BILLIONAIRE GAMBLER™: mathematician

Andy Beal
Billionaire banker from Texas &
high stakes heads-up limit hold'em poker player

Net Worth:

US$8.5 billion (March 2013)

Born November 11, 1952 Lansing, Michigan, U.S
Lives in Dallas, Texas.
Father of six
Divorced two times (spouse1, Simona Beal)
A self-made billionaire
Banker
Founder and chairman of Beal Bank and the now-dissolved Beal Aerospace Technologies
Graduate, Sexton High School, Lansing MI but dropped out after becoming bored with the classes.
Attended Michigan State University and Baylor University
At age 19 he bought a house for $6,500 and rented it for $119 a month which led to his first gain as a businessman.
Played blackjack as a youth.
1981- He started buying property that no one else wanted and made it profitable.
1988 – Opened first bank in Dallas (later renamed Beal Financial)
1993 – Discovery of conjecture (mathematical number theory). Has offered $100,000 for its proof or disproof.
2000 – Bought over 1 billion commercial loans and collected on the debts.
After September 11, 2001 – Began buying airline bonds. He makes about $70 million a year from those bonds.
2001 – Began visiting Bellagio to participate in high stakes poker games. Andy Beal was 48 years old in 2001
BETWEEN 2001 AND 2006 – Began playing The Corporation

His long series of ultra high-stakes heads-up battles were featured in the Michael Craig book The Professor, the Banker and the Suicide King

High Stakes Heads-Up Limit Hold' Em

Greatest Feat:
During visits to Las Vegas between 2001 and 2004, Beal participated in high-stakes poker games against professional players. The games included USD$100,000 to $200,000 limit Texas Hold 'Em poker. On May 13, 2004, at the Las Vegas Bellagio, Beal won one of the largest single hands in poker history, $11.7 million.The games have been chronicled in the Michael Craig book, “The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King: Inside the Richest Poker Game of All Time.”

While the games outlined in Craig's book ended in 2004, Beal returned to Las Vegas from February 1–5, 2006 to again take on "The Corporation" in a $50,000/100,000 Limit Hold 'Em match at the Wynn Las Vegas Casino. Opponents included Todd Brunson, Jennifer Harman, Ted Forrest, and others.

Phil Ivey vs Andy Beal

On February 5, 2006, Beal was down $3.3 million (USD). He then returned to the Wynn Casino a week later, and won approximately $13.6 million from the Corporation during daily poker sessions from February 12–15. The games resumed February 21–23, with world champion poker player Phil Ivey representing the Corporation against Beal at limits of $30,000/60,000 and $50,000/100,000. During these three days, Beal lost $16.6 million to Ivey.

Andy Beal High Stakes Heads-Up Limit Hold' Em strategy:

Step 1. Play nearly every hands
Raise (most of the time) every pot he enters
Step 2. Check-call all the way down to the river with any A-high hand
8-bets the turn with two pair
Step 3. Obsession with preventing tells

Why is Andy Beal so good?

a) Obsession

b) Specialization
c) Mathematical approach

d) High stakes

e) Ultra-aggressive
f) Impossible to read