Our Verdict:
"They anticipate losing when they sit down and I try my darndest not to disappoint one of them," says Thomas Preston aka 'Amarillo Slim.
With his stick-thin 6ft 4in frame, cowboy hat and ostrich skin boots 'Amarillo Slim' Preston has been one of the most recognisable and accomplished players in the game of poker since the 1950s. He has even played poker with two US presidents as well as drug lord Pablo Escobar.
Preston has won four World Series of Poker bracelets, including the main event in 1972, but is known for being not only a great card player, but also a great gambler. His book, 'Amarillo Slim in a World Full of Fat People', is a joy for any gambler to read, detailing as it does a long list of Slim's most outrageous proposition bets.
He is willing to wager on absolutely anything, especially if he has the added advantage of being able to attach conditions to the wager. For example, he bet he could beat a Chinese table tennis champion at his own game. Slim, of course, got to choose the bats and chose Coke bottles. Months of practice ensured that Slim triumphed with the champ unable to take a single point off him.
Along with Doyle Brunson, Amarillo Slim is one of the last of the men that currently play at the World Series of Poker, who competed at the original event in 1970. In 2000, he finished second to Phil Ivey in the Pot Limit Omaha event missing his fifth bracelet by one spot.
However, in the last few years scandal has tainted what has been a remarkable career. In 2003 Preston was indicted on three charges of indecency with his 12-year-old grand-daughter. The charges were reduced to misdemeanor assault in a plea bargain and in 2004 he pleaded guilty to the reduced charges.
Many poker commentators have remarked about how tragic it is that arguably one of the greatest, and certainly most well-known, poker players of the past will be remembered for being a child molester.
Nicolas Cage is producing and starring in a movie about Slim, adapted from his book, and this is scheduled for release in 2008. There is a hilarious debate on movie database www.imdb.com about who should play Doyle Brunson in the upcoming film with suggestions ranging from James Gandolfini to Bruce Willis.
But final word goes to Slim, who said: "I never go looking for a sucker - I look for a champion and make a sucker out of him."
WSOP Main Event Wins:
1972 ($80,000)