is that I can only drink coffee for two hours after I wake up, so I slept on my first flight and landed in Fort Lauderdale at 5:30am, and there was no way I was going to start drinking coffee then. I knew that was probably going to suck.
So, I was tired and then woke up with a huge headache from caffeine withdrawal. Then as soon as I had caffeine, the headache was gone. I love my coffee.
Is it tough only getting a two-hour window for coffee?
RK: It’s actually quite nice. Deeb even offered to increase the bet, around day eight or nine, by an extra 5/1 if I do it without coffee. I think I could do it, it would just really suck.
How are you keeping yourself occupied during standard meal times?
RK: Yeah, the first few days were very interesting. It was like time had slowed by something like 5x. I would look at the clock, hoping it'd be late because you're just trying to get through those first few days, and it'd be three o'clock and I'd think, ‘Oh man, why?’ I think I'm past that phase, and now it's kind of like everyday life is just everyday life.
I've increased my play, I just play a lot more poker. I study a lot more. I've caught up on some TV shows that I've been wanting to watch. I just finished The Gentlemen last night, it's a very good show.
So, you’re at the halfway point - are you giving any thought to what the end looks like?
RK: We are halfway there, baby. I’m back from Costa Rica, where everyone, including Deeb, was shoving food in my face or trying to get me to drink. The thing is, with these prolonged water fasts, I couldn’t even have that stuff if I wanted to. I can’t have a pizza to come back. I have to have bone broth and soup, very, very light stuff. You have to reintroduce your body slowly to nutrients.
There are risks with re-feeding or jumping back into eating big meals too quickly?
RK: There’s not only a metabolic risk, but something called re-feeding syndrome. Basically, you get so attached to the taste of food that you binge eat every meal.
How exactly did this bet come about? Twitter fingers going wild?
RK: [laughs] No, I was listening to a [Joe] Rogan podcast and Kevin James said he did a 41-day water fast. And I was just thinking, ‘Man, I'm way bigger than Kevin James.’ And I've heard of these long water fasts. I've done a three-and-a-half-day one before, which was kind of tough. I have a buddy that has done a bunch of seven-day fasts and he thought it wasn't that hard. So, I thought, ‘I can probably do this.’ At 20/1 I only have to win 5% of the time.
I put it up on Twitter, to see what people thought. Everyone said I was drawing dead – I’m going to die, I can’t do this, I won’t last thirty minutes – all the trolls. That was fuel, that was motivation. Then I spent probably 15-20 hours doing research to see if I’m going to be at any health risk. Yes, I want to do it, but not if it comes at any health risk.
I would say the first day was the hardest of the 15 I’ve done so far, out of just pure nervousness.The fear of failure was setting in.
You touched on this briefly, but we're wondering what your overarching motivations for the bet are? Are you purely motivated by the health and financial aspects?
RK: Of course I can’t say financially it wasn’t motivating. The thing that hurt me the most was how many people said I was drawing dead. After I posted the poll, I did so much research and thought to myself, 'I don't see what I'm missing here.' If I'm missing something, then I guess I lose the $3,000, but if it's truly just a mind over matter thing then I want to prove people wrong and hopefully inspire others.
Now, let me get this very, very clear: this is not the way to lose weight. There are much healthier ways to lose weight. If you want to do a three-day fast, sure, maybe even a seven-day fast. Don't do a water fast to lose weight. This is basically a bet on willpower. If there's a health risk at any point, I will quit. My health is not worth the money.
Based on your attitude and everything we've seen so far, it seems like this might already be a done deal.
RK: I'm waiting to collect a paycheck at this point.
Images Courtesy of Neil Stoddart
