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Thomas Preston,
otherwise known as
Amarillo Slim was one of
the greatest gamblers of
the 20th century. He's
won bets not only in
pool halls and poker
games, but golf courses,
rivers and jail cells.
Preston, first rose to
national prominence when
he won the World Series
of Poker in 1972, he
insists he's not a
compulsive gambler. He's
a professional.
"In my humble opinion,
I'm no ordinary
hustler," he writes.
"You see, neighbor, I
never go looking for a
sucker. I look for a
champion and make a
sucker out of him."
In Amarillo Slim in a
World Full of Fat
People, the consummate
gambler relives some of
his greatest exploits.
Among his famous victims
are country music legend
Willie Nelson - $300,000
playing dominoes and
adult magazine publisher
Larry Flynt - $2 million
in a poker game. In
recent interviews,
Preston tells that the
trick to winning lies in
knowing the odds.
"When you put down a
sports wager," he says,
"it helps to know
something other people
don't know."
It's a principle he's
put to use in creative
ways. In the 1970s, for
example, Preston
challenged former
Wimbledon champion Bobby
Riggs to a high stakes
game of Ping-Pong,
insisting only that he
be allowed to choose the
paddles. Riggs agreed
and was soundly beaten
when Preston showed up
with two cooking
skillets. Amarillo had
been secretly practicing
with for months.
Finding himself at a
gambling affair in
Florida when the event
itself was held up by
armed bandits, Thomas
Austin “Amarillo Slim”
Preston, Jr., like the
other patrons of this
event, was forced to lie
down on the floor at gun
point. His assailants,
recognizing this true
celebrity, told him he
alone could keep his
valuables. However,
concerned as to how this
would appear to his
fellow victims, Slim
insisted he be robbed as
well. A little more than
a week later, his money
and valuables were
anonymously returned to
him by his robbers. Call
it respect, or perhaps
more than a little fear,
but someone would have
to be a pretty
remarkable person to
elicit this sort of
behavior from total
strangers under any
circumstances.
Written by the man
himself, now aged 82,
Slim recalls some of his
greatest bets and how he
set them up, including
how he bet he could hit
a golf ball a mile, beat
the world champion at
ping pong at his own
game and out running a
horse for 100 yards.
Poker was a massive part
of Slims life, he played
poker with two
Presidents, the worlds
biggest drug dealer
Pablo Escobar, not
through choice, took 1.7
million dollars from
porn king Larry Flynt
and has 5 WSOP
bracelets, including
winning the tournament
in 1972.
Amarillo Slim Preston is
still active in his
trade spending a few
weeks playing in the
World Series of Poker in
Las Vegas - and he's
still a winner. |
