What is a genuine comeback, then? In my opinion, a genuine comeback is when you win a big score, and figure out how to keep it. Archie won that $40 million between 1992 and
1995 and lost it all back. Then he demonstrated what a brilliant gambler he was over the next four or five years, with a series of mini-streaks that added up to about $10 million more. Again, he ended up broke. These past seven or eight years have been Archie’s biggest challenge of all, as he has slowly been choked off from even being allowed to play in the pit in many casinos. As Jack Binion pointed out in Part 9, “When a player can run a toothpick into a lumberyard, it makes him a tough and dangerous player. Archie fits this bill exactly, which is why so many places are scared to take him on.”

I’ve interviewed Archie Karas over 60 hours during the last three months, and have gone to dinner many nights with him around town. One night I looked at Archie and said to him, “Archie, may I take a few moments and be honest with you?”

“Sure, Tom, I respect your opinion… go ahead.”

I said, “When somebody writes a book or does a movie on someone who has an amazing story, the one thing that is always needed is an ending. I have to be honest with you… your ending right now is pretty fu**ing sad! You won a fortune, winning over $40,000,000 in two years from a $50 starting bankroll, but you ended up completely broke! Most people feel anybody who could do that is a complete idiot! It is hard for them to rationalize how you could do such a thing, without putting at least a few million to the side for yourself! Right now, there are three possible endings to your story. First, the ending you currently have, which is a sad one: You won $40,000,000 and then lost it all back. Second, you die… this is an ending, of course. You may die, but your story never will. Third, you decide to turn your life around and make a big comeback. People love to see comebacks, especially by an underdog who seems to face tremendous odds!

“If you look back over your last 40 years, from age 17 to age 57 today, you have won a million or more over 50 times, not to mention your legendary run of winning that $40,000,000! Jack Binion referred to this as gambler’s ruin, where an individual doesn’t know how to pull up. They gamble as high as they can until it is all gone. For you, do you think there is any chance for you to become rehabilitated?”

At this point Archie interjected with a mild tone of voice, “Tom, I know you’re right. Of course I have no one to blame but myself. I think when you are younger you think you are invincible, and even if you lose a lot of money, you can always go out and get it back. I’ve done that most of my life, where I’ve won a few million and then lost it back. I think, with regret, about the $40,000,000 I won and lost every day, though, and I feel like that actor in the movie Shawshank Redemption, played by Morgan Freeman.”

I asked, “What do you mean?”

Archie said, “He played a guy named Red who was in prison 40 years, going in front of the parole board. They asked him if he thought he was rehabilitated. He told them he wished he could go back in time when he was a young man and try to talk to him, shake him, and tell him how things are today, but he can’t.”

In a moment of self-reflection, as to some of his mistakes over the last 40 years, Archie’s analogy of that scene in that movie intrigued me. The character Morgan Freeman played was imprisoned 40 years, while Archie has been entrapped in a 40-year period of time, winning and losing in the gambling world. Both had regrets that couldn’t be undone. I rented that movie and looked up that scene Archie referred to:

A five-member prison parole board is waiting to see Red, played by Morgan Freeman, as two unlocked doors open up when he enters the room. He is asked to take a seat. The chairman of the parole board says, “The files say you have been locked up here for the past 40 years. Do you feel rehabilitated?”

Red says, “There is not a day that goes by I don’t feel regret. I look back on the way I was then, a young, stupid kid who committed that terrible crime. I want to talk to him, and try and make him see the way things are, but I can’t. That kid is long gone. This old man is all that is left. I’ve got to live with that.

Those who know Archie will tell you one consistent observation: Archie seems the same whether he has $50 in his pocket or millions in the money boxes. His disposition is always at an even keel, as far as losing all of that money from the past. We all have to ask ourselves if we could do the same. Most likely, most of us couldn’t measure up against facing such adversity. Sometimes Archie must feel like he is standing up in a shaky rowboat, trying to keep his balance in a big storm with a huge tidal wave approaching. The odds seem insurmountable to come back from the depths of despair he has had to face!

Still, the inherent spirit of human beings never ceases to amaze me. There are so many examples of mind over matter, such as Jeff Blatnick and Gail Devers. Prior to the 1984 LA Olympics, no American had ever won a medal in Greco-Roman wrestling. Super heavyweight Jeff Blatnick ended the drought by winning a gold medal at the LA Games. Amazingly, only two years before his Olympic victory, Blatnick had been diagnosed with Hodgkin’s disease and had his spleen and appendix removed! He didn’t give up though, as he made it to the top of his world. Gail Devers suffered from Graves’s disease, a debilitating chronic thyroid disorder, between 1988 and 1991, and was close to having both feet amputated! Doctors were worried if she would ever be able to walk again. Amazingly, she overcame this setback and won the 1992 Olympic gold medal in the 100 meters in Barcelona, the 1996 Olympic gold medal in the 100 meters again, and another gold medal in the 100 meter hurdles in Atlanta! She went on to make four Olympic teams, and won five more gold medals in the World Championships between 1993 and 1999. From near amputation of both feet, to become Olympic sprint champion back to back as the fastest woman on the planet, is about as inspirational as any story in sports could possibly be.

As my 60 hours of interviews came to an end, I felt we had become good friends. Archie had come to trust me to tell his real story for the first time. I wanted to help motivate him to think about making a major comeback in the poker world. I discussed these inspirational stories cited above, to point out to him his problem isn’t so bad. I said, “Archie, all you did was lose a little money! (As we both laughed together.) It was only a little over $40,000,000! The rare talent you have at the poker table is a given. You beat the best players your whole life. The money you lost wasn’t through poker, but house games like dice and baccarat. You missed the poker boom as it went around you, while you got side-tracked. I see you as a gem in the rough for a sharp stakehorse out there, who is looking for a thoroughbred racehorse to get into the winner’s circle.”

Another legendary high roller, Nick “The Greek” Dandolos, died broke playing $5 poker in Gardena, California. He was a class act who was raised from wealthy parents, and had been sent to formal schools and educated in philosophy. With all of his charm, he had a lot of gamble in him, and was known more for his big losses than his wins. His famous five-month match with Johnny Moss in the fifties led to those famous words, “Mr. Moss, I’m going to have to let you go.”

Karas at Binion’s ‘back then’

I said, “Archie, you came from poverty without a formal education. A runaway at the age of 15, you came to America, not speaking a word of English. You fought many fights your whole life, and had to outmaneuver all the hustlers from the streets. You’ve told me in previous interviews about many actual physical fights you have had to survive in many pool rooms and poker rooms from your younger days, as you had to be able to protect yourself just to survive! Some of these stories will be brought out in your book down the road. My point is, you’re only 57 and you don’t have to end up broke like Nick the Greek did. You still have your health, don’t drink or do drugs. I sense in all of our interviews, that you don’t want to end up like Nick the Greek did… completely broke. You still have time to do something to change your situation, if you put your mind to it. You have one of the strongest mindsets of anyone I have ever met. Stop thinking about playing those house games, and get back to the road that will save you… poker!”

Archie said, “Tom, I want to say thank you for motivating me to seriously make a comeback. I needed that pep talk. I know in my heart, you were the right guy to write my story. I also know you’re right… the path I should take is getting into the poker world again. The days of shooting dice for $300,000 per bet are gone, and my answer is definitely getting back to playing poker.”

I said to Archie, “I only hope you remember what I told you — to make more than a comeback… but a genuine comeback, where you end up with the money versus handing it back over.” As George C. Scott was quoted in the original movie classic, The Hustler, explaining the real world to Fast Eddie Felson, played by Paul Newman, “You keep score real simple. You add up your money at the end of the game to see who won.”

Karas at Binion’s now

Players, those of you getting ready for the 2008 WSOP, look out for the return of the legend, the one and only Archie “The Greek” Karas. He is mentally and physically back, and ready to go!

The Cab is Parked,

Tom Sexton

Tom Sexton is a featured columnist for PokerNews.com. Tom attended the University of Oklahoma on a full gymnastic scholarship, where he was captain of the team four straight years, becoming the first NCAA All-American and Big Eight Champion in OU’s gymnastics history in 1968. The Sexton family is well established in poker and includes Tom’s brother Mike, the World Poker Tour commentator and poker’s “First Ambassador”, as voted by his peers. Tom welcomes your thoughts and comments about any of his articles. His e-mail is TSStarbuck1@aol.com.

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Archie’s legendary battle with Jack happened because Archie got out of the gate so fast, and as he won more and more money, he insisted on always raising the betting limits. Jack Binion had the nerve to take on Archie, while the other casinos basically dove for cover behind their normal betting limits. If you read these chronicles on Archie Karas in “Sexton’s Corner” up to this point, you’ve seen the cat-and-mouse game that Archie and Jack played wth the progression of betting limits. Each believed they were getting the best of it. Archie was blindsided by the fact he was so lucky for almost 18 months, winning all the $5,000 chips ($18,000,000 worth) in the casino, to the point of Jack being forced to counter by minting larger $25,000 chips.

In a reflective moment during previous interviews with Archie, he said, “Tom, when I started playing with the $25,000 chips, I never won.” Looking at it logically, a handful of twenty $25,000 chips is half a million dollars, just as an entire rack of $5,000 chips was a half a million dollars. When you hold racks of chips, it seems like a lot more money to a person. When Archie wanted to make a $300,000 bet on the pass line in dice, he would have to make three motions of stacking twenty $5,000 chips next to each other. When Archie was playing with $25,000 chips, he only needed to pick up 12 chips with one hand and place his $300,000 bet, instead of pushing the 60 $5,000 chips. After all, betting 12 chips doesn’t feel like quite as much.

Jack Binion was very smart and sophisticated about what was going on. Raising the betting limits from $20,000 to $300,000 on the surface seemed to Archie to be a victory as far as having a real chance to win the casino. There was no player in the history of Las Vegas that ever got a casino to increase their betting limits 15 times higher than normal. Jack, however, understood that Binion’s Horseshoe had way the best of it, if any player was only allowed to bet any amount with no odds. Betting $300,000 on the line with no odds, and $300,000 on come bets with no odds is equivalent to betting $3 on the pass line and come with no odds. In the end, you can’t win. The other fact Jack factored in was his accurate read in the personality he was dealing with in Archie. He believed Archie would never pull up winner because he was a true gambler who loved the action. This was a chess match of sorts, and Jack felt he had Archie in checkmate, but Archie didn’t know it. It would only be a matter of time, before Archie would go on a downslide and lose his $40,000,000 back to the Horseshoe.

Just last week, I was out at night with Archie at a place called the Rum Runner, and there were a lot of world-class pool players there for a big tournament. The first thing I noticed was every one there knew Archie, and said hello to him as he passed by. Remember, Archie’s story is not only legendary in poker and dice, but shooting pool as well! As we sat at the bar watching a couple of players shoot nine-ball for $500 per game, Archie said, “Tom, do you see that guy on the other side of the bar in that white shirt and tie?”

I said “Yes”, and Archie began to tell me about him.

“That was the classiest pit boss I ever saw in Las Vegas,” started Archie. “He was at the Desert Inn, when I won all that money during my mini-streak period. Normally, pit bosses are my enemy, but not this guy. Come on, I want to introduce him to you.” Archie brought me over to meet him, and he was happy to see Archie, as they shook hands and reminisced about the old days in Las Vegas. Archie then introduced me to him, and said, “This is Tom Sexton, a good friend of mine. He is writing my whole story on PokerNews.com in his column, Sexton’s Corner.”

I gave him my calling card, as he said he would love to read the stories, and then I listened to what he had to say. He basically confirmed all the stories that happened at the Desert Inn when he worked there, but the thing that really caught my ear was when he said: “The thing that amazed me about Archie’s story was I had to spend an hour with my colleagues and bosses to convince them we had the best of it! Regular high rollers could play $10,000 flat bets, with $50,000 odds. We would only allow Archie to play $30,000 flat bets with no odds.” This was a smart pit boss that understood what Jack Binion did in winning the $40,000,000 back from Archie. Only Jack was doing it at a rate ten times higher, at $300,000 flat bets with no odds! This pit boss was very respectful to Archie, and it was interesting to observe the mutual respect he and Archie had for each other, even though they were on opposite sides of the fence, he representing the house while Archie was the daring gambler or gunslinger trying to beat that same house.

The Desert Inn was where Archie won the $1,000,000 in five days during his comeback mini-streak, before he went down to the Horseshoe to play higher. Over a period of several months, Archie won another $2,500,000 from the Desert Inn, and had to do it betting flat odds! I asked Archie, “Is that the reason you were 86′d from the Desert Inn, you won too much?”

Archie said, “No, the real reason is some executives from the Las Vegas Hilton came to work at the Desert Inn, and I had beaten them for $1,200,000 earlier and they barred me.”

Archie began to open up about how he has been treated by many of the casinos in Las Vegas. “Tom, what these casinos have done to me is wrong. What do they want to do, just beat little old ladies out of their social security checks each month? With the money I’ve won and lost, my legendary story is good for their business. I played them with my own money, and gave them millions in free advertisement, while many others have tried to do what I did. I’ve literally helped them make millions of dollars in winning their customers’ money. I just feel I deserve a lot more respect, rather than being told, ‘Sorry, your play is not welcome here.’ This isn’t true about Jack Binion, of course, which is why I admire him so much. He may have out-maneuvered me, but he gambled with me and earned my respect. It isn’t true about Kenny Epstein either.”

I then asked, “Who was Kenny Epstein?”

“He used to be a partner in the Barbary Coast, and today he owns 51% of the El Cortez, I’ve heard. Several years ago I was at the Barbary Coast playing dice, and Kenny Epstein came over to introduce himself. He was very excited to meet me and said, ‘Archie Karas, what a pleasure it is to meet you. Your gambling story is the biggest story ever in Las Vegas. Would you mind signing an autograph for me? In fact, will you do it for everyone at the table? Your story is the greatest story of all time. When you’re done shooting, will you be my guest at Michael’s Restaurant?’” Archie continued, “It was nice to meet an owner who appreciated my gamble.”

I asked Archie what limits they let him play and he said, “$2,000 with $4,000 odds.”

“Did you win?”

“Yes, I won about $140,000 there, and Kenny couldn’t have treated me nicer. We had a great dinner and conversation, and he said my play was welcome there any time. In fact, right to today, I can go to the El Cortez and play, and get comps up in the steak house. Kenny is one of those great owners who understands the value of allowing me to play at his casino.”

I said, “It sounds to me like other casinos should take a play out of Kenny’s playbook, and welcome you with open arms. What you did in the past may never be repeated, but your picture and story should be posted in any place you have ever played! Customers would love to read about it, shake your hand, and go home to tell about when they met Archie ‘The Greek’ Karas!”

The name of this article is “According To Jack,” which is, of course, a reference to Jack Binion. I want to finish this story with some miscellaneous quotes from Jack about Archie, and the contrast of the story up to this point, combined with Jack’s thoughts, completes the intriguing puzzle of Archie “The Greek” Karas:

According To Jack:

“Archie has more gamble in him than anybody I’ve ever seen. He was either going to win the Horseshoe or go broke. Nobody had ever won that much from us, and definitely not in the whole town.”

“Archie didn’t cheat, and I don’t think he ever tried to cheat. The sheer amount of money he won causes you to be cautious. It is only good business to make sure everything is what it is supposed to be, and he is playing on the square. We tried to make sure the dice were absolutely square, and that they were our dice. At the ends of the dice table are little diamond mounds, to make sure the dice bounce randomly. That way you really don’t know where in the hell the dice are going to go. No, Archie wasn’t cheating. If he was, he would probably still be down there shooting.”

“Even if a person does nothing wrong, some casinos will ask them not to play there anymore. They might say he is running too good. He is too dangerous. I don’t know if you have ever heard of Kerry Packard. Certain places didn’t want him to play anymore. Leon Parrish was another gambler that a lot of casinos wouldn’t let play.”

“When a player can run a toothpick into a lumberyard, it makes him a tough and dangerous player. Archie fits this bill exactly, which is why so many places are scared to take him on. I’ll tell you the truth; Archie truly believed he had the magic touch. Finally the sizzle was over with and the odds reversed themselves. He grounded up and then grounded down, but it took over two years! You could tell the way Archie talked; there was no pull up in him.”

“I’ll tell you another thing: Archie never sat down to examine how much goods, say $22,000,000, might buy. He never did want to calculate it. Archie just wanted to gamble. He loves to gamble and shows it. Nobody speaks of it, but there is a thing called gambler’s ruin. If Archie’s goal was to win the Horseshoe and he succeeded, he probably would have kept on going.”

“Of course we gave Archie the respect a winner of this type would be expected to get. We catered to him pretty good. Archie had his own table, and he would call and let us know. It might be several hours until he arrived, but his roped off table would be waiting for him. Archie didn’t want anybody sweating him. I guess Archie was ahead of us for over 18 months. He won all the $5,000 chips in the casino, and we had to mint a bigger $25,000 chip to get him to cash the $5,000 chips in!”

“No other gambler had ever done that to us before. Of course, in the end Archie lost, but it is worth repeating, Archie had more gamble in him than anybody I’ve ever seen. Archie was going to either win the Horseshoe or go broke. He took a good run at it; I will say that for him!”

Archie and Jack in front of the Horseshoe back in the day

With these quotes from Jack Binion, I would only add, to me one of the most amazing parts of Archie’s story is how long he lasted playing almost every day for over two years. Most high rollers come to town for a day or two and give it their shot. If they ever tried what Archie actually did, betting millions every day for two years, they inevitably would go broke for sure within a few weeks. Archie Karas’s story is a true and legendary high-roller tale that will probably never be topped. Stay tuned for the final chapter of Archie’s story in Part 10 next week, as we talk about Archie’s comeback.

The Cab is Parked,

Tom Sexton

Tom Sexton is a featured columnist for PokerNews.com. Tom attended the University of Oklahoma on a full gymnastic scholarship, where he was captain of the team four straight years, becoming the first NCAA All-American and Big Eight Champion in OU’s gymnastics history in 1968. The Sexton family is well established in poker and includes Tom’s brother Mike, the World Poker Tour commentator and poker’s “First Ambassador”, as voted by his peers. Tom welcomes your thoughts and comments about any of his articles. His e-mail is TSStarbuck1@aol.com.

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Archie answered, “First of all, I’ve won and lost huge amounts of money my whole life, and I’ve learned to deal with it, because I’m a true gambler. Losing $40,000,000 was my biggest test, but nothing keeps me down. I went to LA and borrowed $40,000 from a good friend about four months after my streak. I decided to return to Las Vegas, and went to the Desert Inn to shoot dice. I took that $40,000 and in five days ran it up to $1,000,000!”

I said, “Archie, this fascinates me. You’re telling me four to five months after you lost the $40,000,000 you returned to Las Vegas on borrowed money and ran it up to $1,000,000 the first week?”

Archie continued, “Tom, once I won the $1,000,000 at the Desert Inn, I took it downtown to the Horseshoe, and played sky high again. Within a few hours I won $4,000,000 more at the dice table, which meant I ran that $40,000 up to $5,000,000 the first five days I came back to Las Vegas! What was funny, I had been flirting with this gorgeous cocktail waitress back at the Desert Inn, and when I was shooting dice there on the fifth night, I asked her for her phone number. She said she might lose her job for that, but told me to remember it as she passed by me at the dice table serving me a drink, and suggested I go to the restroom and write it down right away. She must have thought I was some successful computer guy or something, just getting lucky at the dice table. By this time I was up about $1,000,000 at the Desert Inn, and thought if I go down to the Horseshoe to play big, I might win a few million quick, before returning to meet her when she got off work. We rendezvoused for a very memorable date that night when I returned to the Desert Inn.

“When she dropped me off later in the Desert Inn parking lot, she asked me, ‘By the way, what do you do?’ I said, ‘I’m a professional gambler.’ She said, ‘Oh no, not that… that’s terrible, and will never do. I hate gamblers!’” Archie continued, “I was totally dumbfounded as I told her I thought winning $5,000,000 tonight was a good thing. You would have thought I had the plague or something, when I told her I was a gambler, like she must have had a bad experience in her personal life with a gambler or something. She dumped me out in the parking lot, and drove off with her tires squealing, while my mouth was open in disbelief! As she drove off, I quietly muttered to myself, ‘But I won $5,000,000 tonight.’”

Archie’s story made me laugh as I said; “Now that’s what I call a night’s worth of unbelievable action in Las Vegas!”

Archie joined me in the laughter, and said, “Isn’t that that truth!”

Archie went on. “The next day, I wasn’t even going to play, but I owed a guy $150,000 and was supposed to meet him at the Horseshoe to pay him. He didn’t show up, so I found myself gambling back at the dice tables again. I didn’t even want to gamble, but there I was, shooting sky-high dice again. By the time the guy showed up to get his $150,000, I told him, ‘You’re too late. I lost the $4,000,000 back I won last night.’ He had the saddest puppy look in his face, probably thinking to himself, ‘Why didn’t I get here on time?’ I ended up losing the last $1,000,000 left after dinner. The guy I owed, I told him I had some case money in another box at the Mirage, and I ended up paying him $75,000 the next day, out of the $100,000 case money that I had left in the world. I paid him the balance of $75,000 back later on, after another mini-streak I got going.”

In reflection, Archie said, “Gamblers are always looking for excuses, but this beautiful woman truly threw my head upside down, as I returned to the Horseshoe and quickly lost that $4,000,000 back to them, followed by my last $1,000,000 after dinner. What happened was I went to dinner for a couple of hours, and when I returned, I couldn’t believe it, as the Horseshoe had lowered their limits from $300,000 per bet to $50,000 per bet. Reality set in for me, as I realized the Horseshoe was going to make sure I didn’t run up any huge scores on them anymore. As the tables got cold, I soon lost my last million. As I left the Horseshoe, that night, I knew I would have to pay the one guy at least $75,000. I went from $5,000,000 down to $25,000 overnight and my up-and-down struggles continued!”

I asked Archie, “Was the reason you would head down to the Horseshoe when you won money elsewhere because it offered such higher limits?”

Archie said, “Exactly. The higher limits were always the lure, almost like a magnet drawing me down there. The higher limits gave me a chance to win millions instead of thousands! When I would go broke I would get back in action with a backer, and would make him money most of the time. Then I would take my winnings and venture out to the dice or baccarat tables to try and win millions again. This was a recurring pattern my whole life.

“One of the most impressive parlays I made happened a few years after my losing the $40,000,000. I was returning from LA with $1,800 in my pocket and stopped about 40 miles outside Las Vegas close to Stateline, and gambled at the Gold Strike Casino. I lost $1,600 pretty quick and got something to eat. I thought what am I going to do with $200 left? I might as well go gamble with it. I shot dice and ran the $200 up to $9,700, and decided to head on in to Las Vegas. I first stopped downtown at Fitzgerald’s and immediately won another $36,000. They were letting me bet $1,000 with $2,000 odds. Next I felt it was time to go to the Horseshoe, where I ran my $36,000 up to $300,000 the first day back in town. The next day I won another $300,000 at the Horseshoe, and by the third day I had won a total of $980,000 from that $200 start!

Archie continued reflecting all the way back when he was just 19 years old. He said, “I drove to Las Vegas from LA, and won $180,000 shooting dice. Back then in 1978 that amount of money seemed like $3,000,000!

Moss versus the Greek, part two: Archie squares off against the legendary Johnny Moss in 1994

I asked, “If you weren’t 21 yet, how were you able to play anything in the casino? Didn’t any one ask you for your ID back then?

Archie said, “Back then everything was different. Nobody ever asked me for ID. I won a lot of scores in my 20s and 30s, where I played at the Dunes and Stardust. I hit them all up and down the Strip, from the Riviera to the Tropicana. I moved to Las Vegas when I was 28 in 1980, and commuted between LA and Vegas depending where the action was. In 1978 I played lowball and five card draw and ran my bankroll up to $4,000,000 at the age of 26. I ended up in a few months losing it back playing dice in Las Vegas up and down the Strip. I always gambled the highest limits most of my life, and would win a mountain of money, before going broke. With a stake horse I would do this over and over again. The reason I’m bringing this up is some people think I got lucky that one time from 1992-1995 to accumulate over $40,000,000. I have won and lost fortunes most of my life for 40 years. My mindset is full speed ahead, with no regard for the amount of money that I’m betting. The lack of fear about going broke was always my secret to winning big in more mini-streaks than I could ever count. In my mind it was easy to start over and just win another mountain of money!

“I actually won $2.5 million more back at the Desert Inn down there over about three more months, after I won and lost that $5,000,000 over night. It wasn’t long before the Desert Inn said I wasn’t welcome to play dice there anymore. After going broke in 1995 from my big streak, I had a lot of mini streaks over the next two to three years. For instance, I won $1,200,000 at the Las Vegas Hilton, $500,000 at the Tropicana, and $2,000,000 more at the Bellagio in 1997. Between 1995 through 1998, I had multiple mini-streaks that added up to a lot of money. I would get backed and win $100,000 to $400,000 many times. Half of each win would go to an investor, and I might take my end and shoot it up on a dice table, trying to get my millions back. One night in 1997, my brother Pete was visiting, and I started out with $10,000 and ran it up to over $600,000. That night I started out shooting pool and won $100,000. Then I went down to the Horseshoe and beat a well-known poker player heads up for another $200,000. I next took the $300,000 I won from the $10,000 start, and won another $300,000. So, from that original $10,000 in the morning, we ran it up to $600,000, and enjoyed a nice comped dinner. After my $40,000,000 major streak, I came back and amazed a whole lot of people, who were around, while I scored many, many mini-streaks! I’ve made a lot of other people money!
“The problem started to be when they would cut me off and say, ‘We don’t want your business anymore.’ This unfair pattern of getting barred from the pit began to follow me, as the casinos would treat me as though I was John Dillinger or something. The only thing I was guilty of was winning a lot of money on the dice tables. Most casinos had never seen anything quite like me. For them, it was just easier to say, ‘We prefer your not playing here anymore.’ When I played for over two years at the dice tables at Binion’s Horseshoe, you can believe Jack Binion was too sharp to allow any player to cheat him or do anything funny. He was surrounded by the experts of experts. To this day, this is why Jack Binion respected my play. He knew I was gambling with him and playing on the square.

“As to the other casinos barring me from the pit over the years, not one of them — who would routinely cuff me for trespassing — had any evidence to convict me of any felony. Believe me, if they had any evidence to support their claims, they would have prosecuted me and had me sent to prison.”

At this point I said to Archie, “To tell you the truth, I’ve seen many people told their play is not welcome. With casinos, it is a one=way street. They don’t have to give anyone a reason to have them ’86′d’. Customers who might be winning have no recourse, when a casino tells them to stop playing there. I remember I got kicked out of a small casino on Paradise Road called the Ambassador Inn in the early eighties playing blackjack. I was betting $3 to $5 bets, and the next thing I realized, I was surrounded by three security guards. A pit boss came over to me and said, ‘Sir you’re going to have to leave. You know what you are doing and so do we. You can do this the easy way or the hard way.’ I stood up and looked at the security guards and sort of laughed, because I was only winning $3, and I don’t even know how to count cards! I wished the other players still playing at the table good luck, as they were going to need it. I left totally bewildered why or how this could even happen. There was nothing I could do about it, so I just laughed it off on my way to work. For you though, you have been choked off from playing dice, blackjack, or baccarat from every casino in Las Vegas, except a few left!”

Archie replied, “Tom, that is exactly right. First, I had the major streak, followed by about three years of mini-streaks, and the last ten years the casinos have slowly, one by one, choked me off from even having a chance to win. They won’t let me play. Most will allow me to play poker, only because I’m playing the other players and not the casino. Today there are only a few casinos that will allow me to play in the pit, and I call it Custer’s last stand. I suppose once I start winning there, the same scenario will unfold, and I won’t be welcome there either.”

“Tom, you’re the first person I’ve told my real story to, as I realize now it won’t be long before I’ll have no place to shoot dice, play baccarat, or play blackjack. I previously thought by keeping a low profile, I would be allowed to play in the casinos, but this has not been the case. I’m not looking to go get into disguises to just try and survive. I felt when I met you, you were the one I could trust to tell my whole story to. I know now, with the poker boom out there that passed me up, it will be my answer. Poker has always my bread and butter anyway.”

Stay tuned for Part 9 that will talk about Jack Binion and what he has to say about Archie, along with an interesting comparison of Nick “The Greek” Dandolos and Archie “The Greek” Karas. Our last story on Archie will be called “Archie’s Comeback” in Part 10. Archie’s unique story has been quite an experience to present in my column. The positive reaction I’ve received from the readers has been overwhelming. All of your support, in discovering what actually happened to Archie Karas in his legendary story, has been deeply appreciated.

The Cab is Parked,

Tom Sexton

Tom Sexton is a featured columnist for PokerNews.com. Tom attended the University of Oklahoma on a full gymnastic scholarship, where he was captain of the team four straight years, becoming the first NCAA All-American and Big Eight Champion in OU’s gymnastics history in 1968. The Sexton family is well established in poker and includes Tom’s brother Mike, the World Poker Tour commentator and poker’s “First Ambassador”, as voted by his peers. Tom welcomes your thoughts and comments about any of his articles. His e-mail is TSStarbuck1@aol.com.

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Of course, by throwing this money party every 20 to 30 seconds on your trip, you’d make a lot of people ecstatic across the highways and towns of America. Archie threw a money party for sure over two years, but lost most of his $40,000,000 back to Binion’s Horseshoe. This hypothetical example of hurling $10,000 out the window every few seconds over four days does underscore, for the rest of us, just how much money $40,000,000 really is.

I’ve interviewed Archie for over 60 hours now, have gone to dinner with him, listening to his remarkable tales many times, and have had the opportunity to look into his mindset of how he accumulated so much money gambling, including what elements or mistakes he feels he made contributing to his downslide. Late at night, I’ve met Archie around town to get a firsthand look at the world he lives in now, and his planned comeback that I’ll write about in the last episode of this ten-part story. Archie Karas is a very complex figure who is this fearless, genius gambler, who simply doesn’t value money the way most other people do. If he did, he never would have won so much money to begin with. The late Chip Reese once said, “You can’t tell if Archie has $5 in his pocket, $5,000, $50,000, or $30,000,000 in his boxes. He is always the same. Nothing seems to bother him.” Doyle Brunson would tell you the same thing, and every other great player who has done battle with him. They have never seen anyone quite like Archie… ever!

Before we highlight Archie’s biggest mistakes in his downslide, it is important to make it crystal clear that he didn’t lose his fortune by playing poker. He won big time playing poker. We aren’t talking about playing ring games; although Archie has won lots of money in ring games over many years, he has also had his share of losses in them as well. What he prefers is playing heads-up poker if possible for huge amounts of money. Archie has said, “I liked to play the highest limits possible, where other people might look on but couldn’t afford to sit down and play. I preferred playing heads up, because there is more skill needed to win. I wanted to eliminate the luck factor. There is more luck in the ring games, where other players will make mistakes and it will cost you.”

Archie continued, “You have no idea what I went through for years, as I might start up a heads-up match, and players would try and slide into the game on me. In boxing or pool, you face one opponent, not nine others at the same time. If you play against one guy you’re at 50% to win. If there are ten players in the game, your chances of winning are 10%. It takes more skill and aggressive strategy to win at heads-up poker. You can’t wait for aces or kings playing heads up. Waiting for hours and hours is what you have to do in a ring game. Guess what? I don’t want to wait anymore. I was a waiter; I was a waiter 40 years ago at 17, and I don’t want to wait anymore! I love action on every hand. Boxing is pure skill, one on one. Shooting pool is pure skill, one on one, just as playing heads-up poker is. The best players with the most skill are going to win the money! In heads-up poker, you better mix it up on every hand, like a boxer has to do in every round, or you are going to get yourself knocked out!

“When I had the big money, I had the power. I set the terms of the matches. They lined up to take a shot at me, and I always had to play the best players. I was like Fort Knox with all the gold, and if they wanted to take it from me, they would have to try it one on one. They tried everything, and a few might win one or two sessions, but in the long run, no one really beat me heads up. All they did was add more millions to the millions I had already won. It is funny, as some of the biggest names in the poker world might brag they beat me three times when they played me, but they need to jog their memory a little bit. In ring games it is very possible they won, while I lost in the session, but playing heads up, there is no person on the planet who could ever handle me. If any reporter or person in the news media hears a player say otherwise, they need to press them on this distinction. Playing ring games verses heads-up poker are two completely different worlds!”

At this point of the conversation I asked Archie, “Was there a point during your 1992-1995 streak, where these great poker players stopped playing you heads up?”

Archie said, “Yes, which is why I had to start playing dice and baccarat more. I played and beat the best poker players heads up, including Chip Reese, who I must have played 25 matches with. Word spread quickly how tough I was to beat, and I couldn’t find anyone to play with after a while. I had to start shooting dice, and ended up running my $17,000,000 bankroll up to over $40,000,000 as a result.”

I said, “Archie, we know now what you did, and there is no bigger story in the history of Las Vegas, of taking $50 and running it up to over $40,000,000. But like an airplane that goes straight up, it eventually stalls out and takes a nosedive. Here you were, now playing house games like dice and baccarat. In dice you actually got Jack Binion and the Horseshoe to increase their maximum betting limits 15 times higher from $20,000 to $300,000 per bet! Just doing that itself, is some sort of unique world record if you ask me. I’ve never seen any story, article, or anything on Google that highlights what you feel were your biggest mistakes from your point of view. How did you lose $40,000,000 and end up with nothing? What happened or what were your biggest mistakes you feel you made going back in time?”

With these questions Archie stared at me for quite a while without saying a word. Then he said, “Tom, I’ve never really talked about this in detail all of these years. I blame myself for losing all that money back, not Jack Binion or Binion’s Horseshoe.”

Archie continued with his philosophy, that he said he learned from another high roller named Jack Perkins: ‘If you are going to be a sucker, be a quiet one.’ “I lost, but have taken it like a man. I’ve been gambling for 40 years since I was 17, and have won and lost a million dollars over 50 times in my lifetime. I admit, losing over $40,000,000 was a first for me or anyone else. I’ve gone over this in my mind over and over again, so let me list for you some of my biggest mistakes.

“One: Obviously, not pulling up at some point goes without saying. You have to be a gambler to understand just how hard this is to do. I once said to Jack , ‘Some friends of mine told me you were planning to pull up on me and quit. Is that true, Jack?’ Jack quickly said, ‘Not yet, not yet.’ and assured me there was no truth to that rumor. Jack was a smart man, because if he answered that question differently, I would have definitely pulled up first. I always wanted to play higher and higher. I wanted to play no-limit in dice, where I could bet $500,000 per bet, and would have bet it all from $1,000,000 to $10,000,000 on the pass line if they would have let me. I remember Jack Binion sitting on top of the desk in a side room saying, ‘Archie, I’m doing all that I can right now,’ as his voice trailed off as though he was almost out of breath.

“Two: If I had known there was a poker boom right around the corner, I would have parked $10,000,000 to the side, even if I had to wait ten years to play. Poker has always been my bread and butter. I’ll point out that between 1992 and 1995, who could have guessed there was going to be such a boom in poker by 2003? Back then, I couldn’t wait three hours to get in action. Dice is the fastest action in the world, where I could win or lose a million with one roll of the dice.

“Three: Keeping too much in my money boxes at the Horseshoe was a big mistake. The urge to gamble it off was way too strong. During my two-and-a-half-year gambling spree, there was a three-week period of time where I lost $30,000,000, which I could never fade! What happened was I lost $11,000,000 one night at the dice table. This was the night I had to have my money boxes drilled open to continue playing, as I forgot the keys to all the boxes except for the one I had $2,000,000 in. I lost the $2,000,000 in a half hour, and got the urge to keep gambling. I was sick that night, not so much because I lost, but because I didn’t quit after that first $2,000,000 loss, and should have called it a day. I switched games after this disaster dice session to play high-limit baccarat. I got Jack to let me raise the limit in baccarat up to $300,000 per bet as well, and quickly lost a few million more. In between all of this, I played Chip Reese $10,000 and $20,000 heads-up poker, and finally lost $2,000,000 to him. I wasn’t focused on poker when this happened, as my head was swirling over how many millions I lost in dice and baccarat. What I’m describing is the heart of my downslide, as I went straight back to baccarat betting $300,000 per hand, and within ten days lost $17,000,000 in baccarat! With a little math you can see in a three-week period of time I lost $11,000,000 in dice, $2,000,000 in poker, and $17,000,000 in baccarat, which added up to $30,000,000! After this disaster, I took a couple of months off on vacation to go home to Greece. I still had about $12,000,000 left in the banks, and needed a break.

The Downslide: Karas cleans out one of his boxes

“Four: The biggest mistake I made was not pressing Jack to give me odds when I bet $300,000 per bet. In reflection, when I was rolling and winning, I would have won over $80,000,000, and the chance I might say that’s enough or he might have pulled up, just might have happened then. I feel like I would have parked $20,000,000 to $40,000,000 to the side at that point, with a big bankroll to keep on gambling. I once told Jack, I was going to cash out and invest the money, and he didn’t even flinch. He said, ‘That would be good, Archie, because we could win more money from you then, if you made more.’ I didn’t call his bluff, as Jack knew I was strictly a big cash guy. My mindset wasn’t to invest, to potentially lose it or reduce my gambling bankroll, and Jack was smart enough to know it. When I had the money I had the power. I could have gotten better odds, at least single odds with $300,000 flat bet and $300,000 odds. In my mind there was no bigger mistake I made than this one!”

I then said, “Archie you said you still had $12,000,000 left after that $30,000,000 mistake. What happened to it when you came back from Greece? Do you remember what happened when you were literally down to your last million?”

Archie replied, “Well, I went back where I left off shooting dice and playing baccarat at $300,000 per bet, and in less than a month got down to my last million.”

I asked, “What did you do with your last million?

“I wanted to try and double up, so I went to the Bicycle Club in LA with my last million in a big bag and played Johnny Chan heads up in poker, who was being backed by Lyle Berman. In fact they would switch off about every two hours against me, which was okay by me, as Johnny was a tougher player. I still remember dragging my last $1,000,000 with me to the table, opening the bag to show I wasn’t broke, then placing my last million out of the $40,000,000 under the table by my feet, and start the game for my whole life!”

I shook my head in disbelief hearing this, as I said, “Archie, this totally boggles my mind. Of all places to gamble off your last million, you chose to play it all against a living legend, Johnny Chan! I don’t know anyone else who would have the balls to do that. Did you lose? Is that how you lost the $40,000,000 down to the last dollar?”

Archie smiled and said, “No, I won and doubled my money that day. Like I said, nobody can beat me heads up. I had just lost all of my poker customers, as they learned I couldn’t be beat playing heads up. I think today Johnny and Lyle have about 15 gold WSOP bracelets between them. I have none. I’ve always been the heads-up poker king, and truly am the uncrowned champion. If they gave away bracelets for heads-up poker, I would have 80 of them for sure. After getting back to a $2,000,000 bankroll, I quickly lost it at dice and baccarat betting off at the highest limits in just a few days. This is the true story of how I came to Las Vegas with $50 and won over $40,000,000, only to lose it all back. To some, the biggest mystery of all was how I lasted so long, gambling this high over two years. Going up and down, I had to have wagered over a billion dollars during this amazing streak!”

Stay tuned for next week’s Part 8, you will be amazed at what Archie did next, within four months of losing his whole $40,000,000 fortune. Most guys would completely wilt away, like they were in the twilight zone, after what Archie went through. But no other guy is quite like Archie “The Greek” Karas, the world’s biggest gambler!

The Cab is Parked,

Tom Sexton

Tom Sexton is a featured columnist for PokerNews.com. Tom attended the University of Oklahoma on a full gymnastic scholarship, where he was captain of the team four straight years, becoming the first NCAA All-American and Big Eight Champion in OU’s gymnastics history in 1968. The Sexton family is well established in poker and includes Tom’s brother Mike, the World Poker Tour commentator and poker’s “First Ambassador”, as voted by his peers. Tom welcomes your thoughts and comments about any of his articles. His e-mail is TSStarbuck1@aol.com.

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Of course, Benny Binion died on Christmas Day, 1989, and his sons, Jack and Ted, were in charge of the hotel during this period of time. Jack was President of Binion’s Horseshoe from the time he was 26 in 1963. He would always have the final decision on everything done as majority stock owner. Shortly after the Archie Karas run, Ted left the scene, first after troubles with the Nevada Gaming Commission, and later, unfortunately, with his own murder in 1998. That left Jack Binion completely in charge up and until 1998, when after a protracted legal battle with his sister Becky, he decided to go to Tunica, Mississippi to open his own Binion’s Horseshoe Casino, after success with several riverboat casinos. Jack’s interest was bought out, but he kept a 1% interest in the hotel, to maintain his Nevada gaming license. Becky Binion officially took over Binion’s at that time.

Will Jack Binion forget Archie Karas? Never would be a pretty safe guess, even though Jack went on to greater success in the business world, with his opening and selling of his own Horseshoe in Tunica, Mississippi and riverboat operations to Harrah’s for about two billion dollars.

Either way, Jack was smart enough to know he would be the winner, whether Archie ever decided to cash out or lost all of his money. During this period, Binion’s Horseshoe continued patriarch Benny’s philosophy of taking the world’s highest limits to new heights for the biggest gambler in the world to fire away at, day after day, week after week, month after month, and as it turned out, for over two years. The connection between Jack Binion and Archie Karas is intertwined in Las Vegas gambling lore forever, since without Binion’s wilingness to allow the high-stakes action, Archie’s story would have been incomplete. They both took the highest risks imaginable. Archie says, “Jack was very big before I came along, and his reputation grew even bigger after coming out on top of our high-stakes battle. Jack has certainly earned my respect, and I felt my story was always a big part of his future successes!”

One fact is clear: When Jack’s sister took over Binion’s Horseshoe from 1999- 2003, she lowered all the high betting limits, and discontinued the Horseshoe’s philosophy entirely of offering the highest limits in the world. She sold the $1,000,000 display of the $10,000 bills on display inside their famous plexiglass horseshoe, located inside the casino’s entrance and symbolic of the casino offering the world’s highest limits. A few years later Behnen was forced to sell the hotel for about $50,000,000, minus necessary debts that needed to be paid off. It is ironic in that this figure is just about the amount Archie had accumulated at one time during his famous streak.

Let’s go back in time to about 1993, and revisit Archie Karas’s journey. Here’s how Archie related this part of his tale:

Tom: Archie, how high were the beginning limits at the Horseshoe for shooting dice, and how did they stack up against the rest of the town in 1993?”

Archie: In the beginning, Binion’s Horseshoe already had the highest limits on the dice tables. They would let you bet up to $20,000 per bet. That meant I could bet $2,000 on the pass line with $20,000 odds, $2,000 on the come with $20,000 odds, or place $20,000 on all the numbers, except the 6 and 8, where I would take $24,000 odds. I also would be allowed to buy the 4 and 10 on the layout. At that time, a few of the other casinos in Las Vegas might let you bet up to $5,000. Even then, Binion’s Horseshoe had betting odds on the dice tables about four times higher than its competitors.

Tom: Archie, how did you progress from $20,000 limit on the dice tables to $40,000 and beyond? The mystique or mystery of your gambling exploits on the dice table is in the high limits you played at. Tell us the sequence, in your own words, of what happened.

Archie: I told Ted, ‘I want to play some dice, but the limits are too small. You give me bigger limits and I’ll start playing dice with you.’ He said, ‘How much do you want?’ and I said, ‘At least $40,000/$80,000.’ Ted said, ‘I’ll talk to my brother and I’ll let you know.’ At this point they agreed I could bet $40,000 on the pass line and come with $80,000 odds, and I could buy the 4 and 10 for $40,000. I won $1.7 million at this limit very quickly one night, and with the 2.2 million I picked up from Chip playing poker about the same time, I had an $11,000,000 bankroll built up! At this point I said, ‘Well, I have a lot of money now, so I need a little bit bigger limit.’ Ted asked me, ‘How much do I want?’ I said I would like to be able to bet $100,000. ‘OK,’ he said, ‘let me talk to my brother.’ Jack came back and said, ‘You got it. You can bet $10,000 or $100,000 flat bets with $100,000 odds.’ So I played a lot at that limit and won a few million more. I wasn’t buying the numbers at this point, so I asked them if I could buy the numbers at $100,000. So they gave me that. When I asked to buy the 4 and 10 for $200,000 they wouldn’t let me, so I stopped playing for a while.

About two weeks later I was at the top at the steakhouse eating, and a floor man, named Rick, came up to tell me, ‘I got you the limits you want.’ I said, ‘What limits are you talking about?’ He said that I could buy the 4 or 10 for $200,000, even if they are the point. I went straight down there to play and in less than five minutes I rolled a 4 for the point, with $10,000 flat bet and $100,000 odds. I immediately bought the 4 for $200,000, and immediately rolled a 4! When that one roll returned $920,000 to me, Jack flew downstairs and said, ‘No more, no more buying the numbers for $200,000. Archie can only buy them for the $100,000.’ I was always asking to raise the limits even higher, and this led to my meeting with Jack Binion at the steakhouse.

Tom: What happened at the steakhouse meeting with Jack?

Archie: Jack met me at the steakhouse and said, ‘What do I have to do to get you to play?’ I said, ‘Well Jack, I need to gamble. I don’t want to knit around with my money, to grind me off. I want to be able to bet $300,000 per bet.’ Jack said, ‘You got it Archie, but when you choose to bet this high, it will have to be on the pass line with no odds, and $300,000 on the come with no odds. You can buy the 4 or 10 anytime for $100,000.’ Although I asked Jack to let me bet higher at $500,000 per bet, he would always tell me, ‘Archie, I’m doing the most that I can right now.’ That meeting at the steakhouse would be the last time Jack would agree to let me bet any higher, and it is what I had to work with.

Karas: A million a roll, or more

Tom: My brother, Mike Sexton, said he saw you lose $1,000,000 in about five minutes at the dice table in 1993. He said you bet $10,000 on the pass line with $100,000 odds, and bet two come bets the same way. You sevened out on the fourth roll each of three successive times in a row, losing $330,000 each time to lose a quick $1,000,000, including the one $10,000 hard way bet you had made! Poof, your million dollars was gone in five minutes! He was amazed at how nonchalant your disposition was, as you shrugged your shoulders and quietly walked away. Just another day at the office! What was the most money you ever won in one night? Do you remember your biggest losses?

Archie: Do I remember my biggest losses? What do you think? I lost $7,000,000 in one night on three different occasions, $7,500,000, $8,500,000, and $11,000,000! The most I won in one session was $12,000,000, but that night I was already stuck $4,000,000 first. So I netted $8,000,000 for the evening. I went up and down for over two years, winning $5,000,000 scores on the dice tables on many occasions!

Tom: The night you lost $11,000,000, is there anything that stands out in your mind in reflection, that you might do over?

Archie: The night before I had a bad dream about my ex-wife, and shouldn’t have left the house the next day. On top of that, I only got a few blocks from my house on the way down to the Horseshoe, before I got a speeding ticket. That was my second warning to take the day off from shooting dice. When I got down to the casino, I lost $2,000,000 very fast, like in about a half an hour. As it turned out, I had forgotten the other keys to my money boxes that day, and I didn’t feel like driving to any of my banks to get some more money. So I said, ‘Go ahead and drill my other boxes open. It’s okay, because I want to gamble!’ Binion’s was only too happy to comply with my request, and they even paid for the locksmith’s bill. I had $9,000,000 more from the other boxes, and when the night ended I had my biggest loss in one day on the dice tables… $11,000,000! Looking back now, I should have called it a day after I lost the first $2,000,000, and just come back another day. I don’t blame Binion’s Horseshoe for the drill job. I can only blame myself for my own mistake.

Stay tuned for Part 7 on Archie Karas, which highlights a $30,000,000 mistake that happened within a three-week stretch during his amazing two-and-a-half-year run. At the end of the $40,000,000-plus fortune he won and then lost, I asked him if he remembered what he did with his last $1,000,000. His answer simply amazed me, as it certainly will you, when you read it in next week’s article.

The Cab is Parked,

Tom Sexton

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I said, “One of the most fascinating things about your story to me, and probably most people, is you were a one-man army. You transported literally millions of dollars back and forth around town here, trying to get it in and out of banks. You didn’t do this a few times, but did it several times each week, for over two years! Can you tell us a few inside details on how you managed to do this, without getting hurt or heisted?”

Archie began, “The Horseshoe had a designated parking space for me in the valet, close to the door. I never let anybody know when I was coming, because I brought $3,000,000 to $5,000,000 with me all the time when I was going to shoot dice.”

Karas: Ready to Roll

I said, “Archie, moving this kind of money around by yourself simply boggles my mind. Weren’t you worried about being heisted?”

Archie said, “I was moving the money in and out, a very dangerous process. I was doing a masterpiece with it, because I felt like every heist man in the world was hanging around. I had bought a new home in Summerlin, and a friend of mine asked if anybody knew where it was. I said ‘no’, as he didn’t know where it was either. So he said, ‘Get in the car,’ as he then drove me about 12-13 miles straight to my house! He made his point, as he advised me to be extremely careful, as he heard there were a lot of heist men in town. From the beginning, I tried never to repeat how I did things, and took extraordinary precautions at all times!

“Bringing money from my bank boxes down to the Horseshoe to shoot dice is probably how I survived playing the highest stakes in the world for two and a half years I might add, that when I transported big money from the bank to Binion’s Horseshoe, I did it in my car by myself. Only one time did I let someone go to the bank with me in my car to pick up $4,000,000 for the day’s play, and that was my brother, who was visiting from Greece. He was so nervous to be transporting such a large sum of money, it looked like the color of his face had changed. Although I carried two guns with me for protection, it gave him very little comfort, I guess. I had an Austrian Gluck 40, which had 18-bullet clips, like a mini machine gun, and a German Sig Suier 45, that would go off like a cannon. After that one trip to the bank in my car, I asked him if he wanted to do it again, and he quickly said, ‘No thanks!’”

Archie continued, “Even though I had my bank run strategy down well, every once in a while those chips in the box at the Horseshoe would cost me dearly! One day when I wasn’t planning to gamble, I went down to Binion’s Horseshoe for a Chinese dinner. The next thing I knew, I was at the dice tables, losing 2 ½ million dollars from chips I withdrew from my money box! It ended up being a pretty expensive dinner!” (As Archie lets out a big laugh.)
Archie, I have a couple of questions for you: “Do you have any idea how much $1,000,000 might weigh?

Archie said, “I once weighed $2,000,000 and it was 80 pounds. So each bag with a million in it weighed 40 pounds.”

I then asked, “So, if you carried two bags of money into the Horseshoe it was almost like weight lifting. When you hauled $3,000,000 to $5,000,000 in your car, did you go back and get the other bags yourself in valet?”

Archie said, “I mixed up my routine a lot. I was very unpredictable. Many times I would return to the car with two security guards to get the rest, and quickly move the money inside. Quite often I would circle the hotel, looking for a door that had no strange people standing there, and would stop my car, sometimes leaving the motor running, while quickly scooting $2,000,000 through the door straight to the cashier’s cage! I’d tell them to count it, while I’d go back and move my car around to the valet. If I brought three to five million to gamble with that day at a side door, I’d lock the car door, and quickly round up two security guards to help me haul the big bags inside to the cashier’s cage.”

“Again, I never let anybody know my arrival schedule. I was very careful. I might add, whenever I drove my car to the bank to pick up several million to play with for the day, I might drive around for an hour, checking my rear view mirror, making sure I wasn’t being followed. I would try and time it so I would get to the bank about a half hour before the bank closed.”

“Why was that, Archie?”

“If I lost what I gambled on that day, I couldn’t return to one of my banks to get more. I’d have to wait until the next day. It was one of my tricks to self-manage my losses for one day.”

At this point I asked Archie, “When you transported your winnings from the Horseshoe to a bank, did you drive your car or use the hotel’s limousine with security?”

Archie answered, “From the Horseshoe, I would almost always be driven to the bank in one of their limousines, with two security guards. One would drive, and the other would sit with me and my bags of money.”

I asked, “Did your brother ride with you from the hotel in the limousine with the security guards, when you took money to the bank?”

“Yes, he did that several times, and he felt more comfortable with the security guards. I told Jack Binion once, ‘Jack, we are going to get heisted one day,’ and he said, ‘Archie, I’ll give you two limousines with four security guards if you want,’ but I never took him up on it, as keeping a low profile was the most important thing.

“When I did take the one limousine with the two security guards to a bank, I sort of had to train them. When they helped me take several million in money bags into the vault, they might stare at me as I would pour all the money into each box. I would ask, ‘What are you watching me for? Watch the door, in case we get heisted, and the bank!’ Of course the bank might only have $50,000 to $100,000 on hand, while I was standing there with $5,000,000 plus more in the boxes many times. Which target do you think they might be after? I would tell the two guards from Binion’s to pay attention to potential robbers, who were perhaps following us. ‘Come on guys, get with it, guard the open door when we are inside the vault. Keep your backs to me and your guns pointed out there!’

“In fact, every time we would start out from the Horseshoe, they would inevitably ask me the name of the bank we were headed for, and I would always tell them, ‘Don’t worry about it… just drive. Turn here, turn there, and go straight here for the next ten miles.’ I never announced where we were going, as I had about six different banks. I didn’t trust anyone, and only veered them to our destination when I felt we were safe and not being followed.

“Jack Binion, in a fatherly tone of voice, used to tell me, ‘Archie, if anyone ever gets the drop on you, just give it up… give it up. Let them have the money.’ I loved Jack, as he gave the true gamblers the best chance to win, offering them the highest betting limits. He also was a very smart man, who knew how to give good advice.

“I ended up winning every $5,000 chip at Binion’s Horseshoe, which was about $18,000,000 worth, that I kept in the boxes at the Horseshoe to gamble with. Each rack of chips had $500,000 in it, so I had accumulated about 36 racks of chips. Finally, one day, Jack Binion asked me to sell some of the $5,000 chips back to the Horseshoe, and I agreed to sell back about $10,000,000, leaving about $8,000,000 in chips to gamble with.

“Mike Sexton will tell you, ‘I was sitting next to Doyle Brunson in the poker room at the Horseshoe, when Jack Binion walked over with a rack of $25,000 chips and said, ‘Look what Archie did to us. He won all the $5,000 chips in the casino and we had to mint these new $25,000 chips just for him!””

Stay tuned for Part 6, as we go back in time and look at the high betting limits Archie played at, as well as his biggest single-day win, plus his six biggest losses in one day during his legendary two-and-a-half year gambling spree.

The Cab is Parked,

Tom Sexton

pokernews.com

Archie says, “The last time Doyle and I played, a huge controversy happened over one hand, where I had a pair of sixes and Doyle had a pair of eights in seven-card stud. There was about $250,000 in the pot, and Doyle made a mistake and missed seeing his hand. Playing heads-up you wait for your opponent to make a mistake. Dealers were told to deal, and not interfere with the pots, before we even started to play. In this one pot, the dealer started to push me the pot after Doyle said, ‘Take it,’ but the dealer stopped his motion of pushing me the pot, saying, ‘Doyle, don’t you have the winning hand with a pair of eights?’

“Truthfully, I exploded as a big controversy erupted like a volcano! In fact, Jack Binion had to be summoned to come down immediately, to settle things down between his best friend and his biggest gambler. When you play heads-up, you shouldn’t need anyone to hold your hand. It is up to you to read your own hand. This incident broke our game up, and Doyle and I didn’t play any more poker after that.”

Archie said, “Instead, Doyle would let Chip play me throughout the streak, and I always respected Chip for taking the punches. The best defense is a good offense. With me, you’ve got to get in there and box. Otherwise, you’re going to get knocked out! I always gave Chip the most credit for playing me more than anybody else, and playing sky-high limits Chip and I probably played over 25 times. For me, playing $10,000/$20,000 limit in poker was penny ante, because I would throw the dice for a million in a few seconds, during a roll.”

“One time Chip and I played at the Mirage. Chip sat down with $2,000,000, where half of his chips were $1,000 yellow chips, and the other half was $5,000 in chips. Chip had ten racks of $1,000 chips, and I asked him, ‘Why do you have so many yellow chips? We only need $80,000 to $100,000 for the blinds and bring-in.’ Chip said, ‘I want them like that,’ and I said, “Almost all of my chips were $5,000. I thought, ‘Well, let’s play, as maybe he is superstitious or something.’

“After a while, Chip started to stare at me and my chips, with his eyes darting back and forth, with a look like I was doing something to him! I stopped playing and said, ‘What’s wrong, Chip? Why are you looking at me that way? What did I do?’ Chip looked at me and said, ‘Can’t you see what you’re doing to me?’ As I looked down at all of the yellow chips sitting in front of me, it hit me for the first time, what he was referring to: I had almost all of the yellow $1,000 chips! In heads-up poker, whoever wins the antes wins the match. You can bank on this 90 times out of 100. The big pots will usually even out. While an opponent is waiting for aces or a good starting hand, I’m raising every pot and winning the antes and bring-in. Playing $10,000/$20,000 limit, you are talking about $9,000 pots over and over. The antes are $3,000 each and the bring-in is $3,000. Chip was very smart, as he was trying to measure what was going on, after losing to me so much!”

Archie continued, “I always knew that they sent the best player at me the most in Chip Reese. When we first started playing high at $8,000/$16,000 limit in seven-card stud, Chip noticed I wasn’t looking at my hole cards one night. He said, ‘Archie, you’re not looking at your hole cards.’ I said, ‘It’s okay, Chip. When it is time to look at all the cards, we will do it together.’”

Chip laughed at Archie’s remark, but inside, he must have felt that any control of the match at such high stakes was evaporating. Archie asked me, “Do you know why I did that, Tommy?” Before I could guess why it might be helpful to not look at your hole cards, Archie continued, “I did it to take the bluff away! A man will begin to hesitate to try and bluff or steal a pot, if he thinks his opponent is crazy enough to call anyway. Not many players could do this at $10,000/$20,000 limit. Heads-up poker is a game of psychology. I picked my spots to do this, of course, when I might have a strong early board, but when I was rolling, it didn’t matter what my up cards were. You must mix up your play to keep your opponent off balance and out of rhythm.

“Many of my opponents want to add games or play half razz and half seven-card stud. I want to play one game only, so razz being my best game, the opponents usually played seven-card stud 90% of the time. Once Johnny Chan wanted to add a few games, and I quickly said, ‘John, I’m not looking to add any games. I’m looking to take one away. Tell you what I’ll do, if you want to play another game: Let’s play six-card razz. He went for it, and lost a quick $300,000! If you’re a great razz player, playing six-card razz is even more of an edge. You have to be quick-minded and smart in this shark-infested world in order to survive. Like a boxer, you have to protect yourself at all times.

“Chip Reese was poker’s class act, whether he won or lost. I always respected and admired the way he handled himself. We played for high sums and would always play on credit. Sometimes he would loan me $500,000 and vice verse. One night at the Mirage, I asked Chip to loan me $500,000 to play on and lost it. I asked him for another $500,000 and lost it. Then I asked him to loan me another $1,000,000 in the game. Chip looked up and said, ‘Archie, I’ve never loaned $1,000,000 to anyone in a poker game, let alone $2,000,000.’ I said, ‘Chip, I’ve got $6,000,000 in the money box down at the Horseshoe, and we’ll go straight there after the game to settle up if I lose.’ Chip sort of laughed and said, ‘I’m putting this in a book, down the road,’ as he pushed another $1,000,000 over to me at the table.”

Archie pointed out, “This was the night Chip won the $2,000,000 back from me, that he had lost to me in the beginning of my streak. In fairness, I was on the downslide at the end of the streak, when Chip did win this $2,000,000 from me. It happened right after I lost $11,000,000 in one day on a dice table, and my mind wasn’t exactly on poker right then.” (This part of Archie’s story will be highlighted in greater detail in some upcoming “Sexton’s Corner” columns.)

Archie continued, “Just as I agreed to do, I met Chip down at Binions Horseshoe’s cashier cage that night, and lined up $6,000,000. I counted out $2,000,000 and paid him. Then I said, ‘Chip, let’s play for the $4,000,000 I still have left. Let’s play $20,000/$40,000 limit now!’ ‘Chip turned and left with his four racks of $5,000 chips, which was half a million per rack. It would be the last time we played poker together, as I would not have anybody else left to play poker high enough with me. This meant I would have to gamble more at the dice tables and baccarat games, in order to continue to play sky high.”

I said, “Archie, you truly seem to be the undisputed heads-up poker champion of all time, as you seem to have played 30 to 40 of the world’s best players over the years, both pre-streak and during your magical streak. During that time, you played the greatest player of our times, Chip Reese, about 25 times alone. Nobody has ever beat Chip in the long run, other than you. To me, one of the amazing facts of your story is you never played business guys who were average or poor players. Instead, you had to play all the hustlers, world-class players, or former and current world champions. What you accomplished in poker is amazing! One might beat you once in a while, but never in the long run playing heads-up.”

I then asked Archie, “Have you ever looked back in time and estimated how much money you have won playing poker over the years?”

Archie said, “Tommy, it’s got to be between $20,000,000 and $25,000,000. Poker is like pool when it is heads-up play. In the long run, skill will win out. Chip might have maneuvered and been a better manager with his money, always trying to reduce the limits, where he was more in his comfort zone, but nobody was able to manipulate or control me. If they did, it was for a short time only, as I caught on pretty quick. I always wanted to play higher than everyone else. That always made the game short-handed, or preferably heads-up, which is entirely my world!”

Keeping our story in sequence, Archie won $1,200,000 in pool, then ran it up to $7,000,000 in three months playing poker and shooting a little dice. At the end of six months, he found himself sitting on top of a $17,000,000 fortune, mostly from poker, along with some dice while between matches! Stay tuned for Part 5 of the story, as Archie “The Greek” Karas does the unthinkable — he runs his $17,000,000 bankroll up into a fortune that exceeded over $40,000,000 shooting sky-high dice, as he gets the limits raised to play higher at Binion’s Horseshoe!

The Cab is Parked,

Tom Sexton

pokernews.com

Archie literally mowed down the world’s best poker players, in an amazing exhibition of skill and courage, running his recently amassed $7,000,000 fortune into $17,000,000 million in just three more months. In some circles, this period of time in Las Vegas is often referred to as The Run. To Archie, though, he was just warming up, as though he was just stepping into the starting blocks to set a record in the most talked-about race in history.

Before we go into the details of some of his biggest poker matches, let’s re-examine how he accumulated his first $7,000,000 to challenge the world’s best poker players. First, Archie won $1,200,000 shooting pool, playing nine-ball in local Las Vegas bars. The stakes ranged from $5,000 per game up to $20,000, $30,000, and even $40,000 per game. What kind of nerve would this take to do such a thing over a two-and-a-half-month stretch? After making this gigantic score, he and his opponent agreed to play heads-up poker, where Archie says he won between $3,000,000 and $4,000,000 playing seven-card stud over the next three to four weeks. It is hard for Archie to recall the exact amount here, as it was at this time that he began shooting dice at Binion’s Horseshoe while waiting for his opponent to show up for their poker matches there. Archie couldn’t wait three hours to gamble, and, in his words, was living the dream. In dice, Archie began winning scores like $800,000, $600,000 and $400,000. Archie was on fire, no matter what he did, and his episodes were creating a tidal wave of interest among the sharks in town.

Karas in 1994: Another day at the office

Archie said, “I easily had a $7,000,000 bankroll at this point, and my confidence was on top of the world. I remember getting ten racks of $5,000 chips, which is $5,000,000, and putting them in the middle of the poker room on a poker table at the Horseshoe. I was ready to take on all comers in poker, and this stirred up a lot of interest. Poker’s most colorful character, Puggy Pearson, began to circle the table and the whole room, chanting, ‘Step right up here, boys, and help yourself to some of this easy money… $5,000,000 just waiting for you… step right up!’ Puggy was comical and appeared to be like a carnival barker, continuing, ‘Archie will take on all comers… step right up to his office!’ During all of this,” continued Archie, “I would walk to the bathroom, leaving my $5,000,000 on the table, like I could almost care less if I lost it. Of course, I knew security was close to the money, guarding it, as the Horseshoe had high hopes of winning it from me as well.

“Puggy Pearson, poker’s 1973 WSOP champion and Hall of Fame member, knew me quite well, as I beat him numerous times heads-up in the past, including winning $90,000 from him the night he got so mad at me for running over him in a match. Now, Puggy looked like my promoter out there, circling the table, comically inviting one and all to step up to the plate. Puggy knew how good I was, as a small part of the $5,000,000 on the table was contributed by him.

“My first big match out of the gate was against a true legend in the game, Stu Ungar. Of course Stuey had already won the 1980 and 1981 WSOP titles and three main events in Amarillo Slim’s Super Bowl of Poker by 1993. He shocked the world, making his comeback win for his third WSOP title in 1997, later being inducted into poker’s Hall of Fame.” Archie continued, “I loved Stuey for many years. We both shared a deep respect for each other, and had a unique bond between the two of us, as we both had many ups and downs in our careers. He would loan me money occasionally, which I always paid back. I would do the same for many others. As poker gladiators however, it was now time to battle on the green felt. I remember Jack Keller brought $500,000 to the table for Stuey to play with. At the time Jack was working for Lyle Berman in Mississippi, and Lyle was backing Stuey up.”

Lyle became quite famous ten years later, as the visionary who financed the World Poker Tour, and was later inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame himself. As the match began, Archie said, “After Jack brought Stuey’s money down, I noticed he stayed seated at the table while Stuey and I played. I didn’t like that, and even though Jack was the 1984 WSOP champion and later inducted to poker’s Hall of Fame, I quickly said to him, ‘What are you trying to do, Jack, get a line on my play? If you want to play, put your money up and let’s go!’ When I play heads-up, I like to control everything, including the game we played, which was razz. I know nobody in the world can beat me in razz, not in the long run.”

I asked Archie, “Did Jack Keller get up from the table when you zeroed in on him?”

Archie said, “Immediately, as I made it clear he had to put his money up or leave the table!”

“So, Archie, what happened in the match with Stuey?”

“It didn’t take long to demolish Stuey,” responded Archie, “and I beat him for $500,000.”

Next up in Archie’s parade of champions was the youngest player ever inducted into poker’s Hall of Fame in 1991, who was considered by one and all to be the best all-around poker player in the world. This was, of course, the legendary Chip Reese. Archie said, “Just a few days after I defeated Stu Ungar for a half a million in razz, I was going to jump back in the fire with Chip Reese. Chip wanted to play razz too, which I was happy about, as heads-up, I don’t think there is a man alive who can beat me in that game, not in the long run, anyway.”

What Archie did next was something no one on the planet has ever done before or since. Archie beat Chip Reese and Stu Ungar on the same day! He first played Chip in razz, and won $500,000 from him. The match took about eight tough hours. Archie said, “I went to dinner for a couple of hours, and when I walked back into the poker room, Stu Ungar walked up to me and challenged me to another match. This time he wanted to play seven-card stud, so I quickly agreed to play him.

“In a little more than four hours, I beat Stuey again, but this time for $700,000. I noticed when the match was over, Lyle Berman who sat next to Stuey as his backer, gave Stuey the last two $5,000 chips. Lyle had just lost $700,000, and his compassion for Stuey’s hard-fought effort showed me a lot of class. What an exhausting day this was, but I picked up $1,200,000 in one day from the world’s top two players!”

I said, “Archie, that feat completely boggles my mind. The next day when you woke up, you must have been in awe of the previous night and what you had done?”

Even Archie paused to reflect for a minute, “I’ve done some amazing things playing poker, but beating Chip and Stuey on the same day for $1,200,000 was extra special!”

You’re about to learn about the most money Chip Reese ever lost in one day in his career, when his next match with Archie Karas is highlighted in next week’s Part 4. It is important to point out that Archie played Chip, Doyle Brunson, Ungar, Johnny Chan, and almost every world champion player around in L.A. and Las Vegas for many years before his iconic streak from 1992-1995. In the beginning, Chip and Doyle would pay Archie $2,000 to $3,000 per hour to play the game of their choice. If they were playing $1,000/$2,000 limit or $1,500/$3,000 limit, they would offer him one big blind per hour. Archie said, “If they were playing razz and high cards were coming, they might attempt to steer me to change over to seven-card stud.” They didn’t realize they had Tony the Tiger by the tail, and quickly realized this kid could play poker. That trick in their bag was quickly dropped, as they found Archie difficult to beat heads-up.

In Part 4, we’ll look at more of The Run, the amazing stretch where Archie Karas took his pool winnings to the poker table and built his bankroll up to $17,000,000.

The Cab is Parked,

Tom Sexton

pokernews.com

On Dec 4, 2007 the shocking news came that Chip Reese, at the age of 56, had passed away. The entire poker world was and still is in shock. At such a young age, it doesn’t seem fair. Chip wasn’t just a good poker player, but an icon idolized and admired by one and all. Many high-stakes players have a reputation for being less than nice to a dealer or floorman when things aren’t going their way. Chip was just the opposite, as his gentleman’s demeanor always showed. You won’t hear negative stories about how he ever treated a dealer badly when he lost on the river. He was smart enough to know the dealer was like the mailman, simply delivering the mail. Some dealers cringe when they have to enter into the room where the big game is dealt, due to the potential abuse by some players. If other players could learn to be the class act that Chip Reese was, the dealers would feel as though they were in heaven.

Following Chip’s passing, the announcement came that only three days later a memorial for Chip would be held for his friends and family at the Palms Mortuary in Las Vegas. The turnout was unbelievable. My brother Mike asked me to pick up Steve Lipscomb at the Bellagio; Lipscomb had just flown into town to pay his respects, just like so many others had quickly done. On the way to the memorial we picked up Mike, and the three of us talked about how unbelievable it was to even comprehend that Chip was gone. When we arrived, one could quickly see this was going to be a gathering of magnificent proportion. The lobby was packed with Chip’s friends and what seemed like every famous person in the poker world. Doyle Brunson was doing his best to welcome each person with a big bear hug and two pats on the back, thanking each one who had come to support his best friend Chip.

As we were all greeting each other, you could sense the disbelief in the air about Chip not being with us anymore. Before we knew it, an announcement was made that the chapel was filled up to capacity, and for those still in the lobby to turn around and head for the other rooms, where closed-circuit TV was set up to view the service. There were hundreds still in the lobby, and even with the extra rooms available, it was standing room only. I had never seen a memorial service with so many friends. I remember Doyle saying in the past that Chip seemed to always have someone stop by during the big game to say ‘hi’ or sit next to him. When they would leave, Doyle would say, “Who was that, Chip?”

Chip would say, “Oh, that’s just a friend of mine.” Doyle always felt Chip had more friends than everyone else put together. For anyone who attended Chip’s service, it would be easy to see what Doyle meant. Someone once said, “You can see how successful a person is by how many friends they have.” If that is the barometer, Chip looked to be the most successful man on earth this day.

Before the service started, one of the first persons I met in the lobby was Danny Robison. Danny said he was asked to come to the earlier closed viewing with the family and very close friends, which gathered an hour before the general service. Danny said that when he visited Chip, he said, ‘Chip, I’m not here to say good-by. I’m here to let you know, I’ll be seeing you real soon.’ Doyle had also invited Madeline Ungar, Stu Ungar’s ex-wife, into the private viewing. In talking with Madeline, she was touched by Doyle’s special invite. She was a big admirer of Chip Reese from the very beginning.

The general service honoring Chip was extra special. When Chip’s son, Casey, got up to speak about his dad, the emotion of the moment hit all of us. I remember closing my eyes for a moment when Casey spoke, and I could hear his dad’s voice within his words.

Bobby Baldwin gave a great tribute to Chip, saying, “Five men have shaped my life and probably all of yours: Benny Binion, Jack Binion, Steve Wynn, Doyle Brunson, and Chip Reese.”

David Chesnoff, friend and family attorney, also gave a touching tribute, including a funny story about playing a hand for Chip in the big game one time when Chip had to go to the restroom. Chesnoff said it was like being asked to pinch hit for Babe Ruth. Chip hurried back to the table out of breath, tucking his shirt in and saying, “I just realized that Chezzy was playing for me. I think I took the quickest leak in the history of poker!”

When Doyle Brunson got up to speak, he opened up by telling us, “I really didn’t think I would ever be up here talking about Chip. I thought Chip would be doing this for me.” This was perhaps the most poignant moment of the entire service. All of us knew Doyle and Chip were the best of friends for the past 30 years. Doing Chip’s eulogy that day had to be so difficult for him. As Doyle said, they had done everything together, including many bonehead ventures such as making investments in raising the Titanic, finding Noah’s Ark, mining diamonds, running race horses, digging oil wells, and building planes. Doyle said, “We lost money on all of them, but we always had poker to fall back on.”

The recent decision by Harrah’s and the WSOP to award the future $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. winner a special trophy in Chip Reese’s name, as the WSOP’s best all-around player, will be a popular one. Any player who wins this prestigious event in the future will treasure this special award. Kudos to the WSOP for this decision! Since Chip Reese’s memorial service, I would like to also commend all the poker news magazines and outlets that have paid their own tributes to Chip with cover and feature stories. No one in the poker world was more deserving of the accolades. Lisa Wheeler’s special CardPlayer feature on Chip was special, with 21 great players and friends who paid tribute to Chip. There were so many nice things said and written about Chip, but two of the tributes jumped out at me like gigantic neon signs:

Chau Giang: Chip was one of my best friends. I talked to him just about every day for the past 10 years. It’s unbelievable. I never cry, but since the day he died and I went to his house, I can’t seem to stop. All I do is think about him. I just want to call him again to hear his voice. I loved him a lot. He was the best I’ve ever known.

Nolan Dalla: Chip Reese was a far wealthier man than most of us can ever comprehend, for reasons that had absolutely nothing to do with money. He inspired virtually everyone around him, and many thousands more who never met him face to face, to do good things. Being in Chip’s presence, one took away the feeling of encouragement—to be a better person, to be a better family man, to help others, to be a good winner but even a better loser, and, most certainly, to improve as a poker player.

Chip left all of us with the ultimate gift that one person can bestow upon another, which is the gift of inspiration. Indeed, we are all left with the inspiration to be more like Chip Reese — both at the poker table and, more importantly, away from it.

I feel very fortunate to have known Chip Reese personally. My heart certainly goes out to his family, who can forever be proud of him as a great man and father. It is my hope all of us will learn from Chip, on how to do things the right way in life. We will all miss Chip, but we will never forget him. May his memory continue to inspire each one of us as we search for the best path through life.

The Cab is Parked,

Tom Sexton

pokernews.com

His friend said, “I’m scared of him, too. He’s a killer!”

In the sure-to-be-classic book Aces and Kings, authored by Michael Kaplan and Brad Reagan, one can accurately read the subsequent meeting arranged at a Denny’s Restaurant with Chip, Danny, and Dominick and the entrance of Tony Spilotro. From pages 72 and 73, here is the book’s very accurate portrayal of what happened:

According to Robison, he and Reese feared the consequences if they said no to Dominick, so they authorized their friend to speak to Spilotro. Several days later, the Golddust Twins showed up as agreed at Denny’s next to the Dunes Hotel to discuss the “loan” with Dominick. Just as Dominick began to talk tough, Spilotro arrived.

In 1978, Spilotro was placed in the black book of people barred from entering its casinos. At about the same time, Reese was appointed to run the poker room at the Dunes, which meant by order of the Nevada Gaming Commission, he was not allowed to associate with anyone listed in the black book. Still, Spilotro continued to pester him for favors. When Reese politely declined, according to Robison, Spilotro replied, “Have a real nice life, as long as it lasts.” Spilotro never carried out the implied threat. The Chicago mob bosses wearied of his increasingly high profile and, in 1986, his body was discovered in an Indiana cornfield along with that of his brother, Michael. An autopsy later showed that he had been buried alive.

A couple of weeks ago, I was interviewing Danny Robison about all of this, and would like to share his answers to two main questions I asked him. First, I inquired, “Was there ever a moment Tony Spilotro ever really muscled you or scared you to death?”

Danny said, “Yes, particularly on this one night. I was at this Italian restaurant on W. Sahara at Valley View. Truthfully, I was out of my mind that night high on cocaine, and was acting wild and loud at the bar. I guess I was putting on quite a show, and had no idea that Tony Spilotro was at the restaurant that night. He had warned me in the past many times, not to let him catch me high on drugs. Since he was getting 25% of my winnings, he didn’t want me ruining my earning power at the tables. So, I left the bar to go to the bathroom to snort some more cocaine, and as I entered a stall and pulled my cocaine out, I heard this loud noise as Spilotro kicked open the main bathroom door. He said, ‘Danny, I know you’re in here taking that damn cocaine, and I’m going to kick your ass and beat you to a pulp!’”

Robison continued, saying that he was throwing all of his cocaine down the toilet as fast as he could, just as Spilotro kicked the stall door open and grabbed him by the throat. Spilotro slammed Danny against the wall, and slapped him hard four times in the face while he was threatening to kill him. Danny said, “I was talking faster than I ever had in my life, trying to assure him that I only had a couple of drinks. Looking back now, it must have looked comical, with white powder all over my face. Somehow I survived that encounter that night, but knew I never wanted to repeat that awful scene again.”

I then asked, “How did you get away from Tony Spilotro’s extortion of 25% of your poker winnings after one year?”

Danny said, “We were able to escape, when he cheated us out of a $50,000 sports bet we had made. Our money was on a team that was the under dog, as we got six points. That team was plus six points all over town and at every sports book. Then Tony told us we didn’t get six points… it was minus six points! He cheated us badly, and he allowed us to be dropped from his iron grip after getting away with it.

“Chip had been given a suite at the top of the Dunes as a perk for running the Dunes poker room. Being barricaded up there, while Tony Spilotro was put in the black book, was perfect timing for sure. It was about this time Chip and I dissolved our partnership, as I had gone off the deep end taking drugs all the time. Chip was the best, as he tried several times to help me with drug clinics, etcetera, but I wasn’t ready yet to receive help.”

Stay tuned for the rest of the story….

The Cab Is Parked,

Tom Sexton

pokernews.com