The Legandary Texan: Amarillio Slim

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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 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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