Archie Karas Turns $50 into $40 Million During “The Run”
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Archie Karas Turns $50 into $40 Million During “The Run”
Archie Karas was no different than every other person that steps into casinos to win the jackpot. He had a dream. Most of the time it’ll involve leaving with oodles of new cash. The idea that after playing a few hands or rounds, your numbers consistently come up and you can watch with amazement as your bankroll just keeps getting larger and larger. All gamblers have this dream. But the reality is a cruel mistress. Many go to Las Vegas and leave with much less than they bought in with them. Building a fortune via the games tables or slot machines is never going to be a certainty, no matter how lucky you might consider yourself.
But one player did it. He strolled into a casino with a mere $50 bucks. And he left with a massive $40 million. Yes, it sounds like a typical Vegas tall story except that it’s all true. It’s the tale of Archie Karas and his infamous “Run”. We’re guessing that this refers to his run of extraordinary luck. All in all, at one point, this Greek high-stakes gambler was holding a $40 million bankroll. In an interview back in 1994, he was clear to state that, as far as he knew, he was the biggest whale Las Vegas has ever seen. Did we mention that he’s very modest as well!
The Early Years of Archie Karas
Born on November 1st in 1950, as Anargyros Nicholas Karabourniotis on the Greek island of Cephalonia. Though he was born into a lower working-class family, he always dreamed of a better life, though there was absolutely no way for him to achieve this. At the age of 17 years, and after a dust-up with his father, the young Karabourniotis ran away from home. He found work as a waiter on a freight ship. He was paid $60 per month. But when the ship pulled into the dock in Portland, Oregon, he knew that his chance had come. He jumped ship and decided that the US was going to be his home from that moment onward.
After making his way down the West Coast, he ended up in Las Angeles and quickly found a job waiting tables in a restaurant. Next door was a bowling ally with a number of pool tables. Well, with lots of practice, Kara become quite the pool player and was soon making an extra side income hustling by playing pool. In some ways, he was a natural gambler and seemed to have an almost innate understanding of the odds for almost any game. So natural was his talent, that during a weekly game of poker at the home of his restaurant boss, Archie Karas cleaned him out. He was promptly fired!
A Cycle Of Boom And Bust
The next two years were spent grinding out a living on the Los Angeles gambling circuit. By alternatively playing pool and playing poker, he enjoyed a “boom or bust” cycle that all hardcore gamblers know about. As he said, “I’ve been a millionaire over 50 times and dead broke more than I can count. Probably 1,000 times in my life. But I sleep the same whether I have ten or ten million dollars in my pocket.” Once in 1992, the 42-year-old Karas went on a huge bender, managing to blow through his entire $2 million bankroll while playing high stakes poker. Realizing that things were getting out of hand, and looking for a fresh challenge, he took his last $50 and drove down to Las Vegas.
Archie Karas: And So It Begins
Stepping into the Mirage Casino poker room, Karas caught up with some old poker buddies from the LA scene. His good friends gave him a $10,000 loan to get into the game there. Not being one to shy from a challenge, he then took a seat at the most expensive jackpot poker game being offered by the Mirage in those days. The table limit was $100/$400. In a short while, Karas was able to turn a $20,000 profit, thanks to his aggressive style and innate card sense. As a reward for his friend’s faith in his playing, Archie Karas tossed his friend an instant double up of $20,000, pocketing the $10,000 for himself. But unlike many other gamblers who would of continued playing, Karas cashed out his bankroll and left the casino. He then headed for the nearest pool hall.
Being A Pool Shark
As you’re probably aware, pool sharks are on the constant lookout for players they can fleece. These poor saps are referred to as “marks”, simply because they’re marked out for losing. Well, Karas found his mark. Rumor has it that this was in fact a local casino executive called Bobby Baldwin, though Karas will not reveal the name out of the high stakes gamblers respect. Never the less, this poor guy ended up losing $1.2 million playing pool at over $10,000 wagered per game. That’s the type of nutter Archie Karas was. The fact that a few hours before he had only $50 to his name, and then to put all of his casino winnings on the first pool wager, is nothing short of amazing. Or bonkers!.
Archie Karas: An Aggressive Player
When Karas was up by several hundred thousand dollars, he convinced the mark to up the wagers to $40,000 a pop. Just to spice up this crazy mix, the mark offered to play Karas at some other casino games. By the way, this mark was in fact a four-time world poker champion. But due to Karas’ aggressive play and a mad willingness to sacrifice everything on the one hand being played, Karas came out on top. All in all, he ended the night winning another $3 million from the executive. As you can imagine, Archie Karas set the city on fire that evening.
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Over the next couple of day, Karas threw down a challenge for the high stakes poker community. All comers were invited to the ultimate high stakes game. Instead of the normal table cap of $500 or $1,000 limit, Karas wanted to play with the limit set at $3,000/$6,000 limit. In the end, it all came down to the final battle between David “Chip” Reese, who was a three-times world poker champion, and Karas. Reese has already crowned the best poker player in the world especially during the late ’80s and early ’90s. With a whole group of sharks backing him up, Reese turned the stakes up even further to $8,000/$16,000 limits. But Archie Karas totally crushed the game, winning around $2.2 million for his efforts. As Reese would say about the jackpot game, “God made your balls a little bigger. You’re too good.”
The Infamous “Run”
For the next few years, Karas was uneatable at high stakes poker, though he never appeared to have a jackpot winning strategy. Beating out a huge number of former world poker champions, he managed to amass a whopping $17 million in winnings. This period became known as “The Run.” Soon there was simply no one left to play in Vegas. He was setting the stakes too high and so gamblers were simply afraid. So Archie Karas packed his bags and headed down to Binion’s Horseshoe Casino. The owner was famous for being willing to set high limits if that’s what the players required. The casino had negotiated a “no odds bet” provision in order to protect the casino. In the Spring and Summer of 1993, Karas held court there and played with a $300,000 per roll limit on the pass line and come bets. He could also place bets on the 10 and the 4 at $100,000 per roll. This was probably the most exciting craps game to of ever been played, anywhere or at any time.
Archie Karas: From Poker To Craps
Moving from a game of skill to a game of chance didn’t seem to bother Archie Karas at all. “I know I’m taking the worst of it with the dice. But nobody would play poker with me for that much. With each play, I was making million-dollar decisions. I would have played even higher if they’d let me.” Kara was playing like a maniac, with nothing to lose. As a result, it quickly became apparent that he wanted even bigger stakes. But Binion’s couldn’t afford it, especially after Karas took them for over $23 million in craps winnings.
Almost Won The Casino
The story goes, that at one point Archie Karas owned every single brown chip in the casino, with each one worth a cool $5,000. Binion has since said, that if Karas’luck was to continue for just a couple more rolls, then he and his family would have had to sign over the property deeds of the actual casino to Karas. Later that year, Archie Karas offered to pay a $15 million poker game with the world then richest man, the Sultan of Brunei. And in more or less the same breath, he foretold his own downfall. “You’ve got to understand something. 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.”
Determined To Lose Everything
It’s crazy when you think of all the times Archie Karas could have simply walked away from the table and never had to work another day in his life. In fact, he could have lived a life of high luxury on $17 million. But something else was driving him onward. It was as if he was determined to prove that what comes so quickly can be taken away equally so. So here we are at Binion’s, and instead of slowing down, Karas is rolling for six figures a time. But lady luck has deserted the building. He quickly loses $11 million of that bankroll. He then decided to re-challenge Reese, but this time the roles were reversed, with Archie Karas losing $2 million to him. Then, Karas turned to another game of total chance, baccarat. This ended up costing him over $17 million. A year later, he would polish off the remainder of his $40 million bankroll.
Archie Karas: It Ends In Cheating
Looking back, it’s easy to see that he was a gambling addict. Unable and unwilling to back down, he enjoyed phenomenal luck, only to crash and burn. In 2013, in probably the saddest part of this story, he was caught marking cards at a San Diego casino blackjack table. Because he already has the previous form for cheating, the Nevada Gambling Commission took the drastic step of putting his name in the infamous “Black Book” and banning him from every casino in the state. As he’d committed a felony, he also got himself three years probation for his troubles.
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