Amarillo Slim | Texas Holdem Professional

Amarillo Slim aka Thomas Austin Preston Jr was born on December 31, 1928 in Johnson, Arkansas. He is probably the most famous professional poker layer ever to play the game and has done more to publicise the game of poker than anybody else in history.

He joined the army when he was only 17 and when he returned, he met up with Doyle Brunson and the third member of the group, Brian "Sailor" Roberts. The three of them became firm friends through their shared love of gambling and the pursuit of an alternative lifestyle and soon they were off on their travels across the United States, playing poker and gambling all the way across the country.

His legendary story telling and seemingly endless repertoire of quotable quotes has endeared him to legions of fans, both from the poker world and outside thanks to his many TV appearances on chat shows and appearing in the movie California Split with George Segal and Elliot Gould.

Amarillo Slim is a natural gambler and still lists his profession as pool player. He has hustled people all his life and continues to do so to this day, in fact Slim has bet fortunes on events as mundane as ping-pong and dominoes.

Perhaps surprisingly his only win in the World Series of Poker came way back in 1972.

One of his most famous quotes captures the very essence of poker and sums it all up brilliantly in a single line:

"Look around the table. If you don't see a sucker it's because the sucker is probably you."