An Interview with the Hot Dog Prop Bet Hero

Posted by Dave McCarthy | Filed under Bloggers Corner

In March, a Canadian academic wagered a colleague he could eat 450 hot dogs in the month of April. The prop bet was posted in the Beats, Brags, and Variance forum on Two Plus Two and has received 1,298 replies and 90,798 views as of press time. We picked up the hot dog bet here at Poker from the Rail, as did a Toronto radio station.

Hero — Jim “Hot Dog” Harrison — kindly took a few moments between dogs to answer some questions regarding the bet.

Q: First of all, how do you feel (emotionally and physically)?

A: Right now I feel perfectly fine physically. I have not done anything athletic in probably 4 or 5 years and since then just sit around on the couch all day. Emotionally I think the support I have been getting is amazing. I am probably the most easy going person ever anyway and usually in a good mood and always down to have some fun, so something like this just fits me.

Q: Can you tell us how the idea for the bet evolved? Did you have to haggle over the number of dogs?

A: The bet started with Colin and I going to the bank to withdraw the money I made from poker in March. On the way to the bank we stopped in for a hot dog at a place down the road from us. The hot dogs there are $3.00 or close to and after ordering one each Colin said I should just buy 1000 hot dogs with my profit from the month. So we started to discuss how long it would take to eat that many dogs and if it could be done in a month which is an average of 33.5 hot dogs a day. A more possible number came up of eating 16 hot dogs a day which still would be pretty tough for me because I am not a big eater nor am I a big guy. After the weekend I was able to haggle Colin down to 450 for the month and an average of 15 a day. The rest of the rules were sort of agreed upon at random times. Originally Colin was just going to trust me to eat the hot dogs as the bet was just between us but once it hit two plus two others wanted to bet on it as well and the best way of proof was eating them all on a live stream.

Q: When did you feel more confident about winning: now or March 31?

A: I actually feel more confident about winning now because I am in no way a big eater and had doubts of how many hot dogs I would be able to eat in a day. Having been through over a week now I know I can do this and that if I stay with it and not be lazy I won’t actually have to force any dogs down at all.

Q: Do you and your roommates do a lot of prop betting?

A: We do make crazy and stupid bets all the time. I guess we just like to bet on things because gambling on every day things makes them way more interesting and unless you run really well most of the money is just going to get passed back and forth. Well until you make a huge month long eating bet anyway. I hope I don’t lose this money back to him in May.

Q: You and your roommates are quite popular with the 2p2 community. Any thoughts on that?

A: This was quite a shock to me actually. Colin debated even posting about it on 2p2 but decided to find out what people thought in terms of me getting odds and if people actually thought it was possible. I have been a member for a while but I have since doubled my post count and check it all the time now. The support that I have gotten is fantastic. People are either giving me tips or helpful thoughts and others are just wishing me good luck saying I can do it. Colin said that with all the support the idea for the thread backfired because now I am getting motivation from it that I would not have had if he didn’t put it on 2p2 to begin with.

Q: Are you exercising at all? Drinking more water? Taking any of the 2p2 health advice from the haters who think that 15 hot dogs a day is unhealthy?

A: Well one thing for sure is there is no denying that this is probably the most unhealthy thing I’ve done in my life. However I am beyond lazy. There is a small chance I might do some light exercise like walking to a store and back but besides that I will not be going out of my way. Maybe I will if I start to fall behind and need to try and make myself hungrier. I have been drinking more water. I drink water all day long and for taste sometimes have some juice or ginger ale. I will not be taking any advice from 2p2ers probably mainly because of how lazy I am. It is only one month and if I live to see May I will try to eat better then.

Q: Does your family know? What about your friends who can be seen on camera from time to time – what do they think about it? Anyone more interested in you romantically than they might have otherwise been?

A: I wasn’t sure what to tell my family as I was pretty sure I would get a lecture about how I’m going to die but oddly enough most of my family is cheering for me and didn’t give me too many looks of disgust. My mom however hates me right now. She said “why don’t you just take up smoking? That’s how bad this is for you.” I don’t smoke just for the record, but every time we talk she asked me always in a hurting way how I feel and if my liver and insides are dead yet.

In terms of my friends they all said I could average something like 6-12 dogs a day so I guess I’m showing them a thing or two about just what I’m capable of. However now that the bet is on they are all on board. Here is the team lineup:

Rob – Head Coach

Mike – Assistant Coach

Ian – Manager

Adam – In charge of whiteboard and support

Jess – Team Girl, brings the female support which leads to more viewers.

TeddyKGB45 – #1 fan never misses a hot dog consumed.

Scopur – Head of Marketing

That’s the main team. I am thankful for everyone though that cheers me on and watches my videos, I don’t know if I could do this without the support.

In terms of my romantic life once while on camera some girl was asking about riding the hot dog express so we’ll see what happens with that. Nothing else though, I wonder if girls are attracted to a guy eating wieners for money.

Q: What’s the typical dog: boiled, no condiments? Seems like more barbecuing lately? Are you motivated by taste or ease of eating?

A: I have boiled all but 5 dogs that Coach Mike made for me and they taste good to me no matter how they are prepared and are all equally easy to get down. I have put ketchup and mustard on randomly when I feel like I want to taste something different but that has been a small percentage so far. I will probably keep up with the plain dogs for the most part.

Q: Do hot dogs still taste good to you? When do you think you’ll next eat a hot dog after April 30?

A: I love hot dogs and always will. I imagine that if we have any hot dogs left in the house after the 30th I will finish them off but if not it might take a week or so before I go out and find one when I’m hungry.

Q: While this is ultimately a story about passion and the strength of the human spirit, it’s also a story about poker fans. Tell us about your poker career. How long have you been playing?

A: I started poker after seeing Rounders and just started out with $5 home games. I then got $7 online one time and had thoughts of winning millions and playing professionally. As it turns out 3.5 buy ins at 2NL is not the best way to start out a roll and win millions. I moved to full tilt after meeting Chrismystero who taught me a thing or two that I didn’t know and not long after that I luckboxed a couple of tournaments and have played it pretty seriously ever since. I look back and laugh at how bad and how little I knew about the game even after winning some tournaments, but in two years from now I’m sure I’ll do the same thing about my play now. I generally play super turbos and sngs on full tilt now, and when I can I dabble in some ring games.

Tags: Gravitas, hot dog, hot dog harrison, Hot Dog Prop Bet, Ketchup, Mustard

Permalink | April 20th, 2010 Play Online Poker at Full Tilt Poker

4 Responses to “An Interview with the Hot Dog Prop Bet Hero”

Joey Martin Says:
April 26th, 2010 at 12:34 pm
My name is Joey Martin, I anchor the number one morning show at rock station in midwestern ont, am a MAC alumnus, and wish to contact Jim Harrison for an interview….I need a contact number. Email me at jmartin@945thebull.ca or call 51-357-1310 and ask for me or leave a message at ext. 3455. Thanks! Good luck Jim!
Joey: I am passing your info along to Jim. Thanks. Dave
Sahba Says:
April 27th, 2010 at 6:18 pm
Hi there,

My name is Sahba and I am a producer for CTV News. We would love to have Jim on our national program, CTV News Channel. Could you please reply to sahba.khalili@ctv.ca with Jim’s contact info? Thanks in advance.

Sahba

Hi Sahba. I’ll pass along your info to Jim.
Roy Says:
April 30th, 2010 at 5:38 pm
As with the other two replies, I was looking to get this on my show as well. Please have Jim contact me at his convenience. We would love to have him on our radio show. Thanks!
Bet365 Says:
May 7th, 2010 at 12:16 pm
It`s great how I stumble across such quality entries every now and then. Thanks for a great read and a reminder for myself to work on my writing skills. Do you create posts yourself or do you outsource?
I create them myself! Thanks for your spam, but hey: comments are comments. –Dave