Andy Beal is a genius at putting together ventures which have made money, and like most entrepreneurs who have scaled the heights of one endeavor, sought to scale the heights of high stakes poker. Name: Andy Beal Birth Date: 1952 Birth Place: Lansing, Michigan, USA Current Residence: Dallas, Texas, USA. Andy Beal is a well-known businessman based in Dallas, Texas who made his fortune in banking and real estate. In the poker world, he is known for his high-stakes poker.

He's back! Andy Beal was spotted late Friday night and early Saturday morning playing heads-up limit hold'em with blinds of $50,000/$100,000 in Bobby's Room at Bellagio against Todd Brunson. According to poker pro Kyle Loman, who was live tweeting the match while playing in a different game outside the high-stakes room, each bought in for $5 million, and when all was said and done, Brunson held all the chips.

Few amateur players have shook the poker world quite like Beal, a Texas billionaire who made his fortune through real estate and banking. In 2001 and 2004, Beal grew fond of playing high-stakes heads-up limit hold'em, which he played against a group of poker players nicknamed 'The Corporation' in a legendary game documented in Michael Craig's classic book, The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King: Inside the Richest Poker Game of All Time.

As Craig described it, Beal won and lost millions in the game as he circulated through players such as Ted Forrest, Jen Harman, Phil Ivey, and both Todd and Doyle Brunson. Despite winning a massive $11.7 million pot on May 13, 2004, Beal ended up quitting the game with a loss, only to return in Feb. 2006 for more action. He quickly lost $3.3 million, went on a three-day $13.6 million upswing, and then lost $16.6 million to Ivey in a separate three-day match. It was at that point Beal claimed he was done with poker.

Since then there have been rumors that Beal has dabbled in limit hold'em, his favorite game, which, earlier this month, scientists claimed they solved. Those rumors were unsubstantiated, but on Friday, Jan. 23, Beal's most recent return was confirmed thanks to the rise of social media and Loman's reports.

'Andy Beal playing HU 50K/100K with Todd Brunson in Bobby's Room. I'm about to lose my mind,' Loman reported in the first of a series of tweets. 'All pink 25K chips now. Todd with six million and Beal with four million+. If they started with five, which is what I thought I saw, Todd up a milly.

Loman did snap a quick picture (see right), one that shows 'Texas Dolly' sweating his son, and you can see that to the right.

Here are some other updates Loman tweeted throughout the night:

• 'There was almost 20 people in the room at the start of the game. Down to pretty much just Doyle watching now.
• 'Doyle went to bed it appears. The battle continues though'
• 'Todd continuing to win. Got about 8 million to Beal's 2.'
• 'Beal with a solid heater. Todd: 5.5 Beal 4.5'
• 'Todd Building towers. Looks about the same. His demeanor is the same as always. Sitting backward in the chair, his emotions unchanged.'
• 'Todd: 7 Beal: 3. There's only 3 people in Bobby's Room now. Todd, Beal, and the dealer.'
• 'Brunson crushing now. Has 8.5m+ to Beal's less than 1.5m'
• 'Todd just felted Beal. They fist bumped and he left the room. They're done for tonight. Todd wins 5 million. More updates tomorrow hopefully.'

So according to Loman, Brunson relieved Beal of $5 million. Brunson himself tweeted the following after the match had ended: 'We came to a nice steak house without a reservation. Big line. They asked if we were celebrating anything. I said yes I won 5 mil yesterday.'

Whether or not Beal will return remains to be seen, but if his past behavior is any indication, he'll return for another shot at besting Brunson, or whoever is willing to sit down and play him for such monster stakes.

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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]

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.

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