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#313 – Moments of 2007, Part X – Bellagio in Springtime – The Ted Forrest Chipmobile
This is about a trip I took to Ted Forrest’s girlfriend Roxana’s house one night. It would be my first meeting with Ted since he won the WPT Shooting Stars championship. This is only part of the entry, though the original only catches glimpses of the bizarre and exciting energy field that surrounds Forrest in his daily life.
I got over to Roxana’s at a little after 11 PM, just before Ted. Roxana was cooking dinner. She is an excellent cook and, in the old world tradition, instinctively sensitive about you not eating her cooking. She made a chicken dish, a rice dish, a soup, a salad, and brewed tea.
Ted soon arrived and laid waste to the delectable spread. Roxana is also very health conscious (which make her and Ted a very odd couple, though Ted will probably live longer for it), and told me her latest cause was raw organic pumpkin seeds. This was the reason why Middle Eastern men didn’t have prostate problems, and she gave me a bag and passed a bag to Ted.
Ted Forrest will eat just about anything but he looked suspiciously at the seeds, eating a couple. Then he “accidentally” spilled the bag on the floor. I wasn’t nearly as crafty. I simply left mine behind.
Our discussion turned to an old topic, Ted’s automobile. He had that yellow Firebird with the eagle decals when I met him and I think it’s had a hard five-or-so years. I keep trying to talk him into buying a new car. (Roxana is doing the same.)
I know money means nothing to Ted but with that $1.1 million rattling around, couldn’t he take a little chunk and finally get a new car?
Surprisingly, he was receptive to it. My secret agenda, to go car shopping with Ted Forrest, was on the brink of being realized.
“How about it we go when I come back in for the WPT Championship?”
He started to balk, and I could see his mind working. Shouldn’t I buy it AFTER the Championship?
That kind of thinking – Ted doesn’t care about cars, either – is exactly why he’s driving a five year-old yellow Firebird with eagle decals. If he just won $1.1 million, why does he need to “accomplish something” to buy a car?
I headed him off at the pass. “Think of it Ted. Buy the car to reward yourself BEFORE you play.”
That apparently struck a chord and he was in agreement. I asked, him, “What kind of a car do you want?”
“One with good air conditioning. I think the air conditioner is about shot on this one.”
I explained that Mercedes makes good air conditioners, and they have a dealership just a mile from his house. In fact, with their nationwide roadside assistance and loaner-car program, he can just drop his car off or have them pick it up (even on his weekly business trips to L.A.) and lose no time to get it fixed or serviced.
Roxana: “Ted, do you think you’re ready to give up Old Yeller?”
Ted: “Sure. I don’t have any attachment to that car.”
Roxana (to me, in a low voice): “Make sure you have it detailed and you watch them. The car has chips.”
I thought she meant “paint chips” from door dings and the like, so I acted like she meant “potato chips” because I’ve seen the inside of that car and it sometimes looks like it doubles as a mobile dining room. Ted quickly set me straight.
Ted: “They say the best bet in poker is if Ted Forrest is selling a $2,000 car, you should buy it for $6,000.”
Roxana: “That’s why you have to be on the lookout for chips.”
Mike: “Ohhh, THOSE chips.”
Ted: “Once, I found $75,000 in chips under the seat.”
Mike: “Alright, that’s definitely going in the blog.”
Roxana: “Nooo, don’t write that, Michael. It sounds terrible.”
Ted: “No, go ahead and write it. Maybe it’ll drive the price up and I can get some poker player to buy it for $45-50,000. I could take sealed bids in the poker room.”
Postscripts:
(1) Ted busted during the first hour of the WPT Championship. We’ve never discussed it but I keep thinking of hurt his mojo by getting him to buy the car.
(2) Ted eventually got that Mercedes, a beautiful S 550. The air conditioning broke down after less than a month.
(3) He did NOT trade in the Firebird. I wanted to sell it for him on eBay as a poker relic but he sold it for $800 to a door-to-door auto-body salesman. And had to give the guy $200 back the next day when the buyer complained about problems with the car.
