Born in 1961 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, Brian Zembic is a professional gambler who specializes in blackjack, backgammon, and accepting outrageous wagers. He is most known for accepting a $100,000 bet to get breast implants and keep them for a year. This wager is discussed in the book The Man with the $100,000 Breasts, written by Michael Konik.
He is infamous for taking insane bets, and he has been described as "An animal. A guy who would do anything to win a bet."
An amateur magician, Zembic was first presented with the idea of the breast implant wager in 1996, while talking with a backgammon buddy. This friend, now known as Jobo, was expressing amazement at why women would go to such lengths to attract a man. Zembic chimed in that implants probably weren't that bad. At this point, Jobo offered to pay him $100,000 to get implants.
The duo immediately went over the details of the bet. Zembic would be responsible for the cost of surgery, and the breasts had to be at least 38C in size. Jobo would place the $100,000 in escrow and deposit it in Zembic's account if he could wear the fake breasts for exactly one year. Neither man took the bet seriously at that point, but they would joke about it from time to time (especially when they would see a woman with big breasts).
But in the fall of 1996, Jobo advised Zembic to invest in a certain stock. While Zembic dropped $125,000 of his savings into the stock, Jobo unloaded all his shares. The stock rapidly fell in value and Zembic lost nearly $30,000 within a week.
Angry with Jobo and looking to make back his money, Zembic threatens to take the bet. Jobo, however, claims that Zembic has taken too long to agree, and the bet is off. Zembic begs to differ. So they form an independent tribunal of gamblers (dubbed the "Titty Tribunal") and convene at a Chinese restaurant off the Vegas strip. After five minutes of deliberation, the panel decides that the bet is on.
Zembic contacts a plastic surgeon who also happens to be a gambling buddy. The operation will cost $4,5000, but Zembic doesn't want to pay 4.5% of his expected winnings, so he and the doctor decide to wager on a few games of backgammon. A few hours later, Zembic has his doctor's fees taken care of.
And on an overcast October afternoon, Zembic has plastic pouches inserted through his nipples and each filled with 14 ounces of saline. The rest, as they say, is history.
In 1998, a full 16 months after the bet began, Zembic still had the breasts. He didn't mind them at all, and claimed that they really turned on women he met.
In fact, he was seen by millions on The Man Show. Accepting $100 from hosts Jimmy Kimmel and Adam Corolla, Zembic appeared on the show to show off his breasts, wearing nothing but band-aids over his nipples.
During that appearance, he also recounted another crazy bet which he had won. Some friends bet him $14,000 if he would live in a bathroom for a month. Zembic accepted. Four days later, his stunned friends bought him out of the bet for $7,000. As one dejected friend later admitted, "I thought it was a good bet."
But there's no such thing as a good bet when you're going against Brian Zembic.
Look for him as a competitor in an upcoming episode of The Ultimate Blackjack Tour.
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