Amarillo Slim, born Thomas Austin Preston Jr., won the 1972 World Series of Poker Main Event, and by his own later account he was chosen to win it. With three players left, Slim said the others knew a champion who could talk would sell the game, and he was the talker. He went on to collect four WSOP bracelets, found the Super Bowl of Poker and enter the Poker Hall of Fame in 1992. His finances were never disclosed, so the figures below are estimates based on publicly available records and reported accounts.
Who Was Amarillo Slim?
Slim was a Texas road gambler long before he was a tournament champion, and that background shaped everything that followed. In the 1960s he travelled the US with Doyle Brunson and Sailor Roberts looking for action, and the group is credited with helping bring Texas Hold’em to Las Vegas. He played in the first WSOP in 1970 alongside Johnny Moss, Brunson and Puggy Pearson.
The 1972 Main Event had eight entrants and a $10,000 buy-in. What Slim did with the title mattered as much as the win itself: he appeared on The Tonight Show 11 times and had a cameo in Robert Altman’s 1974 film California Split, giving poker a mainstream face it had never had.
In 1972, Thomas "Amarillo Slim" Preston (1928-2012) won the @WSOP Main Event. Preston went on to win a total of 4 #WSOP bracelets and inspired "The Gambler" by Kenny Rogers. #WSOP50 pic.twitter.com/M8lDHeRH3x
— PokerNews (@PokerNews) June 8, 2019
His later record held up on its own terms. His four bracelets came in two types of poker games: a $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em event in 1974 and $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha events in 1985 and 1990. In 2000, aged 71, he finished runner-up to Phil Ivey in a PLO event. He was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in 1992 and died in Amarillo in April 2012, aged 83.
Amarillo Slim Net Worth (Estimated)
Amarillo Slim’s net worth is estimated at between $500,000 and $2 million, with the lower end reflecting published estimates at the time of his death and the upper end reflecting his peak years. None of those figures has been confirmed.
Most of his gambling income sat outside any record. His reputation was built in private games and proposition bets, and the main source for the prop bets is Slim himself. His 2003 memoir describes wins such as $2 million from Larry Flynt at poker, none of it independently verified, and his Associated Press obituary noted his talent for embellishing the truth.
The losses surfaced the same way. In 1972 he told a television panel show that he had lost $190,000 in a single night of poker. For a gambler whose money moved in swings of that size, wealth at any single point is hard to pin down, which is why the range is wide.
Tournament Winnings Breakdown
Slim’s tournament record is small by modern standards and more complicated than its headline figure suggests. The Hendon Mob credits him with $560,001 from 36 recorded cashes, the last in July 2009. His biggest WSOP results:
- WSOP $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha, 1990 – $142,000 (1st place)
- WSOP $2,500 Pot-Limit Omaha, 2000 – $97,500 (2nd place)
- WSOP $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha, 1985 – $85,000 (1st place)
- WSOP $10,000 Main Event, 1972 – $80,000 (1st place)
- WSOP $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em, 1974 – $11,100 (1st place)
Stu Unger, Puggy Pearson and Amarillo Slim at the World Series of Poker pic.twitter.com/enVbcbnnMe
— Sports & Betting History by BestBettingSites (@BettingSitesCom) May 22, 2021
The 1972 result shows how far a recorded prize can sit from money in hand. The event was winner-take-all on paper, and Benny Binion covered half of each player’s buy-in to draw publicity. With three players left, Brunson and Pearson reportedly agreed to let Slim win in exchange for the cash value of their chip stacks. Accounts of the split differ, but the Hendon Mob notes that Slim may have left with as little as $15,000 of the official $80,000.
His biggest recorded cash, the 1990 PLO win, came when he was 61.
Other Income: Books, Television and the Super Bowl of Poker
Outside the tables, Slim earned from promotion, publishing and his own name, though no financial figures from any of it were disclosed. He founded Amarillo Slim’s Super Bowl of Poker in 1979, a series that ran annually until 1991 and was, for much of the 1980s, the most prestigious tournament stop after the WSOP. It changed venues repeatedly, and after Caesars in Las Vegas closed its poker room in 1990, the event moved to Laughlin, where the 1991 Main Event drew only 12 players.
He co-wrote Play Poker to Win in 1973, published his memoir, Amarillo Slim in a World Full of Fat People, with HarperCollins in 2003, and released an e-book in 2007. His name also appeared on a 1991 video game, Amarillo Slim Dealer’s Choice. A biopic based on the memoir, with Nicolas Cage reportedly attached, never went ahead.
Public Profile, Lifestyle, and Privacy
Slim spent decades as poker’s most public figure, and none of that visibility extended to his finances. His public career stalled in 2003, when he was indicted on charges of indecency with a child. In 2004 he pleaded no contest to a reduced misdemeanour assault charge, later saying he was innocent and took the plea to spare his family. The film was dropped, and he missed the poker boom that brought television and sponsorship money to his contemporaries. According to his son, he kept playing poker until the very end.
FAQ – Amarillo Slim Net Worth
Was Amarillo Slim a millionaire?
Possibly at his peak, though it was never confirmed. Published estimates put his peak wealth at $1 million to $2 million, built mostly from private games and prop bets that were never recorded. His $560,001 in tournament earnings alone would not have made him one.
What is Amarillo Slim best known for in poker?
Winning the 1972 WSOP Main Event and taking poker to mainstream television afterwards, including 11 appearances on The Tonight Show. He also founded the Super Bowl of Poker and was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in 1992.
Do tournament winnings equal net worth?
No, and Slim’s 1972 title shows why. The official prize was $80,000, but after a deal with Doyle Brunson and Puggy Pearson he reportedly kept as little as $15,000.
Did Amarillo Slim earn income outside poker tournaments?
He did. He gambled on cash games, pool, dominoes and proposition bets, ran the Super Bowl of Poker from 1979 to 1991, and published books, but none of that income was ever disclosed.
Why are net worth estimates for legendary players often ranges?
Their careers came before modern tracking and financial disclosure. In Slim’s case, his best-known wins come from his own memoir, and the one loss he put on record, $190,000 in a single night, shows how far his finances could move.
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Main image: Amarillo Slim at the 1974 World Series of Poker. UNLV Special Collections via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.
