Book description
Thomas Austin Preston. Six foot four, skinny as a rake. He played
poker with two US presidents - and drug lord Pablo Escobar; made a
million dollars by the age of nineteen; and drove a golf ball a mile.
Thomas Austin Preston - who was he? The world knows him better as the
greatest gambler of all time: Amarillo Slim.
Raised in Amarillo, Texas, Amarillo Slim lived the most daring,
exciting and profitable life of any man of his time. He ran the
biggest black-market operation in Europe, won the World Series of
poker in 1972, was celebrated in songs and movies, and his picture
hangs in City Hall, Las Vegas. He was a member of four Halls of Fame -
and a legend in his lifetime.
Because, most of all, Slim was a man who loved to gamble. He'd bet
on anything - if the price was right. He rode a camel through the
fanciest casino in Marrakesh and beat Evel Knievel at golf (with a
hammer), but that was just the small stuff. In his finest hour, he
took on the Chinese table tennis champion at his own game. Slim, of
course, got to choose the bat. The choice? Coke bottles. The result?
21 - 0. Slim was a very happy man.
A sensationally entertaining autobiography, this is the story of his
extraordinary life - and the secrets of his even more extraordinary
success. From Vegas to Colombia, Texas to London, welcome to the
wonderful world of Amarillo Slim.
Greg Dinkin
is the author of
The Poker MBA
and
The Finance Doctor
and a columnist for
Card Player
magazine. He is the cofounder of Venture Library, where he works with
writers to find publishers for their books and studios for their
screenplays. Greg splits his time between Las Vegas and southern
California.
