Interview

You can go here to listen to a great interview with Amarillo Slim by National Public Radio, be shur to select the extended version.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1273380

Slim’s Greatest Bets

1. Playing Minnesota Fats in one-pocket with a broom.
2. Taking 211/2 points on the Jets and winning a big bet on Broadway Joe in Super Bowl III.
3. Hitting a golf ball a mile on a frozen lake—inspired by Titanic Thompson.
4. Wagering that a cat could pick up a Coke bottle.
5. Betting on which sugar cube a fly would land on in an Arkansas jail.
6. Outrunning a horse for a hundred yards (no one ever said nothing about the race being a straight-away).
7. Holding a horse’s tail for a quarter of a mile in San Angelo, Texas.
8. Broad jumping farther than a superior athlete at Rogers Municipal Golf Course.
9. Winning the World Series of Poker at Binion’s Horseshoe in 1972.
10. Rafting down the River of No Return in winter in a wetsuit made by Jacques Cousteau–a bet that earned me $31,000 from Jimmy "the Greek" Snyder.
11. Beating Evel Knievel in golf with a carpenter’s hammer and betting that two out of thirty cab drivers in Dallas would have the same birthday.
12. Shooting free throws with a football against a Hall-of-Fame basketball coach.
13. Beating Bobby Riggs playing Ping-Pong with a skillet.
14. Beating a world champion Ping-Pong player with a Coca-Cola bottle.
15. Betting that a champion bowler couldn’t bowl seventy blindfolded (and that a driver with a little physical impairment could).
16. Finding (a) person who could eat a quail a day for thirty days.
17. Beating Willie Nelson out of $300,000 playing dominoes in Las Vegas.
18. Riding a camel through Casino El Mamounia in Marrakesh, Morrocco.
19. Pitching coins with Bob Stupak for $65,000 at the Orleans in Las Vegas.
20. Playing Larry Flynt head-up poker at the Fips Club in Los Angeles.
21. Betting a prominent politician that George W. Bush would win the 2000 Presidential election.

Amarillo Slims Famous Quotes

"Poker is a game of people... It's not the hand I hold, it's the people that I play with."

"Look around the table. If you don't see a sucker, get up, because you're the sucker."

"Nobody is always a winner, and anybody who says he is, is either a liar or doesn't play poker."

"They anticipate losing when they sit down and I try my darndest not to disappoint one of them."

"I never go looking for a sucker. I look for a Champion and make a sucker of of him."

"The population in Amarillo has stayed the same over the last fifty years. Every time some woman gets pregnant, some man leaves town."

“It never hurts for potential opponents to think you’re more than a little stupid and can hardly count all the money in your hip pocket, much less hold on to it..”

"I like you son, but I'll put a rattlesnake in your pocket and ask you for a match."
–Amarillo Slim

Amarillo Slims Top 10 Keys to poker success

1. Play the players more than you play the cards.
2. Choose the right opponents. If you don't see a sucker at the table, you're it.
3. Never play with money you can't afford to lose.
4. Be tight and aggressive; don't play many hands, but when you do, be prepared to move in.
5. Always be observing at a poker game. The minute you're there, you're working.
6. Watch the other players for "tells" before you look at your own cards.
7. Diversify your play so others can't pick up your tells.
8. Choose your speed based on the direction of the game. Play slow in a fast game, fast in a slow game.
9. Be able to quit a loser, and for goodness' sake, keep playing when you're winning.
10. Conduct yourself honorably so you're always invited back.

Amarillo Slim Preston

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Thomas Austin "Amarillo Slim" Preston, Jr. (born December 31, 1928 in Johnson, Arkansas) is a professional gambler, famous for his poker skills and proposition bets. He won the main event at the World Series of Poker in 1972.

Professional poker player