A Brief Introduction
Amarillo Slim, was born in 1928 and known as Thomas Austin Preston Jr. He played Poker professionally and was notorious for his larger than life character and witty remarks during gameplay. His visual trademark was the wearing of a giant Stetson hat.
Amarillo Slim’s career as a gambler.
Amarillo Slim became famous in 1970 with the advent of the World Series of Poker (WSOP) in Las Vegas, featuring his favourite game, Texas Hold’em. As a result of both his initial interest but also his dedication and ability, he won millions. Not only did poker bring him riches, but also the opportunity of play it against President Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon, and Pablo Escobar, the notorious Columbian drug lord. Quite a mix!
In addition to that, the famous country singer Willie Nelson was defeated by him in dominoes where he won $300,000, proving that he could turn his hand to other games. It doesn’t end there – as the colourful character also won a table tennis match where he used frying pans and coke bottles for paddles. To call Slim a non-conventional gambler would be an understatement. Larry Flynt, the publisher of a well known adult magazine, played against Amarillo Slim too. Perhaps predictably Flynt went on to lose $2,000,000 in a poker game against Slim.
It’s certainly fascinating by modern standards that someone in every day life made such an impression and worked their way into positions where they were playing poker (and dominoes!) against celebrities, politicians and drug lords. There are aspects of course of it being a different era. In modern times the likes of onlinecasinobluebook.com often make playing casino games such as poker and blackjack something that is instantly available on any electronic device going, rather than a ‘place’ you have to go. I suppose that’s the modern age distilled really; the option to either have the experience of old, or fast track it in the here and now.
Amarillo Slim was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in 1992 and has competed in tournaments worldwide. This five-time Poker World Series winner also appeared in a movie called “All In”, a Poker Movie which was released in 2012 – also the year he passed away at the age of 83.
Final thoughts
Amarillo Slim is regarded as the greatest gambler of all time. He won bets in pool halls and on rivers, jail cells, and golf courses during his rich (in all senses of the word) gambling career. The man insisted he was not a compulsive gambler but a professional Poker player. According to his words in a book he published, he said that he didn’t specifically look for suckers. “Whenever I see a champion, I make a sucker out of him.” Slim consistently argued that knowing the odds is the key to winning. To him this applied both to casino games and also to sports betting, where of course there can be numerous variables at play at any given time. “It helps to know something other people don’t know.” he once said in an interview with NPR’s Scott Simon.
