Any Hand Can Win

This is the third of a three-part series about Ted Forrest, one of the world's best and most interesting professional gamblers.


Part II of this series in the last issue followed Ted in his development as a high-stakes poker player and at The Mirage World Poker Tour final table. During the '90's, following the disintegration of his marriage and his ex-wife's disappearance with his daughter, Kristen, Ted retreated into poker, narrowing the focus of his life on becoming the best poker p;layer he could be.

Part III concluded with his expert play on hand No. 80 at The MirageWPT final table. He trapped his opponent, only to have him catch the miracle river card. Even so, Forrest made a superb read and folded his hand, leaving him in third place (of three players in chips but still alive.

Ted's thoughts appear in italics in this article.

Mirage, World Poker Tour Final Table, May 2005 – When the miracle 7 hit the board on the river of hand No. 80, it cast a spell over the table. Their roles in the drama – Ted Forrest as the patient pro picking up small pots and setting big traps, Chris Bell as the bully coming over the top, and Gavin Smith as the solid player looking to jump into traffic with big cards – suddenly became irrelevant. For the last 29 hands, the results were as random as the fall of the cards.

With the blinds and antes mounting, Ted's best hope was for Bell to finish Smith off in a quick confrontation. It looked like that would happen when Gavin went all in with A-J (the hand that cost Ted so much) after a flop of 9-7-5. When Chris called with A-9, Ted was assured of second place and the extra $300,000 … until Smith caught a jack on the river.



Two hands later, desperately short of chips, Ted moved in his last $540,000 over Gavin Smith's raise, with A-7. Bell came in over the top of Forrest with the rest of his chips, holding A-K. Smith folded his pocket nines. Ted took a small measure of revenge when he was the one who caught the winning 7.



The final hands were one-thrust affairs. Smith's A-Q improved to eliminate Bell, who held a pair of eights. Ted followed Bell four hands later when he called Smith's all-in bet with – what else? – the A J. Smith had a pair of queens and they held up to end the tournament.



Forrest won $579,386, the satisfaction that he played extremely well, and a reminder to be back the next afternoon to do it again for the Professional Poker Tour (PPT) final table.



2001 Who is the best poker player in the world? Point systems and money lists cover only tournament play, where liability is limited, one form of poker predominates, and playing more goes a long way toward improving a player's standing. Until recently, the best players bypassed tournaments because cash games were more lucrative.



Even with the bigger fields and purses, the cash games are the bread and butter of any pro who has the skill to choose.



In the cash games, it comes down to who wins the most money, at once a completely objective and unverifiable standard. "There's no proof," Ted admits, "but during a 10-year period going back to the early '90s, it may have been me. I was putting my heart and soul into it."



During Ted Forrest's best year in poker, he won an astounding $12.1 million. Card Player surveyed 60 top players that year for their opinions on the best poker players; their responses followed the money. In cash games, Ted ranked as the best overall player, the best mixed-game player, the best stud player, the best razz player, and the second-best stud eight-or-better player. He also ranked second in shorthanded games. Despite having played few tournaments since the early '90s, he was ranked as the best tournament razz player and the fifth-best stud and stud eight-or-better player.



Forrest enjoyed a level of poker success that year that no one had ever seen. It was the year Andrew Beal, the banker from Texas, began his series of heads-up hold'em matches for astronomical and ever-increasing stakes against the best players in the world. Naturally, Ted played a key role in the games of 2001.



Ted was not part of the original group that opposed Beal. He was in California and was not consulted about the ad hoc arrangement designed to accommodate Beal's request to play heads up. He wandered into the Chip Reese-Andy Beal game simply because he had been playing well, had $500,000 in his safe-deposit box at Bellagio, and figured a high-stakes twohanded game in which one of the players was someone he never heard of had to be a good game.



He proceeded to lose 80 percent of his bankroll in less than a half-hour.



Oh my God, what am I doing? Why did I sit down?


But he remained calm, as always, and rebuilt, erasing that deficit and turning a profit of $1,035,000. That night, he learned about the arrangements and accepted the offer to join the group and play Beal again, this time as part of the team. He won another $2 million for the group the following day.



His next encounter with Beal occurred when the banker had returned to Las Vegas on business and consented to play a one-day $10,000$20,000 ring game. In what amounted to a financial déjà vu, Ted started with $500,000, lost most of it, rebounded, and quit when the game broke up, a $1,055,000 winner.



In December 2001, during Beal's final trip of the year, the banker annihilated the pros for the better part of a week, getting ahead in the $10,000-$20,000 matches by $5.5 million. Ted was one of the victims. Andy hadn't been sleeping well and came downstairs early for their game. Forrest, still playing from the night before, lost $600,000 in three hours.



Ted was back in the room that night, looking very tired in a photo taken of Andy Beal, several of his victims, and their lost $5.5 million. Beal had cleaned out their safe-deposit boxes and they had borrowed a million dollars from various sources to take a shot the next morning, pitting Howard Lederer against the amateur. When Beal finally went to bed (after winning another $200,000 from Doyle Brunson), the players divvied up the borrowed bankroll and played through the night. Ted and Chau Giang were among the few die-hards still playing when Andy came down, early again, to play.



Despite having slept only a few hours during the previous several days and losing to Beal the day before, Forrest obliged. Chau, exhausted, laid across several chairs, nominally sweating the game. Ted won $4.3 million, beginning the turnaround that Lederer finished, restoring their bankrolls.



At the end of 2001, Ted Forrest was standing at the absolute top of the poker world. Unfortunately, from the summit, there was nowhere to go but down.



Mirage, PPT Final Table, May 2005 – Temperament is skill. The last and most difficult poker ability to acquire is that of self-knowledge and self-management. In cash games, maximizing winning sessions is often about knowing when to quit (or knowing when to keep playing, as many amateurs make the mistake of protecting rather than exploiting their profits). Likewise, minimizing losses requires self-control, both to play properly while losing and recognizing when the best move is to quit a loser.



In tournaments, especially in the modern crowded fields, a player must maintain control, patiently enduring bad beats and making big laydowns. Dramatically shoving all of your chips into the pot, the dominant strategy of many no-limit hold'em tournament players, gets attention. It may even force a measure of respect. It certainly fits the caricature of the no-limit poker player as an aggressive, take-no-prisoners warrior.



But Ted Forrest, typically, has gone the other way. Most Ted Forrest poker stories are remarkable not only for the size of his wins, but for the size of the losses he had to overcome. He knows how to stay in action until the end of the game. The back-to-back final-table/final-hand performance at The Mirage was a remarkable feat of skill, patience, and focus. It was also completely in character for Ted Forrest.



Adrift, 2002 – Ted's success at poker masked the problems in his life. No amount of success could reunite him with Kristin. "I realized that being the best poker player was not the most important thing in life. It's about people, relationships." By 2001, however, he had become completely untethered from adult responsibility. He didn't care much about money. His only family was 2,000 miles away or lost to him. His friends were gamblers who, like him, lived for the action.



He developed some serious leaks away from the poker table. It has always been difficult for Ted to say no. He originally thought of staking other poker players as a sound investment, but came to realize it was an (expensive) attempt to compensate for losing contact with his daughter.



"Because I was unable to be Kristin's dad, a lot of my financial issues had to do with my tendency to help other players out, take them under my wing. It got to the point where I was hurting myself financially. I used to joke that I had a lot of mouths to feed and a lot of diapers to change."



Forrest also developed a destructive craps habit. He is a gambler, and even though he makes his living at a form of gambling where he has an edge, having something at risk with the outcome unknown appeals to him away from the poker table. But with little regard or need for money, there was nothing to encourage Ted to control that aspect of his personality.



"There was a time when there literally wasn't a big enough craps game in town for me. I would get friends to book 100 percent of my action, doubling my wins and losses at craps." There were several seven-figure craps sessions in 2001 and 2002.



Despite all of Ted Forrest's past successes, there were times in 2002 and 2003 when he was more than $2 million in debt. He was still a winning poker player, but his now-limited bankroll made it difficult to weather the swings that are common to his style of play, especially in the biggest games. He simply wasn't in a position to lose $50,000 or $100,000 at the beginning of a $2,000-$4,000 game and play on. At one point, he lost in 20 of 22 sessions in Larry

Flynt's stud game.

Mirage, PPT Final Table, May 2005 Ted started the day with the chip lead, but PPT events have a different structure than the WPT. The blinds and antes rise more slowly, giving players more time to wait for hands and see flops. Randy Jensen started the day in fifth place, with one-sixth Ted's chips. But with a lot of time to play and an aggressive style, he was a threat to go out early or make a move and mount a challenge.



Ted had a hunch Randy would be around for a while. During a pre-taping interview, he joked that Randy Jensen was the player he feared. "He's liable to go in with even worse hands than me."



He also gave Jensen the shirt off his back. Ted arrived at the final table wearing a blue FullTiltPoker dress shirt, only to learn that he had to remove it because he hadn't made the required prior declaration of sponsorship affiliation. Randy had made the declaration but didn't have the shirt. Jensen, wearing Ted's shirt, started moving chips early, picking up blinds and antes and doubling up when his pocket eights held up against Blair Rodman's pocket fours. Forrest had a premonition.



Oh my God. I picked out the winning shirt and it's on Randy Jensen's shoulders.



Don't underestimate Ted's ability to find the superstitious angle of a situation. "During the Mirage tournaments, a pigeon relieved itself all over my car. I heard there's an Eastern superstition that pigeon poop is supposed to be a sign of luck. I didn't think anything of it at first. I was just too busy in the tournaments to get the car washed. But when I made the two final tables, I thought, maybe there's something to this. I wasn't going to wash the car. In fact, I decided that if it started raining, I was going to take it inside."



Kristin - In late 2002, Forrest received legal papers from an attorney representing Karen. She wanted five years of back child support.



Ted was thrilled by the development. He immediately agreed to pay, provided there was some means for him to re-establish his relationship with Kristin, now almost 15 and in high school.



Their reunion wasn't automatic or easy. It had been five years since he had spoken with his daughter. They began with awkward telephone calls and e-mails.



They initially found a way to connect through tennis. Kristin was a talented tennis player and a member of her high school tennis team. Ted had a lifelong love of the game and found Kristin receptive to his advice. Because Ted suffered a serious tear in his right pectoral muscle in 2003 – naturally, it was in connection with a bet – they were competitive in tennis. ("I can beat her," Ted says, "but only because I know how to win ugly.") They had fun playing the game on his first visit back East. Just as important, the bitterness with Karen had subsided. Karen, her husband, and Ted could finally be on the same team, civilly working toward Kristin's happiness.



Ted also began playing more tournament poker during this time. He saw how televised poker and the start of the World Poker Tour had made tournament poker more popular and therefore more lucrative. Tournaments also gave him an excuse to travel, which he always enjoyed, and some of that travel brought him closer to Kristin.



It was Kristin's first trip back to Las Vegas, however, that coincided with her dad's successful return to tournament poker. In April 2003, she sat in the audience as Ted made the final table of the first World Poker Tour championship, finishing fifth.



Forrest struggled through 2003, continuing to win in "smaller" (for example, $400$800) games while losing in bigger games. Slowly, however, he paid off his markers and other debts. He didn't give up craps but imposed – for his level of action – some limits. In 2004, that limit was $200,000 in a session. Now, he says, it is rare for him to lose more than $100,000 in a session. He gladly gave up being King of Craps, although he will occasionally accompany his friend Phil Ivey to the dice tables.



"I live near the edge," Ted admits, "but just not that close to the edge anymore."



He also tried to stop being the lender of last resort to the town's hard-luck poker players. As with craps, he has been relatively successful, with the emphasis on "relatively." When I asked him about a green Lincoln Continental he owned several years ago – the car is practically a traveling poker museum, having been won by Tom McEvoy, claimed by Phil Hellmuth, and then later purchased by Ted before I wrote about it in the Introduction (titled "Ted Forrest's Wild Ride") of The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King – he told me about some player who owed him and other backers more than a million dollars. The player had purchased a BMW, but when he failed to repatriate some later poker winnings, Forrest repossessed the car and made him sell it. In a twist worthy of O. Henry, Ted gave the hapless gambler his own car as a replacement.



Mirage, PPT Final Table, May 2005 Ted recovered from his rough start, and from Randy Jensen wearing his lucky shirt, when he won a big pot against Tom Franklin. Franklin had started the day second in chips, but like Ted had found the early going difficult.



I had pocket aces. I made a good-sized raise to $27,000. Tom reraised another $60,000. I just called. After a 10-high flop, he bet $100,000. I knew he had a pair higher than tens, so I had him beat. I went all in for $270,000 more and he called.


Franklin's pocket jacks never improved and Ted doubled up to $900,000. Because two players had been eliminated quickly and Franklin soon followed, the table was down to three players: Forrest, Jensen, and David Levi.



They played threehanded for a long time. Levi was the short stack the entire time. By Ted's count, he went all in and survived eight times. Neither of the bigger stacks was content to sit back and wait. Ted had the chip lead at one point early in threehanded play, accumulating $1.3 million of the $1.7 million in chips in play.



Lucky, 2004 - Ted thought his fortunes were improving. At the Bellagio Five-Star tournament preceding the World Series, he entered just two events, $2,500 stud eight-or-better and the WPT championship. He won the stud eight-or-better event and finished 22nd in the championship. "I was starting to think that maybe I wouldn't be allowed to win. I took that Bellagio tournament and some other results as a sign that things were changing." Just three days after being eliminated from the championship, he won the second full-field event of the World Series for his fourth bracelet.



Less than three weeks later, however, he thought that circumstances were conspiring against him. He got into an argument with his girlfriend, which was uncharacteristic behavior for him, and shut off his cellphone. This caused him to miss the phone call from Doyle Brunson that Andy Beal had returned. Beal hadn't told Brunson he was coming until he was at Bellagio, so there was one chance only for players to declare themselves in and post their portion of the bankroll.



Locked out of what became the biggest poker game of all time, Forrest instead entered the $1,500 no-limit hold'em World Series event at the Horseshoe, mostly so that he would have some place to go other than Bellagio when his friends were playing $100,000$200,000 hold'em against Andy Beal without him.



The rest is poker history. Ted prevailed over what was at the time the largest field for a preliminary event in Series history to win $300,000 and his fifth bracelet. He also was spared his share of a $12 million loss, as Andy Beal enjoyed the biggest one-day win in poker history. (When Beal returned less than two weeks later and lost that money back, Ted's cellphone was back on and he got his money down and shared in that result.)



Mirage, PPT Final Table, May 2005 - Despite a dominant chip lead (or perhaps because of it), Forrest made two blunders that enabled Randy Jensen to take over the lead. On the first hand, Ted had the A 9. The flop was 8-7-6 with one heart. Randy bet $80,000 and he called. Ted had two overcards, an open-end straight draw, and a backdoor-flush draw. The turn, the Q, gave him the nut-flush draw, but Jensen went all in for $293,000.



Unless his opponent was on a stone bluff, Ted had to assume that his overcard outs were no good. If Jensen had any kind of hand, it would be two pair or a straight. Ted would be drawing to a maximum of 15 outs (nine hearts, three non-heart tens, and three non-heart fives). But if Randy had a straight, one of his outs was already in Randy's hand. Jensen also could have hearts in his hand, reducing the likelihood that Ted could make a flush. Consequently, Jensen's all-in bet should have been large enough for Forrest to fold his drawing hand.



I thought if Randy had a made hand better than one pair – a straight or two pair – I wasn't getting the right price to call. If he was on a draw, a bluff, or had one pair, I was getting the right price.



I suppose it was about 80 percent likely he had a made hand. But remember, this is Randy Jensen we're talking about. He doesn't have to have anything to make that bet.



I think my call was a blunder, but I still had a lot of outs and would have gotten the benefit of eliminating Randy if I hit my hand. That would have left me heads up against David Levi, who was seriously short-stacked. It was a mistake because if I folded, I still had the chip lead and was still the favorite to win. I didn't have to make this kind of desperate move to eliminate Randy.


Ted called. Jensen showed 5-4 and the river did not bring a card Ted needed to improve. Shortly thereafter, Ted paid a reasonable price to see all five cards with an ace-high flush draw, but the river brought the worst "decision" card: an ace. Jensen made a large bet. Ted thought it over for a long time and called, mucking when Jensen showed aces up.



Randy bet an amount that should have told me my ace was no good. But again, Randy's style forces these kinds of mistakes. You don't beat him by playing mistake-free poker. You do it by trying to avoid the most expensive mistakes, the ones that can cost you all your chips. Then you make him pay for trying to take you off the best hand.


Ted rebounded following a Jensen miscue. Low on chips, he doubled up with 8-8 when Jensen called his all-in bet with 9-8. He retook the lead when he committed all of his chips to a drawing hand. This time, however, he had taken the betting lead, all of his outs were live, and he had the turn and the river to make his hand. (Of course, of greater significance, this time he made his draw.)



With the A K, he just called Jensen's $60,000 bet. The flop was Q-3-2 with two spades. He was actually a slight favorite, with 15 outs, to beat the top pair, which is what he thought Randy had when Randy bet $100,000. Ted raised all in for $448,000. Jensen called with his queen. A jack on the turn gave Ted another three outs for a straight (for a total of 18), which he made when a 10 came on the river.



Following David Levi's elimination, the heads-up finish didn't take long. Ted raised to $120,000 and Randy went all in for more than $700,000. Ted called immediately with pocket eights. Jensen had A-8. Ted maintained the lead after a flop of 7-5-4 with two clubs. Randy needed an ace to win or a 6 to split the pot. He got the 6 on the turn to give them both the straight.



But it was the 6, putting three clubs on the board. Forrest was the only one with a club in his hand. The J on the river gave him the winning flush. For winning the tournament, he received $200,000, a $25,000 entry into the 2006 WPT Championship, and recognition by all the fans of poker too new to the game to know that Ted Forrest was a very special talent.

Ted's car, Summer of 2005 - With his success at the two Mirage events in May, it seemed Ted's tournament game was peaking. It was surprising, therefore, that he failed to finish in the money at any time during the 2005 World Series. Ted was puzzled by it, too, but he had an explanation.



"I let a friend use my car during the World Series and he thought he was doing me a favor by getting it washed when he gave it back. I didn't cash in a single event in the Series." He expressed that with the World Series over, the good or bad luck associated with the pigeon poop (or lack thereof) was finished.



It is difficult to tell if Forrest is serious about any of this – in conversation, Ted seems serious about everything, but not too serious – but perhaps the results speak for themselves. He played in two TV events in the two weeks after the Series, the FullTiltPoker.net Invitational at Wynn Las Vegas and the Ultimate Poker Challenge at the Plaza. He finished second and seventh, respectively.



Ted Forrest is enjoying his life, as he always has, but he has a better idea of what he wants and how to get it. He is learning away from the poker table with the same focus he used to sharpen his game for nearly two decades. Poker is still fun and exciting, but it is no longer his life-consuming quest. He is clearly taking great pleasure in squeezing all the enjoyment he can from the end of Kristin's childhood years.



Always serene in appearance, Ted Forrest is finally at peace. If you see his yellow sports car, you can be sure there is a big poker game somewhere near. And if the car is smeared with pigeon poop, look out.