Thomas Preston, 'Amarillo Slim' Poker Legend, Dies at 83
Thomas Austin "Amarillo Slim" Preston Jr., a legend in the gambling world, died Sunday at the age of 83 after a long bout with colon cancer.
Preston's son, Bunky Preston, said he died Sunday while in hospice care in Amarillo, Texas where he lived.
"He was playing poker until the very, very end," Bunky Preston told The Associated Press on Monday.
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Amarillo Slim was regarded as one of the best poker players ever and a consummate gambler.
Widely considered as the first celebrity poker player he was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in 1992. Amarillo Slim won the World Series of Poker tournament in Las Vegas in 1972. He would spend the next few decades promoting not only himself but the game of poker as a whole.
In addition to his big smile and cowboy hat he wrote a number of books which focused on the world of poker. Some of his titles include "Amarillo Slim's Play Poker to Win" as well as "Amarillo Slim in a World Full of Fat People: The Memoirs of the Greatest Gambler Who Ever Lived."
"He brought poker out of the back alleys," said Larry Grossman, a gaming analyst and poker historian.
"He was just a guy with an outsized personality, and he was the perfect person for the time to represent poker. It was really Slim that became the face of poker for middle America."
But it was the possibility of losing that keep his passion for gambling not the fame or riches.
"Anyone that never loses doesn't do much playing," he told the New Orleans Times-Picayune in 1994. "If there wasn't any losing, it wouldn't be any fun. You'd be bored to death."
In 2004, his image would be tarnished after he pleaded guilty to three misdemeanor assault charges in a case involving molesting his 12 year-old granddaughter.
Robert Templeton, his attorney, stated that felony charges were dropped because prosecutors could not prove their case.
