All Those Bracelets and He's Still Bouncing Checks

(Photo: Aichetron.com)

Despite winning over $6.3 million in tournament prize money and being a high-stakes cash game professional for many years, well-known poker professional Ted Forrest has hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons as an arrest warrant has been issued following the lodging of criminal proceedings by the Las Vegas Justice Court for allegations of intent to defraud and theft. Forrest’s attorney has released a statement denying the charges. This is undoubtedly a blow and a bit of an embarrassment for a player whose top live score was winning $1.1 million as the winner of the WPT Shooting Stars tournament in 2007.

Dave Palermo of the Las Vegas Journal Review reports that 51 year-old Forrest faces allegations that date back to October 28th 2012 and May 17th 2013, when two checks made out to the Wynn casino were issued for a total of $215,000 that subsequently bounced apparently due to insufficient funds being in the bank account linked to the checks. This matter has rumbled on for many years with Forrest’s lawyers claiming he does not owe the Wynn casino any money and the reason for the checks existing at all was to set up a line of credit at the casino.

The court papers do reveal, however, that Forrest, a six-time WSOP bracelet winner and a regular on popular poker TV shows such as High Stakes Poker, signed a ‘confession of judgment’ which admitted Forrest owed the Wynn casino $270,000 and the confession put into place an agreement whereby Forrest would pay off $10,000 in monthly installments for the next ten months then pay a final lump sum payment for the remaining balance of $170,000.

Oddly, the case died despite the papers revealing the debt was not cleared. There is a further allegation that Forrest owed round 40% of a $100,000 loan taken in 2013 from The Mirage Casino in Las Vegas in September 2015, but the papers do not confirm whether or not that balance has since been paid off. There clearly remains some distance between the accounts of both parties which points to an eventual legal hearing.

Forrest has always played a full and active part in the poker world, for better and for worse. As well as being a big winner in cash and tournament poker he won a big prop bet with Mike “The Mouth” Matusow in 2010 when The Mouth bet Forrest $2 million that Forrest could not drop from his starting weight of 186 pounds to 138 pounds. Starving himself almost to the point of illness, Forrest won the bet. Matusow reneged on paying and later in 2014 a Twitter row broke out between Forrest and Matusow as it was revealed Matusow had only paid a small portion of the $2 million owed to Forrest. Matusow blamed the collapsed Full Tilt and refused to pay up. Things got a little nasty and Matusow said at the time:

"Sorry Ted, if you think you're getting any more money, sue me. Stop lying about me to people in public or I will out you for the thief and crook that you are.”

This reminds me why I hate prop bets!

Off the table Forrest has endured some bad press. He was a major shareholder in the Ultimate Bet parent company Excapsa and it is widely believed that he received many millions of dollars in “distributions” from the company and when Excapsa floated on the London Stock Exchange. We all know how that ended, although Forrest was never cited in any wrongdoing other than criticism he was a part of the whole debacle as a part-owner.

Despite this association poker fans hugely respect Forrest’s achievements in the game. In 1993 Forrest burst onto the scene ten years before the poker boom, winning three bracelets that year in the $1,500 Seven Card Razz for $78,400, the $1,500 Omaha 8 or better for $120,000 and the $5,000 Seven Card Stud event for $114,000. He brought himself to the attention of the post poker boom audience when he secured his only No Limit Hold’em bracelet in 2004 as he won the $1,500 No Limit Hold’em bracelet, winning $300,300 in prize money. In 2014 he secured his sixth and final bracelet so far in the $1,500 Seven Card Razz tournament. Forrest achieved some success in the recent 2016 World Series of Poker when he finished fourth in the $10,000 Seven Card Stud Championship for $72,971, narrowly missing out on what would have been his seventh bracelet.

Forrest enhanced his fame between 2001 and 2004 by being one of the team of professional players that took on the billionaire businessman Andy Beal in the series of very high limit heads up cash games where limits ranged from $20,000/$40,000 to $100,000/$200,000, alongside fellow pros such as Todd Brunson, Jennifer Harman and later, in 2006, Phil Ivey, who beat Beal for over $16 million over three days. His achievements in poker has led to Forrest been touted as a potential inductee into the Poker Hall of Fame, although this has not happened yet.

Time will tell if there is any traction in the legal representations made by the Wynn Casino against Forrest. They seem irritated this matter has not been resolved earlier and have decided to take action, such is their right. It is also Forrest’s right to mount a robust defense in any legal way he sees fit and judging by his lawyers robust denial of Forrest’s culpability in this matter, it seems this matter is destined to be decided in court. This is never desirable for any party, but where money is concerned with most poker players, their financial dealings are never straightforward. But, as Forrest will no doubt be hoping the courts decide is true in his case, often the complex financial dealings of poker players are not necessarily dishonest or malicious in their intent.