Amarillo Slim Preston Professional Poker Player WSOP Gallery of Champions

Amarillo Slim Preston is the
most famous professional
poker player to ever play the
game. No other person living
or dead ever brought more
attention to the game of poker,
or to himself.

Amarillo Preston

WSOP Gallery of Champions Poker Professional Player Biography

Amarillo
Slim
Preston

Amarillo Slim Preston is the most famous professional poker player to
ever play the game. No other person living or dead ever brought more
attention to the game of poker, or to himself.

After winning the World Series of Poker in 1972, Slim appeared on the
Tonight Show many times, did other television like 60 Minutes, Good
Morning America, the Tomorrow Show with Tom Snyder and appeared in
the Robert Altman movie California Split with George Segal and Elliot
Gould. More recently the attention he brought unto himself was due to
legal troubles leading to him pleading guilty to three misdemeanor
charges.

Now in his seventies, Slim continues to be one of the world's most
talented poker players, particularly in Pot Limit Omaha and Hold'em, and
No Limit Hold'em. His reading of the action in final table tournament
commentary is often amazingly accurate.

Amarillo Slim in a World Full of Fat People: The Memoirs of the Greatest
Gambler Who Ever Lived (HarperCollins, May 2003), includes tales of
Slim's life as a pool hustler, cardsharp, and proposition bettor mixed in
with age-old wisdom and poker secrets. Slim describes some of his
greatest gambling exploits–from winning the World Series of Poker in
1972 to creating proposition bets that rivaled the great Titanic
Thompson's to running the biggest black market in Europe during the
war while giving pool exhibitions (read: hustling) on military bases for
Uncle Sam.

Among his most famous bets, Slim beat Minnesota Fats playing pool with
a broom and Evel Knievel in golf with a carpenter’s hammer. He took
Willie Nelson for $300,000 playing dominoes; Bobby Riggs for $100,000
playing Ping-Pong (with a skillet!); and Bob Stupak pitching coins for
$65,000. He’s won bets for rafting down the "River of No Return," riding
a camel through the fanciest casino in Marrakesh, and driving a golf ball
more than a mile.

A few of his poker adversaries over the years have included presidents
Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon. His gambling adventures includes
stories about drug lords Pablo Escobar and Jimmy Chagra, Las Vegas
pioneers Benny Binion and Jimmy "the Greek" Snyder, as well as poker
luminaries Doyle Brunson and Johnny Moss. Slim has appeared on The
Tonight Show eleven times and will be making a national television tour
to promote the book.

PokerStars, the Biggest, Best
Online Poker Site.
Tournaments around the clock.
Win a seat into the WSOP
Main Event. Satellites,
Sit-n-go's, Stud, Omaha, Free
Tournaments. Play for free or
for real money.
More...