The Return of Archie 'The Greek' Karas
Archie Karas showed up with just $9 in his wallet,” said Tom Sexton.
On Day 10 of the 2008 World Series of Poker, I stood in the press box with Tom Sexton as he pointed over to Karas' table. Sexton and I were often teamed up together at the 2007 WSOP when we both worked for PokerNews. During breaks in the action, he’d tell some amazing and mind-blowing stories about players like Stu Ungar and Mike Sexton, his brother. I love to soak up stories about the poker scene in the 1970s and 1980s and about the seedy side of Las Vegas that has been glossed over. The corporations running Vegas did an amazing job of cosmetically enhancing poker. But if you want the straight dope on Sin City, you have to rely upon the oral history from the grizzled veterans who survived the war of attrition on the casino fl oors and back alleys of Las Vegas.
For the contemporary poker player, the worst thing that could happen these days is getting fl amed on a 2+2 forum. Twenty or thirty years ago, if your conduct was deemed uncouth, you got the beat down of your life in some dark alley behind Glitter Gulch. The troublemakers caught on real quick – otherwise they would fi nd their fate at the bottom of a ditch in the middle of the desert.
Last summer Tom Sexton told me plenty of stories about Archie “The Greek” Karas. The Greek would become the subject of a series of posts for Tom’s column at PokerNews called Sexton’s Corner. Karas was legendary for turning $50 into a $50 million bankroll before losing it all. My favorite Karas story is about a single day when he played both Chip Reese and Stu Ungar heads up and beat them for a combined $1.2 million.
Karas was the biggest swinging dick in Las Vegas before he pissed away his fortune. When the 2008 WSOP began, Karas was fl at broke as he once again began a comeback. He got staked in the $10,000 World Championship 7-card Stud event and secured funding for a couple of other events including Razz, the game in which he was once regarded as the best player in the world.
Karas hung tough in the Stud event against one of the deepest fi elds assembled at the 2008 WSOP. Out of 158 runners, he was among the 80 players who advanced to Day 2. Karas ended Day 1 with almost 55k in chips, which was good enough for 17th place overall. That’s an impressive feat considering played in the WSOP in years. I vaguely recall Karas making the final table of the Razz event at the 2005 WSOP but I had not seen him since.
Karas grew up in Greece and ran away from home when he was 17. He worked on different ships in various jobs. While on a stop in America, Karas jumped ship and never went back even though he barely spoke English. He eventually showed up in Los Angeles and learned English and Spanish. It was only a matter of time before he began hustling in pool halls and bowling alleys. But it was poker where he realized that he could make the most money.
In his 20s, Karas was a rounder in high stakes games located at different Los Angeles card rooms. His bankroll always fluctuated. He’d run it up to over a million in a couple of months then go busto in a single weekend.
“Archie was widely known to win a 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,” according to Tom Sexton.
“One day I might be driving a Mercedes, and the next day I might be sleeping in it!” explained Karas. In December of 1992, Karas had hit rock bottom. He lost the last of his $2 million bankroll in various games in Los Angeles. He had $50 to his name and did what any action junkie would do: he hassed up the car, drove through bat country, and headed for the tables in Las Vegas.
When Karas arrived at the Horseshoe, he spotted a friend and boldly asked him for a $10,000 stake so he could sit in a $200/$400 Razz game. Karas was known as one of the best Razz players in the world and his reputation easily got him the backer.
“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," Sexton tells.
Within three hours of his arrival in Las Vegas, Karas had a bankroll. It would just be the beginning of his rollercoaster ride.
"Archie (Karas) had more gamble in him than any personever met,” according to Jack Binion. And it was true. Karas would shoot pool for up to $40,000per game. Karas took down one gambler for $1 millioninside of four lengthy sessions of nineball. Karas couldn’t be beat yet his opponent kept trying and failing and reloading and trying and failing. However, Karas took a tremendous hit during the fifth session and lost back $740,000. Before he went to pay his opponent the outstanding debt, Karas’ backer unsuccessfully tried to convince Karas to lie and not pay the debt. His backer wanted to fake a robbery. In 1992, $740,000 was a sizeable amount and it’s still a lot of money by today’s standards. Instead of weaseling his way out of paying the debt like his backer suggested, Karas did the stand-up thing. He went to his box at the Horseshoe, took out $740,000, and paid his debt.
His backer dropped him and Karas returned to pool hustling. He won back $1.2 million and was up about $500K when his pool opponent (who was also a world champion poker player) suggested they switch to heads up poker.
"I took that one million I won shooting pool with him and went on to win three million more from him playing poker in only a few days. We started at $4,000/8,000 Limit 7-card Stud and quickly moved up to $8,000/$16,000 Limit, which was unheard of in those days,” said Karas.
In 1993, a statistical anomaly occurred in Las Vegas. Archie Karas went up against the best poker players in the world and inside of three months, he turned $7 million in $17 million. His streak has been called The Run”, which is the greatest single winning streak in poker and one of the most noteworthy in the history of gambling.
"I easily had a $7,000,000 bankroll at this point, and my confi dence was on top of the world,” said Karas. "I remember getting ten racks of $5,000 chips, which is $5,000,000, and putting them in the middle of the poker room on a poker table at the Horseshoe. I was ready to take on all comers in poker, and this stirred up a lot of interest. Poker’s most colorful character, Puggy Pearson, began to circle the table and the whole room, chanting, ‘Step right up here, boys, and help yourself to some of this easy money... $5,000,000 just waiting for you... step right up!’ Puggy was comical and appeared to be like a carnival barker, continuing, ‘Archie will take on all comers... step right up to his office!’”
Karas was willing to take on any challengers. A match was arranged between himself and Ungar. Lyle Berman staked Ungar $500,000 for a game of heads-up Razz.
“It didn’t take long to demolish Stuey,” boasted Karas, who won half o’ mil of Berman’s money.
A couple of days later, Reese wanted a shot at Karas and the two set up a game of Razz. The match lasted eight hours and when it was over, Karas emerged $500,000 richer. He went to dinner and when he returned to the poker room, Ungar and Berman were waiting for him. Karas played Ungar a second time. Four hours later Ungar called it quits. Karas outplayed Ungar again and won $700,000 more of Berman’s money. In one single day, Karas beat Ungar and Reese for $1.2 million. He won over $1.7 million from them in total that week. Karas wasn’t done, and riding a wave of supreme confi - dence, he continued to hunt down the biggest sharks in Vegas.
Reese once admitted: “The most money I ever lost in poker was $2,022,000 in one night, playing $8,000/$16,000 Limit against Archie Karas.” That fateful night took place right after Karas’ magical $1.2 million day. During The Run both Johnny Chan and Doyle Brunson took cracks at Karas with less than stellar results.
Karas refl ected, “Many of my opponents want to add games or play half Razz and half 7-card Stud. I want to play one game only… the opponents usually played 7-card Stud 90% of the time. Once Johnny Chan wanted to add a few games, and I quickly said, ‘John, I’m not looking to add any games. I’m looking to take one away. Tell you what I’ll do, if you want to play another game: Let’s play 6-card Razz.’ He went for it, and lost a quick $300,000! If you’re a great Razz player, playing 6-card Razz is even more of an edge. You have to be quick-minded and smart in this shark-infested world in order to survive. Like a boxer, you have to protect yourself at all times.”
Karas was also an action junkie and could easily lose millions at the craps tables. Karas craved those milliseconds of anticipation as the dice danced on the felt. One night he had a bloody awful run which found him stuck $11 million. He was still tilting the next day when he showed up at The Mirage to play Reese. He blew through his buy-in and had to borrow $2 million from Reese just to stay in the game.
“I’ve never loaned $1,000,000 to anyone in a poker game, let alone $2,000,000,” said Reese, who eventually loaned Karas the money after he explained that he had several million in his box down at The Horseshoe.
Karas lost it all to Reese. After the losing session at The Mirage, the two drove to the Horseshoe where Karas paid $2 million back to Reese. That would be the last time they played heads up.
“I had to start playing dice and baccarat more,” explained Karas. “I played and beat the best poker players heads up, including Chip Reese, who I must have played 25 matches with. Word spread quickly how tough I was to beat, and I couldn’t fi nd anyone to play with after a while. I had to start shooting dice, and ended up running my $17 million bankroll up to over $40 million as a result.”
Tom Sexton said, “My brother, Mike, saw (Karas) lose $1 million in about fi ve minutes at the dice table in 1993. (Karas) bet $10,000 on the pass line with $100,000 odds, and bet two come bets the same way. (Karas) sevened out on the fourth roll each of three successive times in a row, losing $330,000 each time.”
But he often netted big wins too. According to Karas: “The most I won in one session was $12 million but that night I was already stuck $4 million fi rst. So I netted $8 million for the evening. I went up and down for over two years, winning $5 million scores on the dice tables on many occasions.”
Karas was on top of the world. It was only a matter of time before he lost it all.
“There was a three-week period of time where I lost $30,000,000 which I could never fade,” said a regretful Karas.
Karas saw his bankroll decimated at the dice and baccarat tables. When Karas was down to his last million, he made a terrible decision that cost him the remainder of his money and dignity. He headed to the Bicycle Club in Los Angeles and played Chan heads up. As soon as Karas arrived, a game was quickly arranged. Berman backed Chan, but both Berman and Chan played Karas heads up and alternated every two hours.
Karas destroyed the tag-team duo of Berman and Chan and doubled up. However, his inner action junkie could not prevent him from heading straight to the craps tables. Karas kissed his last $2 million away shooting dice.
Since that humiliating moment, Karas had faded away into obscurity. Sure, his name has been whispered from time to time. Some of his feats were often dismissed as urban legends, but sadly, his incorrigible high stakes gambling got the best of him. The house always wins. Karas will be the fi rst to tell you that he should have stuck to poker, but the games dried up for him. His thirst for action got him into trouble as he gravitated towards -EV games.
“If I had known there was a poker boom right around the corner,” said Karas. “I would have parked $10 million to the side, even if I had to wait ten years to play. Poker has always been my bread and butter. I’ll point out that between 1992 and 1995, who could have guessed there was going to be such a boom in poker by 2003? Back then, I couldn’t wait three hours to get in action. Dice is the fastest action in the world, where I could win or lose a million with one roll of the dice.”
The legendary Nick “The Greek” Dandolos died broke and was last seen playing $5 poker in California card rooms. Archie “The Greek” Karas didn’t want to go out in a similar way. Tom Sexton wrote a series of articles about Karas for PokerNews.com. During the interview process, Sexton befriended Karas and sort of talked him into making a comeback. The result? Karas showed up at the 2008 WSOP in Las Vegas with $9 in his pocket, riding a wave of nostalgia. He sat down in the $10K Stud Championship hoping that he could replicate his magical run of turning $50 into $50 million.
Karas carefully navigated his way through Day 1 and returned among the chipleaders for Day 2. As the fi eld thinned out, Karas’ stack failed to increase and he suddenly found himself among the short stacks. Karas’ comeback fi zzled out when he busted in 23rd place, only fi ve spots off the money.
One week later, Karas entered Event #26 ($1,500 Razz). It has always been his best game and he defi nitely stepped up his play. He made the fi nal table and was in the middle of the pack. Unfortunately for Karas, it ended up being Barry Greenstein’s day. Greenstein won the bracelet as Karas fi nished in seventh place. He won $19,477. That’s small potatoes compared to his once $50 million bankroll, but it was a step in the right direction.
Karas played a couple of other events at the WSOP but could never get anything going, particularly in the Main Event. He fl ew under the radar for all of Day 1 and advanced to Day 2 with a modest stack. However, Karas could not pick up any momentum and was among the two thousand players who were eliminated on Day 2B. He silently made his exit out a side door from the Amazon Ballroom.
That would be the last that we’d see of Archie Karas at the 2008 WSOP. But I have a strong feeling that we’ll soon see him again.
