Amarillo Slim History: Wild Stories from Niche Variants

By Mixed Game Masters Editorial • Last updated 2025-08-16

Thomas Austin “Amarillo Slim” Preston Jr. transformed poker from underground hustle to mainstream entertainment, winning the 1972 World Series of Poker Main Event in No-Limit Hold’em when only eight players entered the first $10,000 buy-in championship. His mastery extended far beyond Hold’em into Pot-Limit Omaha, where he captured two WSOP bracelets decades apart, proving that excellence in niche poker variants could create legends whose wild prop bets and outrageous stories would define an era.

The Texas Road Gambler Who Conquered Hold’em

Amarillo Slim’s path to poker greatness began not at felt-covered tables but in the Mexican quarter of Amarillo, Texas, hustling pool as a 15-year-old with a broomstick. After serving in both the Navy and Army from 1945-1948, where he ran black market operations and hustled shipmates so successfully he had to throw clothes overboard because his sea bags were full of money, Slim returned to Texas with $100,000 at age 19 (source).

He transitioned from pool hustling to bookmaking in the early 1960s, forming a legendary partnership with Doyle Brunson and Brian “Sailor” Roberts around 1960 after meeting them in a game above a feed store in Brenham, Texas. The trio became known as the Texas Rounders, traveling the dangerous “Bloodthirsty Highway” – a chain of back-room card games across Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana where violence was common and players regularly faced armed robberies.

They shared a single bankroll, watched each other’s backs, and helped popularize Texas Hold’em in Las Vegas in the late 1960s, after its initial 1963 introduction by Corky McCorquodale. As documented in our timeline of key innovations in poker history, their partnership lasted approximately seven years until a devastating $100,000 loss in Vegas forced them to temporarily retire from poker in 1964.

Master of Pot-Limit Omaha and Forgotten Variants

While Slim’s 1972 victory came in No-Limit Hold’em, his true tournament versatility emerged in Pot-Limit Omaha, where he won two WSOP bracelets decades apart. His 1985 victory in the $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha with Rebuys earned him $85,000 after defeating legendary cash game player Chip Reese heads-up, while his 1990 triumph in the $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha brought his largest single tournament cash of $142,000 at age 61 (source).

Slim’s versatility extended beyond Omaha to Seven Card Stud and Razz, both featured at his Amarillo Slim’s Super Bowl of Poker tournament series that ran from 1979 to 1991. This series became the second most prestigious poker tournament behind the WSOP, featuring multiple variants including Limit Seven Card Stud, Seven Card Razz, and various mixed formats that predated the modern H.O.R.S.E. tournaments by decades.

He also played Five-Card Stud extensively in cash games, famously saying he’d “rather catch frost on his winter peaches than play Five-Card Stud with Bill Boyd,” who dominated the variant in the early 1970s. His philosophy was simple: “I never go looking for a sucker. I look for a champion and make a sucker out of him.”

The Ping Pong Champion Who Played with Skillets and Coke Bottles

According to Slim’s own accounts in interviews and his autobiography, his most famous proposition bet involved challenging 1939 Wimbledon tennis champion Bobby Riggs to ping pong with one condition – he could choose the paddles. At the Bel Air Country Club, with $10,000 on the line, Slim handed Riggs two identical iron skillets. Having secretly practiced with skillets for months, Slim won 21-8, with Riggs “swinging that skillet like a fry cook on speed” (source).

As told in his memoir, seven months later in Knoxville, Tennessee, a man named Lefty approached Slim with a “friend” who could beat him at ping pong. The friend turned out to be the world table tennis champion from Taiwan. Knowing the champion would have practiced with skillets after hearing about the Riggs match, Slim arrived with two empty Coca-Cola bottles instead. He had discovered that only about “a sixteenth of an inch” on a Coke bottle would make the ball go over the net, practicing until he could hit it perfectly every time.

According to various accounts in interviews and his autobiography, his other legendary proposition bets included:

• Beat Minnesota Fats at pool using a broomstick after years of secret practice
• Defeated Evel Knievel at golf using carpenter’s hammers instead of clubs
• Won $300,000 from Willie Nelson playing dominoes on Fremont Street
• Bet $37,500 that a fly would land on a particular sugar cube
• Rode a camel through “the fanciest casino in Marrakesh, Morocco”
• Outran a racehorse by choosing a 50-yard out-and-back course

Playing Poker with Pablo Escobar and Presidents

According to stories Slim told in interviews and that appeared in obituaries, one of his wildest adventures involved being kidnapped by Pablo Escobar’s men while in Colombia for the grand opening of Casino de Caribe. Bound with wires and thrown into a helicopter, Slim faced accusations of working for the U.S. government. After proving his innocence, Escobar gave him a tour of Colombia. As the story goes, Escobar admired Slim’s gold-plated shirt buttons. As a gesture of gratitude for sparing his life, Slim later sent Escobar a set of his own gold-plated buttons, and months later, Escobar reciprocated by sending Slim a set of pure emerald buttons (source).

Slim’s poker opponents included U.S. Presidents Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon, with George Bush Sr. considering him a friend. He won $2 million from Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt in poker games, one of his largest documented single-opponent victories. His famous quote perfectly captured his approach: “You can shear a sheep a hundred times, but you can skin it only once.”

Television Stardom Brings Poker to Mainstream America

After his 1972 WSOP victory, Slim appeared on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson about a dozen times (most sources say 11), starting June 16, 1972, just one month after his championship. Carson became so comfortable with Slim that he began inviting him on every time Bob Hope was a guest “so Mr. Hope wouldn’t make him so darn nervous” – Slim had history with Hope from performing pool exhibitions for troops in Europe after WWII (source).

His television appearances extended to 60 Minutes, Good Morning America, I’ve Got a Secret (where his secret was losing $190,000 in one night of poker), and an hour-long appearance on Tom Snyder’s The Tomorrow Show with Benny Binion. In 1974, Slim played himself in Robert Altman’s critically acclaimed gambling film “California Split” starring Elliott Gould and George Segal.

His 2003 autobiography “Amarillo Slim in a World Full of Fat People” detailed his encounters with presidents, drug lords, and celebrities, originally planned as the basis for a Nicolas Cage biopic that was ultimately cancelled following Slim’s legal troubles.

The Angle Shooter Who Drew the Line at Cheating

Slim’s reputation for sharp practices was well-documented, most infamously in a Vienna heads-up tournament against amateur Ron Rose. When Rose bet with pocket kings on a king-high flop, Slim said “Let’s go!” but never actually called. Rose showed his winning hand thinking Slim had called, but Slim later claimed he said “Let’s go to the next hand,” not accepting the bet. Daniel Negreanu cited this as a classic angle shooting example (source).

His philosophy on ethics was clear: “The only two things in the world on the square are Coca-Cola and wrestling. And I’m a little dubious about Coca-Cola.” He distinguished between bluffing and cheating, arguing that poker involved acceptable deception and that anything legal was fair game.

A Legacy Tarnished but Contributions Undeniable

Slim’s remarkable career came crashing down in 2003 when he was indicted on three felony counts of indecency with his 12-year-old granddaughter. Though he pleaded no contest to reduced misdemeanor assault charges in February 2004, receiving only a $4,000 fine and two years probation with no jail time, the damage was irreversible. The poker community swiftly ostracized him, with only Doyle Brunson publicly defending his character based on their years traveling together (source).

Despite the controversy that overshadowed his final years, Amarillo Slim’s contributions to poker remain monumental. He transformed poker from smoky backrooms to mainstream entertainment, helped popularize Texas Hold’em in Las Vegas with the Texas Rounders, and proved that mastery of niche variants like Pot-Limit Omaha could create champions across multiple disciplines.

When Slim died on April 29, 2012, at age 83 in Amarillo, Texas, the poker world lost one of its most colorful characters. His four WSOP bracelets spanning from 1972 to 1990, his creation of the Super Bowl of Poker tournament series, and his role as poker’s first celebrity ambassador established the template for every poker personality who followed. Though his personal failings ultimately destroyed his reputation, Amarillo Slim Preston remains one of poker’s most influential figures, a master of multiple variants whose wild stories helped transform an underground game into a billion-dollar industry.