Poker News

Ted Forrest

It was a genuine eyeopener Ted Forrest remembers, discovering there were people who - get this now - actually made a living playing poker.

This was before he hit Las Vegas for the first time, maybe 16 years ago, back before he joined the fraternity of people who support themselves, and quite nicely, thank you, with hours spent at poker tables.

“I had made, ooooh, small change in college playing poker and then I come to Las Vegas and find out there are people doing this for a living. It was, like unbelievable.”

Things have evolved dramatically since then. With five World Series of Poker bracelets and victories in World Poker Tour events to his credit, Forrest is regarded as one of the best at this “unbelievable” business.

And let’s not forget his regular presence in some of the biggest cash games played anywhere, games built around the presence of personalities such as Hustler publisher Larry Flynt and billionaire Dallas banker Andy Beal.

Before Las Vegas and everything that the last dozen-plus years have brought him Forrest had a previous life, as a psychology student in Syracuse, N.Y. - “I suppose that’s been helpful with the playing.” He left Le Moyne College to go in search of endeavors more appealing to the person he was then. His father was an English professor so there had been a big break with respect to tuition, but Le Moyne and life there wore a little thin after a while.

Theskills he came to develop at poker tables since then have handed him moments worthy of anyone’s highlight reel.

Like his recent big finish in the World Poker Tour’s Mirage Poker Showdown the last several days of May when he took second in the $10,000 buy-in no limit hold ‘em championship and a day later moved over to the final table of the Professional Poker Tour tournament. He won that one.

Doesn’t get much better than this, he may have been thinking. First and second place prize money added up to about $804,000. Not a bad couple days of work.

“The WPT tournament was a great final table, especially when it got down to playing three-handed. Each of the three of us had the chip lead at one point. - myself, Chris Bell and Gavin Smith who won it, and all three of us was the short stack at one point. At various times it looked like any one of the three of us would win or finish third.”

Arching his eyebrows, replaying the final table in his mind, “This might be one of the few tournaments that I ever finished second in and not been disappointed.”

PPT tournaments are open by invitation only to qualifying pros. Based on their performances in WPT events. Forrest remembers The PPT’s Mirage final table as a long round of nine or ten hours, “but with a nice structure so you got some play to it.”

As for the last hand at the PPT final table: “I had two 8s and Randy Jensen had ace-8. I was the chip leader at that point. We got all the money in pre-flop. The flop comes 4, 5, 7 and I’ve got the two 8s and Randy has ace-8 He needs an ace to win and a 6 to tie. So he’s screaming for a 6 and out jumps the 6 of clubs. At this point we’ve got what looks like a split pot with the 6, but there are three clubs on board and I’ve got the 8 of clubs in my hand. Still to come was the jack of clubs, which ended up giving me the win.

Big money and high drama, all in the same hand…

“Winning that one took a little of the sting out of finishing second in the other.”

There was just enough time to take a couple of deep breaths before getting ready for all the action associated with the 36th annual World Series of Poker.

Forrest is a previous winner of multiple gold World Series bracelets. Last year he took first place in the seven-card stud tournament and a $1,500 buy-in no limit hold ‘em tournament, the latter attracting a field of more than 830 players. Besides his recent first and second at The Mirage He has also won or placed at the final table in three other WPT events over the last year and a half or so.

“So it’s a good time to be rounding into form,” he says. “Let’s see if I can back it up with a strong World Series.”

Going into the recent Mirage tournaments, Forrest says he adjusted his style, deciding to generally go with stronger hands “so that when I was in there I pretty much had a hand to back me up.”

This may have ratcheted up the intimidation factor that was evident to some analysts whenever Forrest was in a big pot.

“I think players sensed I had a stronger hand than on average and that may have led to people being more inclined to get out of the way somewhat. One of my strong suits has always been a pretty good ability to adapt to changing conditions at the table, and in this case (going with stronger hands) looked like what was going to be necessary to get the job done.”

This year’s Series offers the opportunity to play more tournaments than in previousyears when he was splitting poker time between different locales.

“I’ve always been pretty busy going back and forth between Vegas and LA playing in Larry Flynt’s game at the Hustler Casino. This year the game has been on vacation so hopefully I can play in some more tournaments, but I’ve been hearing rumors we may get it going again. I sort of have mixed feelings because I want to get Larry’s game cranked back up, but I would also like to play in some more tournaments.”

The Flynt game usually ranges from limits of oneand three-thousand to fourand eight-thousand.

The poker in Forrest’s life did not always involve such breath-taking stakes. He was working at a hotel near the Grand Canyon years ago after leaving school, enjoying the dollar limit games that generally coincided with payday, usually doing well, usually managing to win at least as much as his check.

Those games also brought him to a life-changing moment.

“One of the worst players in those games,” he remembers, “made a trip to Caesars Palace and came back talking about how he won something like $275 in a one and five stud game.”

Talk about inspiration.

Forrest gave the situation some thought, deciding, “if this guy can win, then I’m certain I can win.”

He had seldom been so certain of anything. “I started making occasional trips to Laughlin and Las Vegas, playing like one-four stud, going up as high as maybe three-six or foureight hold ‘em.”

He smiles, giving this a shrug. “I did pretty well and began to get the feeling I could make a living at poker, so I moved to Las Vegas.”

Forrest advanced slowly, “probably more slowly than I had to but I tried to wait until I considered myself one of the best players around at a particular level. I suppose I played six months of poker before I ever jumped in a five-ten game.”

Forrest is one of the crew of Vegas poker pros who have participated in the high stakes Texas hold ‘em games that pitted them against Beal, the Dallas banker. These were games with limits of five and six figures. Most of the action took place in the Bellagio’s poker room. Beal went home months ago and has apparently not returned.

There have been onagain, off-again efforts to create the “biggest game ever played” with Beal in a starring role, Beal and the group of Vegas pros each putting up $40 million. But the Paris peace talks that ended the Vietnam war came off with fewer hitches than the efforts aimed at getting both sides back to the table.

Forrest remains confident it will all work out one day. Why?

“Once hold ‘em gets into your blood, it doesn’t leave. Let the players beware. I think that when Andy is ready, he will show up and play a strong game. I think the big game is gonna happen . . . “

Forrest hesitates, his thoughts turning a corner, “But to be honest, I think that in the next few years the big game is going to happen with or without Andy. You know, there is so much money coming to poker tables everywhere because of these on-line poker sites. The games figure to get higher and higher.”

There will be people making big money and anxious to invest it in other games.

Forrest explained, “There are a lot of new, young Internet players coming up. Most people may not know who they are yet, but they are very strong players. The interestingthing about the Internet is that these players experience a very sharp learning curve because they are playing so many hands an hour. They may be playing four games at a time being dealt two- or three-hundred hands an hour.”

The net effect of all this playing time?

“They are getting 10 years worth of experience in just a year or two. Poker is definitely a place where a smart person has a good chance at being successful. I think there are more and more people exploring poker for this reason.” Forrest thinks about this and continues, “Poker has never been more convenient. You want to sit there in your bathrobe and play you can do that. You’re not gonna have anyone yelling at you and you can curse at your computer.”

He smiles and scrunches his face into a look that asks, could anyone want more than this?

Has Forrest treated himself to anything special, considering the extent of his recent success?

He shakes his head. “I’m going to wait till after the World Series to treat myself to anything special. First, there is the job to be done. I’ll just take each day as it comes, decide if I should play in a tournament, or, ifthere’s a good side game should I play that?”

There is also “the unknown” as he puts it . . . whether the California game at Flynt’s place will start back up or not. Serious big money poker pro cannot afford to overlook that kind of opportunity.

Filed under: Poker News