Amarillo Slim: 1972 WSOP Main Event Champion and Poker Hall of Famer
Amarillo Slim was one of the defining personalities of poker’s early World Series era. Born Thomas Austin Preston Jr., the American gambler won the 1972 WSOP Main Event, accumulated four career WSOP bracelets and entered the Poker Hall of Fame in 1992. His importance to poker extended beyond tournament results: after becoming world champion, his cowboy-hat image, storytelling and willingness to appear on national television helped introduce professional poker to a much wider audience.
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Who Was Amarillo Slim?
Thomas Austin Preston Jr., better known as Amarillo Slim, was an American professional gambler and poker player associated with the generation of road gamblers who helped shape high-stakes poker before the game became a mainstream televised industry.
Card Player records that Preston was born on December 31, 1928, in Johnson, Arkansas. He later became closely associated with Amarillo, Texas, and the nickname Amarillo Slim became far better known in poker than his birth name.
His poker career stretched across several eras of the game. He was already an established gambler when the World Series of Poker was still in its infancy, remained a recognizable tournament player for decades and continued appearing at the WSOP into the 2000s.
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Winning the 1972 WSOP Main Event
Amarillo Slim’s signature tournament accomplishment came at the 1972 World Series of Poker at Binion’s Horseshoe in Las Vegas.
According to the official WSOP history, the 1972 Main Event was the year the championship adopted the $10,000 freezeout format that became the foundation of the modern event. Eight players participated.
The official WSOP media guide records Amarillo Slim as the champion, with Puggy Pearson finishing runner-up. Slim collected $80,000 for the victory.
The championship made Slim one of the earliest winners of poker’s most important tournament. It also gave him a platform few professional gamblers of that period possessed. Rather than avoiding publicity, he embraced it.
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Amarillo Slim’s Four WSOP Bracelets
The World Series of Poker player database credits Amarillo Slim with four career bracelets and four WSOP wins.
His bracelet victories were:
1972: $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em Main Event
1974: $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em
1985: $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha
1990: $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha
There is an important historical detail behind that count. The WSOP did not begin awarding the familiar gold bracelets to champions until 1976. Earlier WSOP victories are nevertheless counted retroactively as bracelets in official career totals.
Slim’s results also show versatility across different periods of tournament poker. His first two victories came in no-limit hold’em, while his final two came in pot-limit Omaha, including a fourth WSOP title 18 years after his Main Event championship.
As of August 2026, the WSOP database lists Slim with four bracelets, zero WSOP Circuit rings, five final tables and 13 WSOP cashes.
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From Road Gambler to Poker Celebrity
Amarillo Slim emerged from an era when elite poker was played largely in private games, casinos and gambling rooms rather than before television audiences.
What separated him from many accomplished gamblers of his generation was his comfort with publicity. The WSOP has described Slim as a familiar face on programs such as The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and as one of poker’s most recognizable personalities during the 1970s and 1980s.
His public image was inseparable from his identity as a proposition bettor. Stories about unusual wagers became part of his reputation, although many were told by Slim himself and should be understood within the tradition of gambling storytelling rather than treated automatically as independently documented fact.
The larger point is well established: Slim understood that personality could draw attention to poker. His television appearances and storytelling helped expose audiences to professional gambling at a time when the World Series of Poker was still a small annual gathering.
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Poker Hall of Fame Induction
Amarillo Slim was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in 1992.
In its historical listing of Hall of Fame members, the WSOP credits him not only for his poker ability but also for the publicity he generated for the game after his 1972 world championship.
That distinction is central to his legacy. Slim was not merely a former Main Event champion with multiple WSOP titles. He became one of the early players who demonstrated that a poker professional could become a nationally recognizable personality.
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Amarillo Slim’s Tournament Earnings
Historical tournament databases do not always capture every result from poker’s early decades, so career earnings from players of Slim’s era should be treated as recorded tournament totals rather than a complete measure of everything they won playing poker.
As of August 2026, The Hendon Mob lists Amarillo Slim with $560,001 in recorded live tournament earnings and a best live cash of $142,000.
The WSOP maintains a narrower series-specific record. Its current player database lists $437,958 in WSOP earnings, along with 13 cashes and four wins.
Those figures measure documented tournament results. They do not represent Slim’s lifetime gambling profits, cash-game winnings or proposition-betting results.
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What Was Amarillo Slim’s Playing Reputation?
Slim’s reputation was broader than a conventional description of tournament playing style. He was known as an experienced all-around gambler who competed in high-stakes environments long before modern tournament poker became widely televised.
His four WSOP victories provide evidence of tournament success in both no-limit hold’em and pot-limit Omaha. His public persona, meanwhile, emphasized confidence, negotiation, proposition betting and an ability to entertain people around the game.
Because much of Slim’s reputation was built during an era with limited hand-by-hand reporting, it would be difficult to characterize his technical poker style with the same precision possible for modern players whose decisions are extensively documented on broadcasts and databases.
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Later Years and Final WSOP Appearances
Slim remained connected to competitive poker long after his championship years.
The WSOP database records tournament cashes into the 2000s and lists a 2008 Seniors No-Limit Hold’em Championship appearance among his final WSOP results. That longevity connected poker’s early road-gambling generation with the much larger tournament industry that developed during the poker boom.
Amarillo Slim died on April 29, 2012, in Amarillo, Texas, at age 83. The Associated Press reported that his son said Slim had continued playing poker until very near the end of his life.
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Amarillo Slim’s Legacy in Poker
Amarillo Slim occupies an unusual place in poker history because his influence cannot be measured only by prize money.
He was the 1972 world champion, a four-time WSOP winner and a Poker Hall of Fame member. Those accomplishments establish his competitive record. His broader historical importance came from what happened after the 1972 championship.
At a time when professional poker players rarely became public figures, Slim sought out interviews, television appearances and opportunities to tell stories about gambling. That visibility helped give the young World Series of Poker a recognizable champion and brought professional poker to audiences who otherwise had little exposure to the game.
Modern poker celebrity developed in a very different media environment, but Slim was one of its early precedents. More than half a century after his Main Event victory, his name remains connected to the formative period when the WSOP began evolving from a small gamblers’ gathering into poker’s signature championship series.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What was Amarillo Slim’s real name?
Amarillo Slim’s full name was Thomas Austin Preston Jr. He became much better known by the Amarillo Slim nickname during his career as a professional gambler and poker player.
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When did Amarillo Slim win the WSOP Main Event?
Amarillo Slim won the WSOP Main Event in 1972. The official WSOP record lists eight players in the championship and an $80,000 first-place prize.
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How many WSOP bracelets did Amarillo Slim win?
The World Series of Poker credits Amarillo Slim with four career bracelets. His victories came in the 1972 Main Event, a $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em event in 1974 and $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha events in 1985 and 1990.
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Did Amarillo Slim have any WSOP Circuit rings?
No. As of August 2026, the official WSOP player database lists Amarillo Slim with four bracelets and zero WSOP Circuit rings.
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Was Amarillo Slim in the Poker Hall of Fame?
Yes. Amarillo Slim was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in 1992, 20 years after winning the WSOP Main Event.
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How much did Amarillo Slim win in live poker tournaments?
As of August 2026, The Hendon Mob lists Amarillo Slim with $560,001 in recorded live tournament earnings and a best live cash of $142,000. Historical poker records can be incomplete, particularly for players whose careers began before comprehensive tournament databases existed.
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When did Amarillo Slim die?
Amarillo Slim died on April 29, 2012, in Amarillo, Texas. He was 83 years old.
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Why is Amarillo Slim important to poker history?
Amarillo Slim combined major tournament success with an unusual level of mainstream visibility for a professional gambler of his era. His 1972 WSOP Main Event victory, four WSOP titles, Poker Hall of Fame induction and national television appearances made him one of the most recognizable figures from poker’s formative years.
