Mike Matusow Loses $2 Million to Ted Forrest on Bet

Poker pros Mike Matusow and Ted Forrest bet in May that Forrest, then weighing 188 pounds (85 kilograms), couldn’t get under 139 pounds (63 kilograms) by either 15 July or 15 September this year. Well, he could.

Ted Forrest and Mike Matusow

Forrest wasn’t allowed to use surgery or drugs, but he didn’t need to: with 3 practices a day, walking four miles instead of having dinner and applying a cleansing diet, he dropped to 170 pounds (77 kilograms) by the first week of June and eventually reached the honourable 139 pounds. On 13 July in the Pavilion room of the Rio, he weighed 138 pounds, relieving Matusow of $2 million.

Ted Forrest weighing

The bet was about Forrest winning this amount in case of dropping under 139 pounds by 15 July, or $1 million if he did so by 15 September. Had he been unable to do so by either of the two deadlines, he would have had to pay Matusow $150,000.

Matusow didn’t want to believe in Forrest’s success until the last moment: “He has no chance, I think he might die. I had him sign a death certificate to be paid if he dies.” He also said earlier that he expected Forrest to “easily get down to 152” but after that, he had to “starve himself and reform his whole body.” Eventually, he concluded on his Twitter that Forrest was the ‘craziest guy’ he had ever met. “I didn’t do it for the money. Somebody, who is important to me, had to see that impossible is possible” Forrest replied.

Even though the bet wasn’t the first of its kind between them, or among the members of the poker pro community for that matter, they admittedly made it while drunk.