At 62 years of age, billionaire Andy Beal hasn’t made too many mistakes in his life. He’s a banker, an investor, a superb businessman, and a dabbling mathematician. The only areas of his life that’s really given him trouble is his passion for the game of poker, and while he’s undeniably good at it, Beal has had the worst of luck against some of the world’s highest ranked pros.
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Back in 2001, the founder of Beal Bank and Beal Aerospace Technologies began taking on members of an elite group of poker players known as ‘The Corporation’. It started innocently enough when Beal took a trip to Las Vegas and decided to hit up to $15/$30 Holdem tables at the Bellagio. He was doing so well that he gradually worked his way up to $400/$800 stakes. That’s when Todd Brunson, son of ‘The Godfather of Poker’, Doyle Brunson, took notice.
The junior Brunson challenged Beal to a game. When he lost to the business magnate, Beal was invited to Bobby’s Room, a special high-stakes poker room where the top pros gather. Andy agreed and quickly took the group for another $100k. The Corporation wanted their money back, but Andy played it smart, agreeing to play them all in heads-up matches only (to avoid potential collusion). The original Corporation included seven poker phenoms; Doyle “Texas Dolly” Brunson (the leader), Chau Giang, David Grey, Jennifer Harman, John Hennigan, Howard Lederer and Chip Reese. |
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Back and forth they went for 5 years, exchanging multi-million dollar leads over the course of play. In that time, several more players joined The Corporation, including Todd Brunson, Lyle Berman, Johnny Chan, Ted Forrest, Barry Greenstein and Phil Ivey. Finally, in 2006, the long-term challenge ended when Beal took on Ivey in a 3 day session. Over the first two days, Ivey scooped $6 million from Beal, finishing him off on day 3 with another $10 million routing.
From that moment, Andy Beal swore off poker games with anyone from The Corporation. Until now…
Over the weekend, Beal returned to Las Vegas to take on 45 year old Todd Brunson once more. The two brought $5 million each to the table, playing high-stakes poker for a total of 8 hours. Fellow poker pro Kyle Loman was there, and kept everyone informed of the action by way of his Twitter feed. When it was all over, @Kloman22 tweeted:
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
— Kyle Loman (@Kloman22) January 24, 2015
The story of Andy Beal’s epic loss was later confirmed by Todd Brunson on his own Twitter feed with a series of posts:
Dinner, darts, drinks very possible tonight. Life is good!!!!!!
— Todd Brunson (@ToddBrunson) January 25, 2015
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
— Todd Brunson (@ToddBrunson) January 26, 2015
They sat us immediately at the nicest table they have. Employees keep coming over saying congrats. Lol
— Todd Brunson (@ToddBrunson) January 26, 2015
In the end, it was only Andy Beal’s pride that took a lashing last weekend at the poker tables in Las Vegas. At present, the Dallas-based banker/investor/business aficionado is ranked #38 on the Forbes 400 of wealthiest people in America, estimated to be worth about $12.1 billion.
