FULL TILT POKER BLOG

#307 – Moments of 2007, Part VI – NBC Heads-Up Championship – Forrest v. Farha Redux

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The NBC Heads-Up Championship was my first attempt at covering an event for the blog. The tournament room behind Caesars’ regular poker room was converted into a TV stage and I set my computer up at the back of the bleachers and posted almost 20,000 words over several days. The event was star-studded, of course, and the series of matches made it much easier than at a traditional tournament to get close to the action and interact with the players.

During the second bracket of the first round, the spades bracket, I decided to sit behind Ted Forrest and watch, close-up, his match with Sam Farha. The Forrest-Farha matchup was one of the most intriguing of the first round. They played an epic match last year that lasted longer than any in the short history of the Championship. They maxed out the blinds and both men were almost down to the felt. Ted, of course, prevailed and went on to win, but either man could have won.

I took the corner seat in the bleachers behind table 3. It was actually a great vantage point. I was sitting about five feet to Ted’s left. The dealer partly blocked me from Sam. Ted arrived a couple minutes before 2, wearing a Full Tilt baseball cap. The cap didn’t look quite right on Ted. I don’t know why; he’s just not a baseball cap guy.

Ted sits waiting in the last few moments, hands clasped in front of him. Placid.

Sam Farha arrives to applause. Ted gets up to shake his hand, but Sam is immediately intercepted by two people who start working on him. One fastens a microphone through his shirt. Another slaps pancake make-up on his face.

Roxanna, Ted’s girlfriend and business partner, came into the room just as the players were gathered for the group picture. I was (reluctantly) prepared to give her my seat, but she decided not to watch. “I get sick watching,” she told me. “Ted’s fine with going up and down in these things but it’s hard for me. I’ll be in the coffee shop.” I promise to call her with the outcome.

By 2 PM, everyone is seated and they are ready to start.

Almost.

Shana Hiatt records the intro but keeps stumbling over a line, so she has to repeat it. She walks the room, listing the pairings, a camera trailing with a mobile monitor floating above it.

As Shana tries to get it right yet again, Sam Farha takes a cell call. As the camera follows her to Table 3, she stumbles over “defending heads up champion” and they have to start again.

Hand 1 – Ted’s button. They limp and check and call and check. Kd-3h-6h-Th-7s. Sam bets on the end. Ted raises. Sam folds.

Sam: “You know it’s bad luck to win the first hand.”

What about the first four? Sam doesn’t win until he dons a pair of jazzy shades before Hand 5. Sam has a little different look today than I’m used to. He’s wearing a wild paisley shirt, untucked over blue jeans. The unlit cigarette is nowhere to be seen.

Sam wins the next four hands. They are only 11 hands into it, mostly small pots with a lot of limping, calling, and checking, when at 2:15 PM, we hear, “Antonio is all in.”

Ted: “What?”

“And Tuan calls.”

Sam takes down hand 11 as Tuan Le eliminates Antonio Esfandiari.

Tuan walks by and says, “Okay Ted, get ready.” I assume this is a humor dig at Sam, that Tuan is playing the winner of this match and he’s joking that he thinks it’s going to be Ted. But Tuan is playing the winner of T.J. Cloutier and Cyndy Violette, so I have no idea what he meant.

Sam takes the lead in the match on Hand 14. I can’t see his hand but Ted shows Q-4 for top pair/awful kicker after a board of Js-Qs-7d-3c-Th.

The blinds go up at 2:20 PM (15 minute levels).

Ted takes hand 17 – yet another unraised pot where the bettor after the flop takes it – when we hear “all in at the feature table.” Moneymaker and Hachem are all-in and Hachem wins.

Sam and Ted trade small pots until Hand 23. On Ted’s button, he raises and Sam calls. The flop is Ad-3s-9d. Sam checks, Ted bets, and Sam check-raises. It was a big raise, to 3,000, and Ted Calls. After the eight of hearts, Sam bets 5,000. Ted folds.

Suddenly, I notice no one is kidding around. Sam isn’t shooting his smile – which is, truly, a move-star smile – any more.

I notice Sam is pursing his lips and very slowly blowing out air. A phantom-unlit-cigarette withdrawal symptom?

On hand 26, after a flop of Qd-5d-8s, Ted bets and is called. Seven of spades on the turn. Ted bets 800, call. Six of clubs on the river. Sam bets. Ted exhales, looks at his cards, and folds.

Sam bets Ted out of Hand 29. It seems like Sam’s betting every hand and winning. But this, I think, is where Ted is truly dangerous, when you think he’s ready to go out.

On the very next hand, Hand 30, there is betting on every street. Ted bets 3,000 on the river. Sam takes his time, glances behind, and finally calls. Ted shows Q-J, after a board of J-6-T-A-9 and takes it.

Ted wins another big pot in Hand 32, turning a straight.

On hand 35, Ted raises on his button, but folds when Sam reraises.

After hand 39 at 2:41 PM, Sam says something to Ted, “let’s make a bet ….” I think they are talking about the likelihood that their match, like last year, will outlast all the others in the round. They don’t bet.

Sam wins a big pot in hand 38. After Ted folds his button on hand 39, Sam says, “first time I see A-K today.”

After hand 42, I hear someone on their cell phone behind me. “Yeah, I got Doyle Brunson to sign the back of my magazine.”

During hand 46, Nam Nam Le and Greg Raymer get it all-in. Le wins and takes a big lead.

Sam moves all-in after the turn on this hand, and Ted immediately folds.

They are both in for the minimum on hand 47. After a flop of 3d-6d-Ks, Ted bets and is called. They check down after 5h and Qh. Sam calls out “small pair.” Ted shows J-5 and takes it.

After hand 48, we hear that Greg Raymer wins an all-in hand.

Suddenly, after hand 50, Ted and Sam both leave the table. I think they’ve taken an unscheduled bathroom break, despite the earlier announcement that there will be no breaks once the matches are underway.

Ted has about 12,000 in chips left.

Before they return, Nam Le’s straight beats Raymer’s three of a kind.

They are back at 2:58 PM. Blinds are 400-800. (They started at 100-200.)

By hand 54, Sam has 30,000 in chips. He wins the next 3 hands, too.

On hand 59, Ted’s button, he calls. Sam raises. Ted reraises to 3500. Sam moves all in and Ted immediately calls.

Sam has queens, Ted has kings.

Shawn Sheikhan and Gus Hansen look on.

Shawn: “Kings come and go but ladies are forever.”

David Levi, watching Elezra with Eli’s wife, says, “It’s 50/50.”

Not this time. Ted’s kings hold up and he doubles up. On the next hand, after a board of 4c-Qd-4s-8c-2h, Sam bets and Ted says, “I’m all in.” Sam thinks it over, holding up his cards. I see one of them is a queen. But he folds.

The crowd across the room howls as Jeff Shulman hits a two-outer on the river to win a 16,000 pot and stay alive against Annie Duke.

3:10 PM – The blinds are now 600-1200.

Sam: “Sounds really high.”

Ted: “Just deal. It’s not like it’s going to change now.”

On hand 65, Ted calls on his button and Sam raises. Ted says, “I’m all in” and Same instantly calls. Instantly. Ted has Sam covered by 4,000 or so chips. Ted has Ad-9c. Sam has T-T.

Shawn, still watching, says, “Even money.”

Sam’s hand holds up and he has Forrest down to 4,000 chips.

On hand 68, Ted moves all-in for his last 3,000 after a flop of 3-7-J. Sam shows a 3 and folds.

On hand 70, after Sam limps, Ted moves all-in for 4,800. Sam calls. Ted has Qh-6h. Sam has 9s-5s.

Sam takes the lead on the flop of 9c-Tc-Kh. But Ted picks up a queen on the turn and, though he doesn’t need it, a six on the river. This puts him just below 10,000 chips.

On Hand 75, Ted’s button, Ted moves all-in for 8,000 and Sam calls.

Ted: “Stop the clock.” I noticed that Ted said that before. It seems like that suggests he thinks he’s going to win, though it’s really just good thinking. It takes time for the cameramen to come over, a delay that would speed up the already high blinds.

Sam has As-Ks. Ted has 6d-6s.

Sam never improves, however, and Ted doubles up to 16,000.

By hand 78, Ted Forrest has retaken the lead.

Just after 3:30 PM, the blinds rise to 1,000-2,000. That’s as high as they go on the dealer’s card, making it the second year in a row they maxed out the blinds. A couple hands later, they find out that the blinds will continue to rise.

On hand 86, Sam’s button, after a flop of 8c-4s-5s, Ted bets 6,000. Sam moves all-in. Ted calls.

Ted has Ts-2s for the flush draw. Sam has 4h-5h for two pair.

The turn is the queen of diamonds.

Sam: “Run it twice?”

Ted: “Just once.”

The river is the king of spades and Ted doubles up, nearly eliminating Sam. In fact, they have to count the chips because it was so close.

Sam: “It’s unreal.”

Sam has 1,800 left, putting him all-in on the small blind.

Ted calls on hand 87 with Q-h-3d. Sam has 2d-6s. But Sam stays alive, flopping a deuce and eventually making a flush four spades. Now he has 3,600.

On hand 88, Sam’s big blind, he folds despite having 1,000 of his chips already in the pot. “It’s so sad. I can’t even call. He shows 4-7o.

On hand 89, they are all-in. Sam didn’t even look but turns over Qc-Jc. Ted – “I looked” – turns over As-Kd. After a flop of 9c-3c-9d, Sam picks up a queen on the turn and a jack on the river to stay alive again.

On hand 90, Sam moves all-in on his button for 5,200. T.J. apparently has just sucked out and beaten Cyndy Violette, leaving this once again the final match.

Ted has 8h-5h. Sam has Kh-3h.

As-8d-Js. Ted takes the lead with the eight. Sam gets no help from the nine of hearts on the turn or the seven of diamonds on the river and is eliminated.

Ted wins and advances. I call Roxanna to tell her. She is in her car. “I was sick just sitting in the casino watching. I can’t stand it.” She comes back as part of some ritual they have.

She also brings me some pictures she told me about last year, sent from Ted mother in New York. They were taken when Ted was five years old and his father, on the faculty at Berkeley at the time, was teaching him chess. They were very cool pictures, including some where Ted is standing over his father, apparently in victory. There is something unusual about the pictures, which include some of Ted teaching three girls from the neighborhood how to play chess. Ted’s dad has this look on his face when his son is closing in on victory. His arms are crossed, and his eyes and his lips look thin and narrow. I know that look.

It was on his son’s face during most of the match with Sam Farha.

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