World's Greatest Gambler Amarillo Slim Succumbs To Cancer

World's Greatest Gambler dies

Thomas Austin "Amarillo Slim" Preston Jr, a professional poker player who fancied himself as the "World's Greatest Gambler," passed away on Sunday. He was 83 years old.

According to his son Bunky Preston, Slim died in hospice care in Amarillo, Texas after a long battle against colon cancer.

Known as the first poker celebrity, Slim won the 1972 World Series of Poker Main Event and was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in 1992.

"He brought poker out of the back alleys," said Larry Grossman, a longtime gaming analyst and poker historian who knew Slim. "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."

Following his victory, he appeared on several talk shows including "The Tonight Show," and had a bit part in the 1974 Robert Altman movie "California Split."

The self-proclaimed "World's Greatest Gambler" also authored several books, including "Amarillo Slim's Play Poker to Win" and "Amarillo Slim in a World Full of Fat People: The Memoirs of the Greatest Gambler Who Ever Lived."