Punting Profiles: Archie Karas
Las Vegasis known for its mythical beasts, legends who have hit the neon and green felt of Sin City and performed amazing feats of size or skill in victory and in defeat. It is what the town is built on. And the most legendary of all the gambling stories that sizzle on the Boulevard bitumen and circulate through the ever-fresh casino air is that of Archie Karas, the self professed biggest gambler in the history of the world. His wagering throughout 1992 and 1993, under the glare of the Vegas sun and the local eyes that get their kicks from such high wire play, would certainly lend itself in support of the claim.
Archie Karas, a Greek immigrant born to the name Anagyros Karabourniotis, sailed to America at the tender age of 17 on a freighter that paid $60 a month. He jumped ship at Portland, Oregon with dreams of bravery and freedom. Those dreams started as a waiter in a Los Angeles restaurant located in a none-too-pleasant area. They were humble beginnings.
And there would be plenty more humbling experiences to come. But his life would not be without its highs.
Every life is marked by defining moments. Archie Karas, of course, is no different. And the first of his defining moments, and arguably the most important, was taking that job as a waiter. The restaurant he worked at was located next to a bowling alley and pool hall where hustlers and marks mingled and the scent of green was in the air. Karas devoted himself to learning pool and soon, because many of the pool players had ring games going, poker. It was not long before he became adept at both, eventually cleaning out his boss as well as plenty of other fish who killed time in the alley. He knew where his future lay. “I knew at 18 I’d never work again” he said.
And he was right, on the whole, if you don’t consider gambling working.
Karas had dreams. He had faith in the Great American Notion of opportunity. He was also unfettered by materialism, no doubt a legacy of the Old Country. He figured if he could win ten large he would be set for life. He won it. And he was not set. $100,000 was his next goal. Then $500,000. Then an even million. But it would never be enough. No amount would be. He was a gambler to the core and it was the action that kept him going, not the money.
He was soon playing high stakes poker in the legal casinos of Southern California. The now dapper young Greek with the puffed up John Gotti hair and the immaculate cleanliness of a man born to wealth, a modern day Nick the Greek, was now treading the clouds of big time poker. There were ups and downs but to play in those games you have to have a fair bit of something and when you start with nothing, that is not a bad place to be in.
During those wild days in Southern California, Karas freely admits he went from broke to millionaire and back again plenty of times. When he lost $2 million in the December of 1992, he went into a state of reevaluation. Whereas most would have came to the conclusion that the stakes were too high to be healthy, Karas decided he needed to turn it up a notch. He wanted to go to Vegas. And he wanted to become known as the biggest gambler the world had ever seen.
Karas, with $50 in his pocket, hit Interstate 15 for Las Vegas with dreams of betting big and beating the best. Metaphorically, the road would be long. But Karas was a gambler and he believed it was his destiny to be recorded in the annals of gambling history as Big Time.
Six months later and he was.
Karas hit the card room with his $50 and was soon staked for $10,000 in a game of $100/$400 Razz. It had not taken him long to double and then triple through, less than a few hours, paying back his debt and the juice on top. To capitalize on his gains, Karas headed to the pool room across the road from the Liberace Museum on Tropicana Avenue. This was his strength. He would not lose and he knew it. And it was with good fortune and perhaps the grace of God that he ran across a man, whose name to this day he refuses to discuss though it is widely recognised that the man was a top rated and well known poker player, who was keen for some high stakes pool action. $10,000 plus a game. Karas won between $1 million and $2 million.
The action was then taken to the lush and historical green felt of the Horseshoe poker room. The unnamed high roller wanted to move to his strong suit, eventually coming to the realization that he was not going to beat Karas on the pool table. The chase was on. But it did not go as planned, at least not for the big time poker player who thought he would get his pool losses back and more. Karas won another $1 million off him in heads up play.
Karas, of course, was not content with this. This was all just stock-standard for Karas. He was a gambler at heart and one who liked to walk the fine edge of fate. So he took on all comers. Those comers were not mugs or fools. They were the best poker players in the world. And they were clamouring to play, knowing it was big wigs who usually kept them in the money. They were Chip Reese and Johnny Chan and Stu Ungar (whom lost $900,000 to Karas in six terrifyingly expensive hours), among others. Reese, backed by a prominent local hotel owner, played Razz and Seven-Card Stud for stakes unseen in Vegas, going as high as $8,000/$16,000. After two weeks, Reese had lost a touch over $2 million. When it was all over, Reese stood up and said “God made your balls a little bigger…you’re too good.” The others all left in a similar vein. In approximately six months, the immaculately dressed Greek-American with a penchant for $20,000 Rolex watches and renowned for his gold and pink pinkie rings, Karas took down fifteen of the best poker players in the world for incredible stakes in heads-up action. He was$7 million to the good. But then the action dried up. Respect had begun to accompany his name and nobody would take him on.
But still, Karas would not quit. He headed to the craps tables of the Horseshoe, where his streak of success continued. He had wins of $4 million, $1.6million, $1.3 million, $900,000 and $600,000 rolling the dice for $100,000 or more a throw. He has been quoted as saying “I would have played for more if they let me”. At one point, he held every single $5,000 chip the Horseshoe had.
But Lady Luck rarely smiles forever and after winning $17 million and finally attaining the title he so desperately desired- the world’s biggest gambler- he lost it all. Quickly. He had a big edge at pool and he is clearly a poker player of the highest class. But the dice! It is very tough to get an edge on the six-sided cubes and Karas didn’t have it. He had four individual losses of over $2 million and in the end, the Horseshoe ended up with his cash and the kind of publicity money can’t buy. The hotel has further entrenched itself into the Vegas Myth.
Karas was broke again. But he didn’t seem to care too much. “Money means nothing to me…I don’t value it” Karas said. “I don’t care about money so I have no fear”. And that is why he could take Vegas for as much as he did. He didn’t have the mental barriers to stop him from going for broke. That is why he was and is and forever will be the $17 million man.
