Amarillo Slim Preston

Amarillo Slim is one of the best-known professional gamblers today. Born Thomas Austin Preston, Jr. on December 31, 1928, in Johnson, Arkansas; he is known for his exceptional poker skills and proposition bets. He is a part of the Poker Hall of Fame, and was one of the first people to win in the World Series of Poker main event in 1972.

Amarillo Slim's reputation as a tournament poker player is quite widespread, but before his rise to poker fame, he was a rounder. A rounder is a skilled poker player who travels to different places in search of high stakes poker games. Preston toured the United States with other famous gamblers, Doyle Brunson and Sailor Roberts. He was one of the first people to bring the game of Texas Hold'em to Las Vegas in 1967, where it eventually became one of the most popular poker game variants in the world.

The World Series of Poker was established in 1970, and during this time, only a small number of entrants joined. In 1972, one of the eight entrants in that year's World Series of Poker event was Amarillo Slim himself. His victory in that year's WSOP main event gave him a sixty thousand dollar prize, as well as a chance to appear on several different talk shows at the time; one of which was "The Tonight Show." This victory opened several doors for Preston, such as a part in the 1974 Robert Altman film, "California Split," as well as a game show called "I've Got a Secret."

Since 1972, he has won four World Series of Poker bracelets, including his first main event victory. In 1974, he won eleven thousand, one hundred dollars in a one thousand dollar buy-in game of No Limit Hold'em. In 1985, he won eighty five thousand dollars in a five thousand dollar buy-in game of Pot Limit Omaha, and one hundred and forty-two thousand dollars in 1990 in another such World Series of Poker event. All in all, he has won well over five hundred and ninety thousand dollars in tournament play, as of 2008.

Aside from being a prominent and skilled professional gambler, Preston is also an author. In 1973 Grosset and Dunlap published "Play Poker to Win," a poker strategy book he co-wrote with Bill G. Cox. This book was revised and published by HarperCollins in 2005, as "Amarillo Slim's Play Poker to Win," and continues to make brisk sales.