Maybe the Biggest Gambler of all Time

[aslan]

This week I met Archie Karas. He's an avid pool player, like me, and I ran into him at a pool room in Vegas. He's the guy who broke the bank at Binion's Horseshoe back in the early nineties. He beat them for $32 million playing craps.

He had come to Vegas with $50 in his pocket, borrowed $10,000 to play poker, and ran it up to $40 million in a couple of years. But he went flat broke in 1995. Now here he was looking for a little pool action. He seemed like a really nice guy. But a friend later told me that he is an absolute SOB when it comes to gambling, and shrewd as they come.

He beat all the world's best poker player's back in the 90's--Chip Reese, Stu Ungar, Doyle Brunson, everyone. Later a friend told me that they think he used dice control to make his big score at Binion's. At that time they were not as insistent that the dice bounce off the backboard, he told me. Binion must have figured it out because he had extra padding added to the felt floor of the table. When Archie played there again the extra padding made the dice bounce more and Archie lost big time. I don't know if this story is true--just what a local told me.

He also suggested that maybe, just maybe, Binion's was having troubles with the IRS, so they concocted this scam to make it look like Archie had won so much money so they could beat the tax man. I guess when there's that much money at stake, no one really knows the truth. But I do know this guy made millions playing poker, especially Razz, over his lifetime, broke one day and rich the next. He may be the biggest gambler Vegas ever saw, except for all these Arab oil shieks, but heck, they aren't gambling, they're just slumming, throwing away their millions like petty cash!

[k_c]

Originally Posted by aslan

This week I met Archie Karas. He's an avid pool player, like me, and I ran into him at a pool room in Vegas. He's the guy who broke the bank at Binion's Horseshoe back in the early nineties. He beat them for $32 million playing craps.

He had come to Vegas with $50 in his pocket, borrowed $10,000 to play poker, and ran it up to $40 million in a couple of years. But he went flat broke in 1995. Now here he was looking for a little pool action. He seemed like a really nice guy. But a friend later told me that he is an absolute SOB when it comes to gambling, and shrewd as they come.

He beat all the world's best poker player's back in the 90's--Chip Reese, Stu Ungar, Doyle Brunson, everyone. Later a friend told me that they think he used dice control to make his big score at Binion's. At that time they were not as insistent that the dice bounce off the backboard, he told me. Binion must have figured it out because he had extra padding added to the felt floor of the table. When Archie played there again the extra padding made the dice bounce more and Archie lost big time. I don't know if this story is true--just what a local told me.

He also suggested that maybe, just maybe, Binion's was having troubles with the IRS, so they concocted this scam to make it look like Archie had won so much money so they could beat the tax man. I guess when there's that much money at stake, no one really knows the truth. But I do know this guy made millions playing poker, especially Razz, over his lifetime, broke one day and rich the next. He may be the biggest gambler Vegas ever saw, except for all these Arab oil shieks, but heck, they aren't gambling, they're just slumming, throwing away their millions like petty cash!

I had a friend who matched up with him at one pocket several years ago. I'm not sure exactly when, but I remember him telling me about 'Archie the Greek's' big craps score and how he lost it all back.

k_c

[aslan]

Originally Posted by k_c

I had a friend who matched up with him at one pocket several years ago. I'm not sure exactly when, but I remember him telling me about 'Archie the Greek's' big craps score and how he lost it all back.

k_c

Tobey Flaherty matched up with him at one pocket. Archie played him $40,000 a game plus another $35,000 on side bets each game, for a total of $75,000 a game. He said he wanted to bet $150,000 a game but they didn't want to do it. He ended up losing around $700,000. I think that was around 1994.

[k_c]

Originally Posted by aslan

Tobey Flaherty matched up with him at one pocket. Archie played him $40,000 a game plus another $35,000 on side bets each game, for a total of $75,000 a game. He said he wanted to bet $150,000 a game but they didn't want to do it. He ended up losing around $700,000. I think that was around 1994.

I'm sure my friend didn't play for that kind of money. It was probably a time when Archie's bank was low. He went to Vegas to play in an eight-ball bar table tournament and took second worth $5000. He was on a hot streak at the time and wound up doing some gambling for more than he ever had played for. He did well on the trip but I know he never bet nearly that high. Eventually he lost his game altogether, I think due to drugs. The last time I saw him was a couple of years ago and he seemed to be doing better.

k_c

[aslan]

Originally Posted by k_c

I'm sure my friend didn't play for that kind of money. It was probably a time when Archie's bank was low. He went to Vegas to play in an eight-ball bar table tournament and took second worth $5000. He was on a hot streak at the time and wound up doing some gambling for more than he ever had played for. He did well on the trip but I know he never bet nearly that high. Eventually he lost his game altogether, I think due to drugs. The last time I saw him was a couple of years ago and he seemed to be doing better.
k_c

Right. Archie does play for less. He played a friend of mine once for a hundred or two a game and quit after he lost two games. You never know when this guy is going to lose a hundred or a million. The night I met him he was looking for a $100 game. If I had a clue how to match up with him I would have played him myself. Your friend must have been quite some player to come in second. Too often pool players get themselves involved in drugs. I think they think the drugs are going to make them play better, and they may for a short time, but the only think the drugs will do for certain is shorten their careers.

[WRX]

That is one cool story. I'm glad to hear that he's still around and doing at least sort of all right.

[aslan]

Originally Posted by WRX

That is one cool story. I'm glad to hear that he's still around and doing at least sort of all right.

I'm guessing he has his hopes pinned on a successful biography and movie. Some say he stashed a substantial amount when he was on his run, but no one knows for sure. There's an aura of mystery around Archie.

[zengrifter]

Originally Posted by aslan

This week I met Archie Karas. He's an avid pool player, like me, and I ran into him at a pool room in Vegas. He's the guy who broke the bank at Binion's Horseshoe back in the early nineties. He beat them for $32 million playing craps!

He lost, actually. But, he was up $22M, at one point. zg

From Konik / Cigar Aficiando -

But nobody, nobody has ever churned mere bus fare into truly big money. Mansion-in-Bel-Air-and-yacht-in-the-Caribbean money. Mythic money.

Nobody, that is, until Archie Karas. In a six-month period, Karas parlayed a borrowed stake of $10,000 into $17 million. That's right, $17 million.

If not for the John Gotti hairstyle and two demure gold-and-diamond pinkie rings he sports, you might think Karas was some sort of businessman, an executive at a respectable corporation, not an inveterate gambler. Karas, 43,dresses stylishly but prepossessingly, forgoing the loud tracksuits and ostentatious gold-chunk bracelets many of his colleagues favor. He's got more than one $20,000 watch, but most days he wears a Seiko. His clean-cut grooming is impeccable--far from the haggard visage of someone who spends entirely too much time in the stale environs of a casino. And his nails are always clean.

But the boardroom is not his domain; it's the card room. Karas likes to be referred to as the undisputed champion of gambling. "I've gambled more money than anyone in the history of the planet," he claims. "What most gamblers make in their whole life I gamble in one roll of the dice. Unless the casinos decide to raise their limits after I'm gone, I don't think anyone will ever gamble more than I have. I'm the biggest ever."

STORY- http://www.cigaraficionado.com/Cigar...540,67,00.html

[zengrifter]

From Mike Sexton -

The story behind the scenes is one of the most fascinating dramas in the history of Las Vegas, which caused the Binion family to hold numerous meetings regarding how to handle this giant of giants in the gambling world, who consistently played these limits at the dice

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.

[zengrifter]

From Scoblete -

The sad thing about this story is that, being a wild gambler, Archie lost it all back as most wild gamblers do even after such extraordinary streaks. The last he was seen (as rumor has it) he was sleeping in his car in a parking lot.