The famed poker player and professional gambler Archie ‘The Greek’ Karas died at the age of 73 this week. Karas, who won just $204,368 at the tournament tables in ranking tournaments in his life, may not have been the biggest official winner of all-time in ranking poker events. Once upon a time now long forgotten, however, he ran $50 into $40 million as ‘The Run’ made him one of the most infamous gamblers ever to hustle.
The Greek Legend Becomes a Myth
Before Archie Karas took Las Vegas by storm, he was Anargyros Karavourniotis who was born on November 1st five years after the end of the second World War on the island of Cephalonia in Greece. Anargyros’ father Nickolas was a construction worker and as a child, the young Archie Karas gambled on anything he could, from games of marbles in his local town to other forms of gambling, winning enough to sustain himself during tough times.
Refusing the offer of construction work at 15 years old, Anargyros’ refusal led to his father throwing a shovel at him and the teenager left for good. The life of a waiter on ships for two years seemed preferable and when Anargyros left on a boat bound for the United States, the American Dream was possible.
Settling in Portland, Oregon, Anargyros became a waiter and learned American English before heading to Los Angeles. On off days, having changed his name to Archie Karas, the nearby pool hall provided a chance for Archie to hustle again and the gambling capital of the world sucked him into its orbit. Becoming a superb pool player, Archie ran up a bankroll betting on himself and discovering a card hall next door in the bowling alley.
He was a natural at poker and with no-one prepared to play him at pool anymore, Archie Karas transferred his legendary reputation from the pool table to the poker felt.
The Stakes Go Higher
“Gamblers enjoy both winning and losing.” ~ Archie Karas.
Playing with Archie Karas at the card table was a thrill and Archie had no limits to what he was able to play. High stakes were at their highest in his world and he had no recognition of the lows that could come with the highs.
“Danger? What does that mean?” he once asked. “One day I could drive a Mercedes and the next I could sleep in it.”
Running up his initial bankroll to $2 million should have solidified Archie’s life, but if anything, it just ramped up the risks. Within a month of accruing seven figures, Archie had lost it all. As 1992 turned to 1993, Archie was attempting to fight what a clear addiction.
“Gamblers enjoy both winning and losing,” he said. “You get a fix… I don’t recommend that to anybody.”
Heading from the City of Angels to Las Vegas with just $50 in his pocket, he found a friend who agreed to lend him $10,000 at 50% interest. Beginning not with No Limit Hold’em but Razz, Karas started to run it up. In fact, he easily made back the $15,000 he owed his friend. Tripling his capital inside three hours in Las Vegas, he paid back his buddy and kept playing.
By the end of 1995, Archie Karas had turned that initial loaner into $40 million dollars on the Las Vegas Strip playing at truly nosebleed stakes against players such as Stu Ungar, Chip Reese, Puggy Pearson, Johnny Moss, Johnny Chan, Doyle Brunson, and many others. At Binion’s Horseshoe, Archie was perhaps the most famous out-and-out gambler in the Western world and had no issue playing craps too as he increased his bankroll from $17m to $40m seemingly overnight.
‘The Run’ was a Vegas legend and it wasn’t over yet.
Losing it All
“Casinos don’t want you to win, they want to make a living out of you.” ~ Archie Karas
Archie Karas, thanks to his Greek heritage, was often known as the new ‘Nick the Greek’ after the former legend of Las Vegas who imposed his style on Vegas. If anything, Archie did it even more. No-one relished taking him on at Razz. Big names took themselves off the list if Archie was on it. Sadly for Archie, just like a wave rises from the sea, it also crashes back down. The crash would be painful.
The big casinos all came after Archie, accusing him of marking blackjack decks. Arrested five times for alleged scams involving card decks and minute ink stains, Archie bounced between Los Angeles and Las Vegas, eventually succumbing to a 73-day sentence in prison.
It was in 1995 that Archie lost most of his $40m bankroll. Losing millions in craps, he apparently dropped $30 million playing baccarat alone before Chip Reese got seven figures from the Greek-American. Down to his last $1 million, Archie won a heads-up cash game against the team of Johnny Chan and Lyle Berman… only to dash it all away on craps and baccarat.
He was cleaned out.
“Casinos don’t want you to win,” he said. “They want to make a living out of you. They don’t want you to make a living out of them.”
As the casinos had ‘black booked’ him, Archie was banned from several major venues for life. In 2015, he was forced to admit that his career in gambling was over. He could no longer take to the felt in any casino in Las Vegas. He still lived in the city but many of his family relocated to his native Greece.
The Gambler
In 1978, Kenny Rogers released The Gambler – a song poker fans are still deciphering today. Archie Karas was a natural gambler, but he didn’t do it for the money.
“The good things you can’t buy with money. A good friend you can’t buy. A friend can save your life, they can help you when you’re down and out,” Karas once said.
Archie may have lost all the money, but he didn’t care as others might have done. His place in folklore was assured and that gave him a peace that no-one could touch.
“You’ve got to understand something,” he told Cigar Aficionado in 2008. “Money means nothing to me. I don’t value it. I’ve had all the material things I could ever want. Everything. The things I want money can’t buy: health, freedom, love, happiness. I don’t care about money, so I have no fear. I don’t care if I lose it.”
Archie was certain; unless casinos changed their structure and raised stakes for winners, no-one would beat his run.
“I’ve gambled more money than anyone in the history of the planet,” he said. “I don’t think anyone will ever gamble more than I have. I’m the biggest ever.”
Archie Karas once said ‘What most gamblers make in their whole life I gamble in one roll of the dice’, and though his final roll of the dice left him short, The Run will likely never be bettered in an age of poker now tempered by bankroll management and smoothed even by GTO strategy.
Archie Karas was an old-school gambler, maybe the best of them, and he’ll never be forgotten.
