A
facetious gambler, raconteur, a poker ambassador and an old school
relic, Thomas
Austin Preston Jr.
also known as “Amarillio
Slim”,
was once noted a wise man that you can shear a sheep a hundred times,
but you can skin it only once.
He spent his life proving this to be true, taking on and beating the opposition at every form of wagering known to man, and a few that Amarillo Slim devised on the spot. Slim was one of the original road warriors of poker, forming a deadly partnership along with Sailor Roberts and Doyle Brunson. They would pool their resources, help one another out when possible, and travel the country shearing the sheep.
The
"poker
trio"
started
with all sorts of gambling and travelled from town to town to make
dollars or two. In fact, if there was anything that would give them
an edge over their opponents, they played poker
over
and over again. As a poker player, Amarillo
Slim
rides on the edge of out and out excellence, winning 5
WSOP bracelets,
including the main event in 1972, forever leaving his mark in poker
history. He was inducted into the Poker
Hall of Fame
in 1992.
He
is also well known for the crazy "proposition"
bets he's won - including playing one-pocket pool with Minnesota Fats
using a broom handle, golf with Evil Knievel using a carpenter's
hammer, ping-pong with Bobby Riggs using an iron skillet, beating
Larry Flynt at poker for $2,000,000, and beating Willie Nelson for
$300,000 playing dominoes. He has also played poker with presidents
Lyndon
Johnson and
Richard
Nixon,
and drug lords Pablo
Escobar
and Jimmy
Chagra.
Amarillo
Slim is much more than just a poker player though, he is a
Texas treasure, a great story teller, and a character of the world.
Amarillo Slim Preston is the poker icon and a hero known the world
over as a man who will bet on just about anything.
The
Controversy
Being
one of the greatest profiles in history of poker, Amarillo
Slim finally decided to settle down with gambling. In March 2003 a
grand jury indicted on three charges of indecency with his grand
daughter. Thereafter, the poker legend endured an embarrassing
legal ordeal, saw his family ripped apart and watched helplessly as a
whirlwind media circus blew his reputation away like West Texas
prairie dust. He was fined $4,000, given two years probation and
ordered to undergo counseling. This may have prompted Amarillo's
gambling in public to an end, seeing as a lot of players met him with
disgust after the tragic event.
The
Downfall
While
other less deserving best poker players got rich and
famous in recent years, Slim missed the poker boom entirely. Many of
his old friends ignored him. A planned Hollywood movie about
Amarillio Slim's life that will be portayed by Nicolas
Cage, was dropped. Amarillio Slim's dexterity to peddle himself
in a genuinely likeable manner contributed boundlessly to pokers
acceptance in the modern poker world and brought flare to a
game that previously was thought of as seedy and repulsive.
Poker
is a game of people, It's not the hand I hold, it's the people that
I play with.
- Amarillio Slim
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