Archie Karas
Introduction
Anargyros Nicholas Karabourniotis commonly known as Archie Karas was born on 1 November 1950 in Antipata, Pylaros.
Archie had a passion for gambling from a very young age, and he always wanted to be a professional gambler. He came from a poor immigrant family that had nothing, and therefore made sure he took steps that would change his future and take him away from a life of poverty.
In 1965 Archie left Greece after a massive blowout with his father and worked as a waiter on a ship for two years before he jumped ship on a trip to Portland. He eventually found himself in L. A and started his gambling career in the bowling alley next door to where he worked.
His Gambling Career
In 1990 he had accumulated in the region of $2 million and landed up losing all but $50 within two years. With this $50 he moved onto Vegas, and this is where “The Run” he is so well known for began. In Vegas, Archie met a friend who lent him $10,000 to get started. He hit the tables, and within a couple of hours, he had doubled the money at the Razz Tables.
He now had his own money and went looking for lucrative pool games and came upon a game a local businessman was looking to start for a buy-in of $5000 for a game of 9 balls. During this extended game of pool, Archie won around $1.1 million.
His winning streak continued, he played Stu Unger and won $1.2 million. Next in line was Chip Reese who lost $2 million to Archie. The following two in line were Doyle Brunson, and Johnny Moss both legends and even they could not put an end to Archie’s winning streak which saw him win a total of $17 million.
Conclusion
During Archie Karas’s career, he had won close to $40 million, and the only thing he ever bought with those huge winnings was a car and the rest went straight back to the casinos. He has however won six gold bracelets in the WSOP. The once-great Archie Karas is now just a regular gambler and the perfect example of a rags to riches story with some exciting and drastic twists.