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. Authorities issued an arrest warrant Friday for Ted Forrest, a Las Vegas gambler with six World Series of Poker bracelets, on theft and bad check charges. Forrest, 51, has more than $6.3 million. 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.

No matter what anyone says, the game of poker is gambling at heart and that’s what makes it so dangerous for most of us. Poker can ruin lives in the blink of an eye IF responsibility is thrown out of the window and from a healthy fortune, one can end up with basically nothing. That’s what happened to many ‘top’ poker pros at one point or another.

This article is about those people and hopefully, it will be a lesson for all us, the poker pro wannabes, a lesson of responsibility and money management. No, we won’t talk about Tom Dwan or Phil Ivey, two wealthy players who are are enjoying the soft fields in Macau. We will actually talk about players who are truly in very tough spots with very little room for errors. Players like…

3. Ted Forrest

Almost two months ago, a piece of news re-emerged about Ted Forrest’s ‘gloomy’ financial situation. It seems the six-time WSOP bracelet winner tried to pass two bad checks totaling $125,000 more than three years ago and now he is being sued. Forrest signed a confession in 2013 admitting that he owed the Wynn Casino$270,000 and agreed to pay the money back. Two years later, the case was closed although the court records indicate the sum wasn’t paid in full, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Moreover, in September 2015, The Mirage Casino sued Forrest claiming he owed them $40,500 from a 2013 loan of $100,000. The casino eventually won the case and Forrest is now in a very tough situation with more and more debts piling up.

That doesn’t look good for the 52-year-old gambler and despite his 4th-place finish in this year’s WSOP Seven Card Stud Championship (he cashed in almost $73,000 but it’s quite possible the money never went into his pockets), he may be forced to join Erik Lindgren and file for bankruptcy protection… which brings us to our next ‘unworthy’ member of our list.

2. Erik Lindgren

A very likeable poker player in the early and mid 2000s, Erik Lindgren has morphed into a degenerate gambler who cannot be trusted anymore after the Black Friday of Poker. He was a member of the infamous Full Tilt Professionals and received a handful a paychecks before the Full Tilt closure.

But after the unfortunate event, everything went downhill in Lindgren’s life. He became obsessed with sports betting and he started asking for loans. Soon enough, those loans became debts he couldn’t repay and in November 2012, he entered a rehab program for the gambling addicts and filed for bankruptcy protection. More info emerged on Lindgren’s situation as Howard Lederer - founder and board member of Tiltware LLC, the company that launched Full Tilt - claimed FT loaned the gambler several million dollars before the Black Friday.

As a result, in 2015, PokerStars - the company who bought Full Tilt - sued Lindgren for not paying back around $2.5 million. And E-Dog filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Nevada for the second time in three years with over $8 million in total debts.

At the time of his second bankruptcy filings, Lindgren total assets were worth less than $50,000. That’s what irresponsible gambling can do to a man. And if you still don’t believe it, how about reading the ultimate example in Jamie Gold.

1. Jamie Gold

In 2006, Jamie Gold took the WSOP by storm and won the largest Main Event prize in history: $12 million. How could anyone go broke with all that money right? Well, unfortunately Jamie did it in one way or another.

Not long after the win, a television producer named Crispin Leyser claimed he is entitled to half of the $12 million prize as he had an agreement with Gold. Leyser eventually sued the 2006 WSOP Main Event champ and the lawsuit was settled which made many of the poker enthusiast believe that Gold actually gave up a big chunk of his 2006 winnings.

And the problems continued for the former champ: a failed reality TV-concept and business idea in Buzz Nation, not honoring sponsorships - we are referring to Bodog, Aced and the short-lived Jamie Gold Poker Room at the Tropicana in Las Vegas - plus some allegedly tax problems with the IRS. And if we also add his poker losses that came after 2006 and a 2013 news that talked about an auction for the 2006 WSOP Main Event gold bracelet, then we might be entitled to believe that Gold is totally broke.

Yes, he did tell us at this year’s WSOP that he’s back in the poker scene and that he wants to take the game seriously, yet, we’re pretty sure he won’t jump straight into the high stakes or even mid-stakes action. What he might try to do is move from the ground up.

Worth Mentioning

Of course, there are many other poker names rumored to be broke. We at PokerTube named just a few and if you still want us to continue with our list, we can also mention some other former Full Tilt Pros like Phil Gordon or Annie Duke. Both seemed to have moved away from the game of poker and are now entrepreneurs, philanthropists, decision strategists and professional speakers. But really, how successful are they? They may not be ‘totally’ broke but compared to the good soft 2000s, they are in a bit of a hole.

And to finish things up, we will let you, the poker community, fill in the gaps and give your take on the matter. Did we miss somebody? Do you have other important names in mind? Then start typing in the comment section below and complete the Top Pros Who May Be Totally Broke list.

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]

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.

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]

Ted Forrest 2020

References[edit]

Ted Forrest Prop Bets

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.

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