Some say they can't see the forest for the trees. I sometimes can't see the Forrest - Ted Forrest, that is - for all the bad beats he has laid on me in a session. My head aches and my vision blurs as he beats my aces with 6-2 offsuit again and again. Ted is what we in the poker world refer to as a spook. I don't even call him a spook, as there are many spooks, and that title doesn't show Ted the respect he is due in this field. I call Ted Spooky Spook; he puts the other spooks to shame.
To say that Ted's poker-playing style is kind of unorthodox is like saying Michael Jackson kind of likes kids. He plays more hands than any other pro, and as a result, has much bigger swings. It's not that he doesn't have big losses. Ted probably has the best poker demeanor of anyone at the table, so it's not real noticeable when he's taking bad beats and going off. He is like Phil Hellmuth, in that he takes his beats like a man and doesn't whine. (Just kidding about the Phil part, lol.)
But when the pendulum turns, watch out. Ted plays hands that Helen Keller would recognize as being trash. I can't count the times I've seen him call three bets cold with something like 6-4 offsuit, flop a gutshot, then river the nuts to scoop the biggest pot of the day. So, how does he do it?
Well, besides my suspicion that he made a deal with the devil, Ted is one of the best "readers" in the game. He has an uncanny ability to put a player on a hand and follow through with that read. After all, making the read is only half the battle. How many times have we all said to ourselves, "I know he's bluffing," as we lay down bottom pair. Ted has the courage to stand by his initial reads; it's an area in which I know I could use some improvement myself.
With his incredible reading talents, Ted is able to get away with playing all of that trash. He'll flop bottom pair and make a read as to whether it's good or not. He's right most of the time, but when he's wrong, he can still draw out and beat the best hand; hence, the spooky spook aspect of his game.
Ted once played
World Series of Poker main-event winner Hamid Dastmalchi in a multiday session. It wasn't a heads-up match, as many players (myself included) came and left the game many times. After about the end of the third or fourth day, Hamid passed out at the table and couldn't be awakened, and an ambulance had to be called! The official reason Hamid gave was that he had taken some medication that didn't mix with the brandy he often sips while playing. Ted's thoughts on the matter, after he scooped around 10 straight pots, were "I thought I showed him so many Garkunkels in a row that his heart couldn't take it."
Ted's journey started in Syracuse, New York, where he was born on Sept. 24, 1964. He attended LeMoyne, a Jesuit college where his father was a professor. Ted studied psychology, quitting a mere credit shy of graduation due to a beef with an out-of-line biology professor.
Not satisfied with all that school could teach him about human behavior and what makes us tick, Ted set out on the ultimate quest for knowledge about social interaction. I've often said that poker brings out the best and worst in people. You can learn more by playing poker with someone than just about any other activity. Are they humble losers? Are they gracious winners? Do they like to kick people when they're down? All of these questions and many more can be answered on the green felt.
Ted stopped off in Arizona on his way to Vegas to get a job as a maid in a hotel, making $4 an hour. Once he made it to Vegas, he found that all of the maid jobs were taken, so he had to settle for a job as a prop at Palace Station (or was it the Bingo Palace back then?). Ted then became a dealer when the swings of playing were too much for him. He had $100 left over after his move with his wife, Karen, and new daughter, Kristen, born in 1988, which was not much of a bankroll.
Ted used his time dealing wisely. "I didn't waste my time in the box. I studied the players and tried to improve. I was amazed, especially in hold'em, at the frequency with which I could figure out a player's exact holecards." After Ted had had enough of dealing, he took on playing full time. He rose through the ranks and did well. (I can personally vouch for the fact that he has more than tripled that initial bankroll since I've known him!)
Ted's and my breakthroughs into the upper echelon of poker happened at about the same time, and in eerily similar situations. We were both playing in the middle limits when we noticed great $400-$800 razz games, Ted in California and me in Vegas. I had never played razz, but I was smart enough to figure out that these guys calling multiple bets with facecards couldn't be playing well. I think Ted's experience was similar, and that was the boost we each needed to make the jump into the top section.
It also didn't hurt that we both had a great year in tournaments the first year we started playing them, 1992. I won two smaller tourneys, then the main event at the Bike. Ted put that record to shame, making an astounding 10 final tables at the Bike and winning the best all-around player award. Then in the 1993
WSOP, Ted won a record three bracelets in one year - two back-to-back!
Ted went on to win another bracelet in 2002, and another in 2004, when I was the first to congratulate him and shake his hand. His current tournament winnings are about $4 million (and quickly rising), and he has won many other tournaments outside the
WSOP, including, most notably, the
NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship a year ago.
Ted is so much in the public eye these days that his fans have created a Ted Forrest fan site (lucky so-and-so). And if you haven't noticed, I haven't even begun to talk about all the money he's won in side games. I guess old habits die hard. Ted loves to clean up, whether it's hotel rooms or cash off a poker table.
On a side note, Ted Forrest is terrified of vampires. He thinks they pose as poker players in an attempt to get close to him and suck his blood. He is so paranoid about this that he "stakes" as many poker players as possible. Ironically, his worst fears come true, as this is exactly how they wind up sucking his blood.
