Thomas Austin Preston, Jr., better known as Amarillo Slim, was born on December 31, 1928. His parents divorced when he was 16 and he moved to Amarillo, Texas to live with his father. At 17, Slim joined the Army and served overseas, where he hustled pool and booked sports events. Upon his return, Slim met Doyle Brunson and Brian ‘Sailor’ Roberts and the three became fast friends. They soon formed a partnership and traveled across the United States playing poker and gambling. In his chapter in Brunson’s Super System 2, Slim writes of their escapades on the road, “We got to the point where we were gambling on just about every game there was — golf, tennis, basketball, pool, sports betting. Just about everything. As long as we thought we had some sort of edge, we’d bet. And we made money.”
With the dawn of the World Series of Poker in 1970, Slim began to craft his legacy. In 1972, he won the WSOP Main Event for $60K, and has since won three other bracelets: a $1K No Limit Hold’em in 1974, and the $5K Pot Limit Omaha event at both the 1985 and 1990 WSOP. In 2000, he narrowly missed out on his fifth WSOP title, losing the heads-up battle in a $2500 Pot Limit Omaha event to Phil Ivey.
Over the last three decades, Slim’s successes at the tables and road gambling history have placed him squarely under the media spotlight. Following his main event victory, Slim was featured on shows like What’s My Line, 60 Minutes, To Tell the Truth, Good Morning America, and The Tonight Show. He also played himself in the 1974 gambling flick California Split and was referred to numerous times in 1998’s Rounders.
Despite building a reputation that can only be described as legendary, controversy has surrounded Amarillo Slim for the last eight years. In 2003, he was indicted in Texas on charges of indecency with a child, his granddaughter Hannah. Although he steadfastly proclaims his innocence to this day, Slim pled no contest to reduced charges in order to protect his family. He received a $4000 fine and two years probation with counseling.
In the wake of all the negative publicity, Slim has been robbed at gunpoint twice, called Amarillo Slime, and virtually left behind by the poker community. It’s a shame that poker has seemingly lost one of its most iconic representatives. Slim was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame way back in 1992 and, along with Doyle Brunson, is one of the few current players who played in the inaugural WSOP in 1970.