Bio
Amarillo Slim is America's greatest gambler of all time. He's larger than life, and at a lanky 6' 4" and never without his snakeskin-wrapped Stetson and custom-designed cowboy boots, he makes a lasting impression. The term "living legend" gets tossed around a lot, but consider that Slim played himself in Robert Altman's California Split, and country singer John Lutz Ritter wrote a song about him—"Do You Dare Make a Bet with Amarillo Slim?" After winning the World Series of Poker in 1972, he authored Play Poker to Win, published in hardcover by Grossett & Dunlap in 1973 and in paperback by Bantam in 1976.
Project Description
The book, Amarillo Slim in a World Full of Fat People, which will be published in April 2003 for the World Series of Poker, includes tales of Slim's life as a pool hustler, cardsharp, and proposition bettor mixed in with age-old wisdom and poker secrets. Slim will also describe some of his greatest gambling exploits—from winning the World Series of Poker in 1972 to creating proposition bets that rivaled the great Titanic Thompson's to running the biggest black market in Europe during the war while giving pool exhibitions (read: hustling) on military bases for Uncle Sam. Among his most famous bets, Slim beat Minnesota Fats playing pool with a broom and Rick Barry shooting free throws with a football. He took Willie Nelson for $300,000 playing dominoes; Bobby Riggs for $100,000 playing ping-pong (with a skillet!); and Larry Flynt for $2 million playing poker. He's won bets for rafting down the "River of No Return," riding a camel through the fanciest casino in Marrakesh, and driving a golf ball more than a mile. A few of his poker adversaries over the years have included presidents Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon, and drug lords Pablo Escobar and Jimmy Chagra. Slim has appeared on the Johnny Carson show eleven times and looks forward to making a national television tour when the book is released in April 2003.
For more information, visit www.thepokermba.com/amarilloslim.
