The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King: Inside the Richest Poker Game of All Time is a 2005 book by Michael Craig detailing billionaire Andrew Beal's series of high-stakes poker games with Las Vegas' top professional poker players.^[1] The book title refers to some of the professional players involved in this series. The Professor is mathematical poker mind Howard Lederer, the Banker is Andrew Beal himself, and the Suicide King is crazy, sometimes reckless player Ted Forrest. It also refers to the King of Hearts, since on the card the King's sword appears to be put in his head.^[2][3]

Oct 09, 2019 Ted Forrest, a 6-time WSOP bracelet winner and part of the Corporation who took on Andy Beal, saw his life come crashing down around him in 2016 when he was arrested and charged with two felonies for passing dud checks.

1. Ted Forrest was born on September 24, 1964 in Syracuse, New York, USA. He is an actor, known for Lucky You (2007), 2009 World Series of Poker (2009) and National Heads-Up Poker Championship (2006).
2. Oct 12, 2016 Ted Forrest is a wanted man in Las Vegas. The six-time World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner has been accused of writing bad checks at Wynn Las Vegas in 2012 and 2013.
3. Ted Forrest, a professional poker player, was driving outside of Las Vegas when he called the Bellagio poker room. The personnel in the poker room informed him the highest game is $10,000-$20,000. He went to the poker room and sat down with his last $500,000. He played against Chip Reese and Andy Beal. Forrest had lost $400,000 without playing.

Plot summary[edit]

The highest stakes poker match of all time was played over the course of a few years, between Andrew Beal and a group of professional poker players called 'The Corporation.'^[4] The group included Ted Forrest, Jennifer Harman, Minh Ly, Doyle Brunson, Todd Brunson, Howard Lederer, David Grey, Chip Reese, Gus Hansen, Phil Ivey, Barry Greenstein, Lyle Berman and others. Many of them kept their identities anonymous, or were part of the group at different points.

Ted Forrest, a professional poker player, was driving outside of Las Vegas when he called the Bellagio poker room. The personnel in the poker room informed him the highest game is $10,000-$20,000. He went to the poker room and sat down with his last $500,000. He played against Chip Reese and Andy Beal. Forrest had lost $400,000 without playing a single hand, and questioned why he was there.

Back in February 2001, Beal first visited the Bellagio poker room. He enjoyed the atmosphere and met professional poker players, like Todd Brunson. He ended up winning over $100,000 crediting it to luck. Beal decided to study the game and face top players.

Ted Forrest Broke

Andy returned to Las Vegas and played heads-up with professionals for the highest stakes. Top professional poker players decided to pool their money with everybody who they thought could play the game against Beal. Beal began his match with Chip Reese, then Ted Forrest sat down. Down to his last $100,000 Forrest makes a comeback and wins $1.5 million. He is then asked to join the group and nobody else sits down besides Beal and his selected opponent, who alternates.

The matches continued for three years with the amateur multi-millionaire Andy Beal surprisingly winning most of the contests and eventually flying back to Texas with over $10 million of The Corporation's money. Late in the series, The Corporation was forced to have all of its members add money to the collective bankroll in order to continue the match. In March 2004, Beal announced he was finished with poker for good after losing $16 million in two days, primarily to The Corporation's young star Phil Ivey.

Post 2004[edit]

For two years Beal keeps his vow to quit poker, but returns to high-stakes poker in 2006. These later matches were described online by Craig for Bluff Magazine.

Al Alvarez reviewed the book believing Andy Beal played for too long and Stu Ungar, who died in 1998, was connected to the Mafia.^[5]

References[edit]

1. ^Kaplan, Michael (29 June 2008). 'Pro Poker Players Bet Away From the Table, Too'. nytimes.com. Retrieved 2018-06-24.
2. ^Burton, Eric (2005-07-05). 'Learning About 'The Professor, The Banker And The Suicide King''. PokerNews. Retrieved 2018-06-24.
3. ^Kurson, Ken (2014-05-06). 'EXCLUSIVE: A Player Speaks; Molly Bloom Takes On Spider-Man Actor in New Book'. Observer. Retrieved 2018-06-24.
4. ^Conneller, Philip (2015-03-17). 'Pam Anderson Rick Salomon Divorce Battle Brings Alleged $40M Poker Win from Andy Beal to Light'. Cardschat. Retrieved 2018-06-24.
5. ^James, Murphy (2006-03-08). 'Al Alvarez: The Poet Laureate of Poker'. PokerNews. Retrieved 2018-06-24.

Ted Forrest Hendon

Ted Forrest’s fans claim he is not only one of the best poker players in the world, but one of the nicest as well, and he is highly respected by his peers because of his manners and poise. One of his biographers, Michael Craig, writes about buying a car with Ted: when asked what he was looking for, Ted replied, “Good AC.” This from a man who has won 5 WSOP gold bracelets.

Ted Forrest started working at age 20 at a hotel near the Grand Canyon and making sporadic trips to Vegas to play poker, where he made enough money to put himself through school at Lemoine College, where his father had been a teacher. He dropped out with only 9 credits to go, a decision he still stands by to date: “If I’d graduated from college, I might have taken some job making $36,000 a year. I’m happy with the alternative route I’ve taken.”

It was a good choice indeed, as Ted Forrest now has over $5,400,000 in live tournament winnings alone. Although he is acknowledged as a stud master, he is also a force to be reckoned in Hold’em tables, bagging a Hold’em bracelet in 2004.

A curious fact about his 5 bracelets is that 3 of them were stolen; he gave one of the remaining ones to his daughter and currently keeps one locked in a safe place. He also bought one extra WSOP golden bracelet from Hamid Dastmalchi for three $500 chips.

Ted Forrest is well known for his outrageous prop bets. The successful ones are more publicized, such as winning $10,000 for making a standing back flip during a WSOP, and making $7,000 for completing a marathon. But there have also been unsuccessful ones, like betting $10,000 that he could bench press 225 lbs. fifty times in 24 hours (besides losing the money he permanently injured his right arm) and betting $60,000 that Mark Weisman couldn’t run a mile in under six minutes (he could.) Forrest also plays craps, where he has lost and won up to a million dollars in one session.

Ted Forrest has made enough money to back up other poker players, another reason why his peers respect and like him, and he is regarded as the “business man of poker” because he has backed up more players than anyone else.

Ted Forrest Obituary

Ted Forrest’s game analysis (by Barry Greenstein):

Ted Forrest

• Aggressiveness: 7
• Looseness: 8
• Short-handed: 8
• Limit: 8
• No-limit: 8
• Tournaments: 7
• Side games: 7
• Steam control: 6
• Against weak players: 8
• Against strong players: 7