Can you imagine anyone driving to Las Vegas in 1992 with $50 in his pocket, then borrowing $10,000 to start playing $200/400 razz and seven-card stud, and in six months, running it up to a $17,000,000 fortune shooting pool, playing poker, and shooting dice? Then, instead of cashing out, he decides to gamble sky-high and runs his bankroll to over $40,000,000, before losing it all back by 1995? Meet the biggest gambler in the world, Archie Karas. You’re about to take a journey down memory lane to the most legendary high-roller story that ever happened in Las Vegas. Be sure and fasten your seat belts!

Archie recently stopped over at my house in Las Vegas, to talk about his modest beginnings, and in a moment of deep reflection said, “Tommy, the hairs just stood up on my arms, just thinking about those early days when I was growing up, having to gamble to win money by shooting marbles! Back in those days, we would play for drachmas, which was the currency then. It took 30 drachmas to make one dollar, so to win two and a half drachmas, it meant I could win a half of loaf of bread to avoid going hungry that day.”

Today, Archie Karas is 57 and lives in Las Vegas, Nevada. His family all resides in Greece. His mom, Mariana, is 87. Pete, his older brother, is 63 and owns a restaurant/pub. His older sister, Helen, is a homemaker, and his youngest sister, Dionysia, 45, is a school teacher. Archie stays in frequent touch with his family by phone, and tries to travel back to Greece at least once per year. Twice he’s brought his mom to Las Vegas for six-month visits, and this is when Archie was swimming in millions. His brother and sisters also visited, and can you imagine the family’s reaction at seeing Archie rich, beyond any dreams from those early poverty days from back home? They were amazed at the stacks of cash filling his many money boxes! What mom or family wouldn’t be amazed?

With his victims from the pool hall thinning out, it became clear he needed to turn to high-stakes poker in the LA card rooms to continue his run. In the beginning, Archie thought if he had a bankroll of $10,000 he would be set for life. With his natural tendency to gamble high all the time, he would change that standard to $50,000, then $500,000, and finally to $1,000,000. Through his twenties and thirties, Archie was widely known to win and lose a million dollars as much as fifty times over, mostly playing in the L.A. area. When broke, he would find a new backer to start over. Archie said, “One day I might be driving a Mercedes, and the next day I might be sleeping in it!”

One of the rare qualities Archie always possessed was his desire to play the highest limits with the best players. He was always fearless at the tables, unlike most of us. Archie says “I don’t really value money. The things I want, money won’t buy: health, freedom, love, and happiness. I have no fear, and play like I have no fear of losing it. Even as a kid back in Greece, I wasn’t afraid to bet it all, be it marbles or anything else.”

The stress of being up and down with such large swings would eat most of us up, but not Archie. He has always felt that no matter how big a hole he might find himself inside, he had the talent and courage to climb back out. In December, 1992, Archie lost $2,000,000 playing high-stakes poker. Left with only $50 in his pocket, Archie decided to re-evaluate his situation, and felt he needed to take it up a notch and head to Las Vegas to gamble higher. I think you’ll agree that most of us would figure our best bet would be to slow down and drop down in limits, to reduce our risks. Archie is wired differently than the rest of us, as he gets an adrenaline rush enjoying the chase. He is that rare, bona fide high roller, who always believed his destiny was to be the biggest gambler the world has ever seen. This was his mindset, and with only his $50 bankroll and a full tank of gas, he headed down Route 15 for Las Vegas.

What happened next in his life was so incredible, it defies explanation. He was ready to take on all comers in Las Vegas, but Vegas wasn’t prepared for the likes of Archie. The first casino he entered, with his hefty $50 bankroll, was Binion’s Horseshoe, where a tournament was in progress along with big, juicy side games. While scanning the room, Archie spotted a well-to-do poker player who was familiar with Archie’s talent playing razz or seven-card stud. With his incredible up-and-down gambling runs back in LA, would this be the moment in his life where he might launch something historic? Nobody in the room new it then, but Archie Karas was on the verge to do something unthinkable!

Remember, Archie had just lost everything in his life, a few nights earlier, with that big $2,000,000 setback in LA. A normal human being’s confidence would have to be shaken. Not for Archie, though, with his nerves of steel and the mindset that he couldn’t lose.

Archie asked his friend for a $10,000 loan to get staked in a $200/400 razz game. Actually, nobody played razz as good as Archie, and he came out of the gate blazing and tripled his money in three hours. He quickly went over and paid his $10,000 personal loan off, plus a 50% profit for the happy investor. At that point, Archie was on track to play for himself, and his legend in Las Vegas poker lore was ready to be written.

Along with many others, I recently attended Chip Reese’s funeral. The large numbers of friends and fellow gamblers that attended were both inspirational and overwhelming. If I hadn’t known better, I would have thought Archie Karas was part of the family, as I noticed him meeting, greeting, and shaking hands with many at the front door and lobby. I could see that it was Archie, though, who was there to pay tribute to his fellow competitor, Chip Reese. Ironically, many of the guests and younger poker players probably had no idea who Archie was, as his gambling streak happened about 15 years ago.

The truth is, many of the high-limit poker players, for many years, wouldn’t talk to Archie after he went broke. Most of the greats that tried to take him on, playing such high stakes, heads up, learned quickly that Archie was too fearless and too tough to handle. The high limits Archie wanted to play at literally took most of them out of their comfort zone Yet, after all this time, here was Archie showing up to say good-bye to Chip, to pay his deepest respects to both the man, who was such a class act and also Archie’s former adversary on the green felt. Archie looked at Chip as a great gladiator who had survived playing high stakes for 30 years.

As I watched Archie and how he handled himself there, the thought occurred to me that there was nobody at the funeral that was ever able to defeat Chip Reese at the poker tables, other than one guy in the world — Archie Karas. He wasn’t there to gloat; he was there to pay tribute to Chip like everyone else.

I was walking across the parking lot after the funeral, and noticed this isolated figure walking to his car. I did a double-take and then realized it was Archie, so I went over to talk to him. The experiences he had with Chip were unlike anyone else’s in the world. Nobody on the planet had won more money from Chip playing heads-up, high-stakes poker overall, or played higher limits at the time, than Archie. In the parking lot Archie told me, “Tommy, of all the opponents I ever played, and I have played all the greats, Chip had more class than all of them put together.”

Although they weren’t close friends, who talked to each other for a number of years, here was Archie paying his respects with a quiet reverence, almost unnoticed by most of the large crowd who didn’t know who he was. After going broke, he was in stealth mode for a dozen years, hoping not to be barred from the casinos. To the casinos, Archie represented a dangerous, fearless gambler in the pit, one who might not win a few chandeliers, but the whole joint!

Archie says, “Poker gives a person a better chance to win money, but it is a lot more work. I might win $1,000,000 to $4,000,000 in ten to 30 minutes at dice, as high as I like to play, while it might take me 24 hours to win $1,000,000 to $2,000,000 in poker, playing someone heads-up. It’s a lot of work that is exhausting. I do it because I love to play poker.”

In poker, Archie compares his story as Chip, defending his championship status, against himself, defending his life in the Roman arena. Archie’s amazing story between 1992 and 1995 was a journey beyond belief, including his amazing battles against the king, Chip Reese. You’ll enjoy more from that here in the next several columns.

The interesting thing about highlighting his story is he is personally going to be our guide. Archie has agreed to several personal interviews to document The Run, the most audacious run in Vegas history and certainly an important chapter in gambling lore. So, as I said at the top… fasten your seat belts, and stay tuned for Part 2!

The Cab is Parked,

Tom Sexton

Source: Sexton’s Corner, Vol. 31: Archie Karas, ‘The World’s Biggest Gambler,’ Part 1

Check out the sweet video put together by Team Bodog for the World Series of Poker 2010

Nick “The Greek” Dandolos
b. April 27 1893
d. 25th December 1966

A man who became almost as legendary as any man in romantic fiction and certainly America’s most famous gambler.

He was born in Rethymnon, Crete, from which his father sent him to live with a wealthy godfather in Smyrna, Turkey, where attended the English run Baxter school. He was later educated at the Greek Evangelical College there. He spoke English, French, Italian, Spanish, Turkish, Greek and Yiddish as well as being a talented poet. After travels in America he had planned to study at Oxford and graduate to a Donship in Philosophy.

Nick ( whose real name was Nicholas Andrea Dandolos ) was the son of a rug merchant and the godson of a wealthy shipowner. When he was 18 years old, his grandfather sent him to America, giving him an allowance of $150 a week. In Chicago he met and fell in love with a girl, but they quarreled and Nick moved on to Montreal. There he became friendly with a leading jockey of the day, Phil Musgrave; assisted by the jockey’s advice and his own natural ability for working out odds, Nick won $500,000 in six months’ betting on horse races.

Nick then went back to Chicago and promptly lost the entire amount playing card and dice games that were unfamiliar to him. But he was not at all deterred from continuing in his chosen profession. He began to study these games assiduously and in a few years had become so well known as a freelance gambler that casino proprietors were offering him large salaries to work for them. He usually refused, but became an enormous attraction at the casinos nevertheless merely by playing – partly because he would seldom stop gambling even after losing (as he frequently did) as much as $100,000 in a single session at the tables.

Naturally this unpredictable gambler with a knowledge of philosophy and a passion for Aristotle & Plato was the source of endless speculation and rumour. It is widely believed that he once won a city block in Los Angeles, that he challenged an arrogant opponent to draw one card for $550,000 (the other man backed down), that he played faro for 10 days and nights without sleep.

In the January of 1951, as the story goes, Nick the Greek approached Benny Binion with an unusual request-to challenge the best in a high-stakes poker marathon. Binion agreed to set up a match between Dandolos and the legendary Johnny Moss, with the stipulation that the game be played in public view.

During the course of the marathon, which lasted five months with breaks only for sleep, the two men played every form of poker imaginable. Moss ultimately won “the biggest game in town” and an estimated $2 million. When the Greek lost his last pot, he arose from his chair, bowed slightly, and uttered the now-famous words, “Mr. Moss, I have to let you go.” Dandolos then went upstairs to bed.
He was enshrined in 1979 as a charter member of the Poker Hall of Fame.

Nobel-prize winning physicist Richard Feynman also met Nick the Greek, according to the autobiographical Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!. Nick explains to Richard how he wins big not by playing the tables, but by knowing the odds at the tables and betting against others who have superstitious beliefs about the outcome.

Albert Einstein stopped of in Las Vegas on a coast to coast journey. It was Nick who met him at the airport and chaperoned him around the Vegas casinos in a story told by Nick himself. Einstein was famous for saying that no one could win money at the roulette table, ‘unless he steals money from the table while the croupier isn’t looking’. So during a visit to the Tropicana Casino Nick approached a roulettte table and placed a handful of chips on red. It won and he let it ride and after winning again he did the same to further success. He then cashed in his chips, pocketed the cash and turned to grin at Einstein.

Nick then said, “Any questions?”

“One”, said Einstein.

“And that is……..?”

“I was wondering if you would be kind enough to wash my mouth out with soap?”

During his life Nick Dandolos donated more than $5,000,000 to charity and more than $2,000,000 to ‘friends’ in need. He sent 29 chilrdren of friends through college, paid hospital bills for 1,000 or more individuals and set up non-interest loans enabling another 300 or so to launch businesses of their own.

“He lived the life of a modern Socrates,” a friend said shortly after Nick’s death. “He believed in absolutely nothing material. His sum total of possessions at the time he died would have fitted handily into a shoe box. His most valuable presonal effects were the kind he could take with him. And he did…!”

Nick Dandolos claimed that he went from rags to riches over 73 times and near the end of his life Dandolos was reputedly near broke and playing $5 limit Draw poker games in Gardena, California.

• In 1873, the Briton Joseph Jaggers made the first famous biased roulette wheel exploit. Mr. Jaggers, with a team of six accomplices, carefully observed all the wheels at the Monte Carlo casino and found one wheel with significant bias. By taking advantage of this flaw they managed to win over $325,000, an astronomical sum in 1873.^[20]

• In the summer of 1891 at the Monte Carlo casino, a part-time swindler and petty crook from London named Charles Wells, broke the bank at each table he played over a period of several days. Breaking the bank meant he won all the available money in the table bank that day, and a black cloth would be placed over the table until the bank was replenished. In song and life he was celebrated as “The Man That Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo.”

• In the 1942 film Casablanca, Rick’s Café Americain has a trick roulette wheel. The croupier can cause it to land on 22 at will. Rick (Humphrey Bogart) urges a Bulgarian refugee with whose case he becomes sympathetic to put his last three chips on 22 and motions to the croupier to let him win. After the man’s number dramatically comes up, Rick tells him to let it all ride on 22 and lets him win again. Although the details are not mentioned in the film (the croupier only notes that they are “a couple of thousand” down), it appears that Rick has given the man 3885 ((3*36*36)-3) francs. Three on any number would pay 35 to 1, “letting it ride” would result in a bet of 108 (105+3) pieces, which would yield a payoff of 3780, or 3888 if he took his bet down.

• Near the beginning of the 1973 film The Sting, Johnny Hooker (Robert Redford) takes his share of the money conned from a numbers runner and loses nearly all of it on a single bet against a rigged roulette wheel.

• In 1992 in Gdynia (Poland) in Jackpol casino, Paweł Piskorski (Polish politician, former Secretary General of Platforma Obywatelska and Member of European Parliament, today Leader of Stronnictwo Demokratyczne) claimed to have won 4,950,000,000 zloty (approximately $175,000 today). This, at least, was the explanation he gave to the revenue office for his income that year. The claim is implausible, because the house maximum at that time was 1,000,000 zloty: he would have had to have won 138 times in succession, with each bet set at the house maximum.

• In the third part of the 1998 film Run, Lola, Run, Lola (Franka Potente) uses all her money to buy a 100-mark chip. (She is actually just short of 100 marks, but gains the sympathy of a casino employee who gives her the chip for what money she has.) She bets her single chip on 20 and wins. She lets her winnings ride on 20 and wins again, making her total winnings 129,600 marks (29,600 more than her smuggler boyfriend owed his boss, Ronnie). The odds of two consecutive wins on a European roulette wheel are exactly 1368-to-1 against.On a European roulette table, 1 chip would pay 35. Letting it ride would yield a payoff of(36*35)1260 pieces, or in this case 126,000 marks. It should also be noted that the odds of “any” number repeating is exactly 36-to-1 (37-to-1 on a 00 wheel).

• In 2004, Ashley Revell of London sold all of his possessions, clothing included, and brought US$135,300 to the Plaza Hotel in Las Vegas and put it all on “Red” at the roulette table in a double-or-nothing bet. The ball landed on “Red 7″ and Revell walked away with his net-worth doubled to $270,600.

• In the music video for “Palace & Main” by Kent, guitarist Harri Mänty goes to Las Vegas and bets the entire video budget on black. He wins, and the profits are donated to charity.

• In 2009, on Friday 2 October, Derren Brown (as part of his controversial “the events” series) bet £5000 of a member of the public’s money on a single number of a roulette wheel somewhere in Europe. This was shown live across the UK using a hidden camera in Derren’s sleeve. His plan was to use the laws of physics to predict where the ball would end up, based upon what speed the wheel and ball are spinning. Derren took approximately 3 seconds after the wheel started spinning to place his £5000 bet on number 8, only to see it land on number 30 – just one number out.

Watch as Ashley Revell sold everything he owned, traveled to Las Vegas and bet it all on one spin of the Roulette wheel. He bet $136,000 on Red, and this is what happened.

Arnold Rothstein
born in 1882 on East 47th Street in Manhattan
died November 6th, 1928, New York’s Polyclinic Hospital

Known by many names – A. R., Mr. Big, The Fixer, The Big Bankroll, The Man Uptown, and The Brain – Arnold Rothstein seemed more myth than man. He was the inspiration for Meyer Wolfsheim in The Great Gatsby, and Nathan Detroit in Guys and Dolls. He was rumored to be the mastermind of the “Black Sox” scandal, the fixing of the 1919 World Series. Arnold Rothstein was gambling, and Arnold Rothstein was money. He was Mr. Broadway and had his own booth at Lindy’s restaurant in Manhattan where he held court.

From The Big Bank Roll, biography of Rothstein: “The cigar salesman made a good living. He lived frugally, did not dissipate. Each week the roll in his pocket grew a little thicker. He knew he could never attain his ultimate aim by simple economies, but these could start him on his way. He didn’t like long range projects. He was essentially a short-term, quick-turnover man.”

“Rothstein pursued a fixed course. He worked at selling cigars until he accumulated $2,000. He decided that this was sufficient to base an entry into gambling as a profession. He quit his salesman’s job. He would never again work for anyone else. All the rest of his life, no matter what else he might be, he would always be a professional gambler.”

With “Big Tim” Sullivan’s backing, in 1902 Rothstein began working on his own. He booked bets on baseball games, elections, horse races and prizefights. In addition, he gambled on his own – shooting craps, playing pool and participating in poker games. Rothstein had a simple philosophy, “Look out for Number One. If you don’t, no one else will. If a man is dumb, someone is going to get the best of him, so why not you? If you don’t, you’re as dumb as he is.”

Rothstein had promised his new wife Carolyn that after he made a lot of money he would retire from being a gambler. Rothstein was comfortable discussing his philosophy of gambling with his wife, but never the actual mechanics, and certainly not the people he interacted with. At Saratoga he pawned all of the expensive jewelry he had given Carolyn to obtain cash. This was more lucrative than borrowing the money at a higher interest rate. By the end of the honeymoon, which coincidentally coincided with the end of race season at Saratoga, Rothstein had won $12,000 and got Carolyn’s jewelry out of hock.

Returning to New York, Rothstein decided to open his own gambling house. He rented two brownstones on West 46th Street and he and Carolyn took up residence in one, while the other was outfitted with roulette wheels, faro and poker tables. Rothstein then went to “Big Tim” Sullivan to discuss “protection.” Sullivan, an Irishman who believed in marriage and large families, was delighted that his protégé had wed. His wedding gift to Rothstein was protection.

By 1914 Rothstein was already on his way to becoming the go-to-guy for lay-off betting in the bookmaking business. Since its early years, America has had a love affair with horse racing – and betting on horse races. As placing wagers on the sport became more popular, especially in the country’s larger cities, the art of bookmaking, also known then as pool operating, became popular too. It was not until Rothstein came along to organize the various bookmakers that it became a huge money making venture. By the mid-teens Rothstein’s ever-growing bankroll allowed him to set the terms for what became known as the lay-off bet. This is the process of evening out a bookie’s slate when one horse has so much money riding on it that the results can break the bookie’s bank. He simply bet’s the other way with someone with enough money to handle the bet and the two split the winning percentage from the bets placed.

Rothstein was soon known from coast to coast as the man who could handle any lay-off bet. Assembling a loyal group of men who worked around the clock for their master, Rothstein’s ability to take care of this type of betting would last until his death.

Meanwhile, as the country moved through the 1910s, Rothstein’s gambling contemporaries in New York fell by the wayside. Having one of the few reputable gambling houses in the city Rothstein decided to close up shop because it had become too well known. In 1916 he opened a new casino in Hewlett, Long Island where the cost of “protection” was not nearly as high as in Manhattan. Both the building and the land the gambling house occupied were owned by a state senator who was recognized as a major political figure in the area. The casino was lavishly furnished and provided the gamblers, who arrived by invitation only, with the best in food and drink. All of the casino’s employees were required to dress in appropriate eveningwear.

Rothstein took advantage of what he termed “snob appeal” for his gambling den. “People like to think they’re better than other people,” Rothstein once told Damon Runyon. “As long as they’re willing to pay to prove it, I’m willing to let them.” For three years he allowed them to “pay,” to the tune of $500,000 in profits, before he closed the club in 1919 after the local authorities became greedy.

Three events took place in Rothstein’s life that became legendary and created a reputation for the gambler that certainly preceded him and made him the talk of New York.

The first incident occurred in 1917. August Belmont owned a horse named Hourless, whose trainer, Sam Hildreth, was considered one of the best in the country. During the 1917 racing season Hourless lost in a three-horse race to that year’s Kentucky Derby winner, Omar Khayyam. Hildreth knew he had been outsmarted by Hourless’ rider, a dishonest jockey who dropped his whip during the race. When the New York season was over an enterprising track owner agreed to put up a purse for a grudge match between the two horses. On October 17, the day before the race, Rothstein decided to bet $240,000 on Hourless, but could not find anyone willing to handle a wager that large. Later that day, Rothstein received a telephone call and was informed whatever bet he was willing to place there was a man who would accept it – no limit.

Rothstein knew immediately that there must be a fix. He called Hildreth and voiced his concern regarding the sudden change of heart of the bookmakers to take his bet. If there was going to be a sucker in this race, it was not going to be Arnold Rothstein. At the last minute Hildreth changed jockeys and Hourless won convincingly. Rothstein pocketed a cool $300,000.

This bet was the largest Rothstein had won up until this time and he would exceed it twice in 1921. The first bet occurred on July 4. Independence Day was the second of the three big racing days that took place at the New York horse racing tracks (the other two being Memorial Day and Labor Day). On this holiday Rothstein was betting on his own horse, Sidereal.

Sidereal’s entrance in the day’s third race was a last minute decision by Rothstein. In fact, the horse was stabled at Belmont Park and the race was being run at Aqueduct. Rothstein sent Carolyn to fetch the horse while he maneuvered around the busy track drumming up business and, at the same time, trying to be as inconspicuous as possible so not to tip his hand. Rothstein “borrowed” as many as forty trackmen to do his bidding in placing bets on Sidereal. By the time the horse arrived at the track the paddock judge told the trainer he had beaten the deadline by a mere six seconds. Sidereal won the race and Rothstein earned the incredible amount of $850,000.

Weeks later, on August 20, Rothstein won $500,000 by betting on another of his horses, Sporting Blood, in the Travers Stakes. Rothstein had received some quality information about problems the favored horse was experiencing. He was quick to take advantage of the information – for which he always rewarded the provider well.

Arnold Rothstein’s “fixing” of the 1919 World Series (Baseball) is the American underworld’s most popular myth. The reality is, however, different. Rothstein’s name, his reputation, and his reputed wealth were all used to influence the crooked baseball players. But Rothstein, knowing this, kept apart from the actual fix. He just let it happen.”

Last Hours of Mr. Big

That was the message recorded at 10:53 p.m. on Sunday, November 4, 1928 by a desk sergeant in Manhattan’s West 47th Street station. By midnight, the information had been updated to show that Arnold Rothstein, 46 years old of 912 Fifth Avenue had been shot in the abdomen and found near the employee’s entrance of the Park Central Hotel.

Earlier that evening, Rothstein arrived at Lindy’s restaurant on Seventh Avenue and went to his private booth. Lindy’s was Rothstein’s office. He kept a regular schedule there and several men were already waiting to see him when he walked in that night. One of the men, Jimmy Meehan, ran the Park City Club, one of the city’s biggest gambling dens during the 1920s. Meehan operated the plush club with a bankroll supplied by Rothstein.

About 10:15, Rothstein received a telephone call. After a short conversation he hung up and motioned for Meehan to walk outside with him. “McManus wants to see me at the Park Central,” Rothstein said. He then pulled a gun out of his pocket and handed it to Meehan saying, “Keep this for me, I will be right back.” Meehan then watched Rothstein walk up Seventh Avenue.

The man who had requested Rothstein’s presence at the hotel was George McManus. A bookmaker and gambler, McManus was well connected in the city with one brother serving on the police force and another serving as a priest. Several weeks earlier, McManus had hosted a high-stakes poker game in which Rothstein had participated. The game began on September 8th and continued into the morning of September 10th. Other players participating in the game were West Coast gambler Nate Raymond, Alvin “Titanic” Thompson, and Joe Bernstein. By the end of the marathon card game, Rothstein was a big loser. He owed Raymond $219,000, Bernstein $73,000, and Thompson $30,000. When Rothstein walked out, without so much as signing an IOU, a couple of the players became irritated. McManus assured the pair, “That’s A. R. Hell, he’s good for it. He’ll be calling you in a couple of days.”

A week passed and Rothstein had still not made good. Rumors began to circulate that the game was crooked. Rothstein confided to Nicky Arnstein, who by now was out of prison and back in New York, “A couple of people told me that the game was rigged.” Arnstein’s advice to Rothstein was to pay the players off, “no point to your advertising you were a sucker.”

Rothstein held off paying his debt though, hoping to make the gamblers sweat and maybe take a lesser payoff. The players however were beginning to pressure McManus since he was the host and had promised them that Rothstein would make good. McManus sought help from his friend Jimmy Hines of Tammany Hall. Hines, who was also a friend of Rothstein, began to pressure him to clear up the matter.

As the weeks passed, the pressure began to get to McManus who began drinking and threatened Rothstein for not making good on the debts. On Sunday night November 4, McManus called Rothstein from room 349 in the Park Central Hotel where he was registered as George Richards. He requested that Rothstein come over right away.

The conversation and events that took place after Rothstein arrived are still a mystery. Shortly after Rothstein entered room 349, he was shot once in the lower abdomen. The revolver was then tossed out the window where it bounced off the hood of a parked taxi and landed in the street. Employees later found Rothstein walking down the service stairs, holding his stomach and asking for a cab to take him home.

Late on Monday afternoon, his wife Carolyn was permitted to see him. He requested to go home and told her, “Don’t go away. I don’t want to be alone. I can’t stand being alone.” As he tried to raise himself he fell back and into unconsciousness. Rothstein would not regain consciousness and died the following morning at approximately 10:20, Election Day, November 6th, 1928.

Rothstein had bet heavily on the election that year. Had he lived, he would have collected $570,000. His death negated the wagers. In the Jewish tradition, Rothstein was buried the following day in Union Field Cemetery in Queens. Inside the closed casket he was dressed in a white skullcap with a purple-striped prayer shawl over a muslin shroud.

Source: The Good Gambling Guide

Watch the video as Jonathan Duhamel takes home nearly $9,000,000.00 dollars at the final round of the final table of the World Series of Poker in 2010. The win immediatley but Jonathan on the leaderboard for all time money leaders with such greats as Phil Ivey and Daniel Negreanu. Enjoy!

Back in June of 2004 Larry Olmsted set the world record for single person poker marathon at 72 hours and 2 minutes! The record was set at Foxwoods Resort & Casino in Manshantucket, CT.

Pokerstars.com held the world’s largest online poker tournament on July 19, 2009 that featured over 65,000 participants.  The company is based in the UK and offers great incentives to sign up!