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Archie Karas - Poker Legend
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February 19 - Archie "The Greek" Karas could well be the biggest gambler in the world, a man who has won and lost millions of dollars in sessions at the Las Vegas poker tables. He is certainly the most fearless gambler out there, at least according to Jack Binion who knows one or two things on that subject.
Archie Karras' story should be turned into a movie because the Karas bio reads like fiction, and pulp fiction at that. He was born in Greece, moved to the USA and started to gamble for serious amounts of money while living in Cali. He was a good pool hustler (see Tom Sexton's fascinating piece on PokerNews about Karas' $40,000 games of 9-ball. That's $40k per game) but then he found poker. By 1992 Karas was down $2 million in the high stakes poker games in California.
Did he give up gambling? He was down to his last $50 after all. Nope. He made it to Las Vegas and somehow managed to convince a backer to stake him with $10,000. He doubled it. Paid back the loan and then went on a torrid winning streak the likes of which had rarely been seen in Vegas, a town that sees pretty much all there is to see on a daily basis. He won big at pool, and then won even more in poker cash games. By the end of the streak he was up $17 million and everyone in that town knew Archie Karas.
Karas hasn't stopped, and he was featured in a book written by Michael Konik of all people - a sub par poker commentator, but it is still a great story. Karas has no respect for money, obviously doesn't care about it, but does care deeply about the gambling rush. He'll gamble on anything for any amount of cash and has earned the respect of the big time poker gamblers: men like Ted Forrest, Daniel Negreanu, Phil Ivey, and of course the late Chip Reese will all give "The Greek" a wide berth.
Related Poker Articles And News Items:
> Poker Legend - David Pham
> Annette Obrestad - Annette_15 - An Online Poker Legend
> Patrik Antonius Bio - The Finnish Poker Legend
> Paul Wasicka Bio And Profile - A Future Poker Legend
> Kathy Liebert - Poker Legend
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