Thomas Austin Preston Jr. (December 31, 1928 – April 29, 2012), known as Amarillo Slim, was an American professional gambler known for his poker skills and proposition bets. Preston won the 1972 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event and was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in 1992. Poker career Before becoming a well-known tournament player, Preston was a rounder, touring the United States looking for gambling action along with Doyle Brunson and Sailor Roberts, effectively introducing Texas Hold’em, the most popular poker type today, to Las Vegas in the 1960s. Preston participated in the first World Series of Poker in 1970 along with Johnny Moss, Sailor Roberts, Doyle Brunson, Puggy Pearson, Crandell Addington, and Carl Cannon. Following his victory in the 1972 WSOP Main Event, he appeared on several talk shows, including The Tonight Show, and had a small part in the 1974 Robert Altman movie California Split. He appeared on I've Got a Secret, where his secret involved losing $190,000 in one night of poker. He also founded the tournament series called Amarillo Slim's Super Bowl of Poker, which ran annually between 1979 and 1991. Preston won four WSOP bracelets, including two in Omaha. Preston's final WSOP win was in 1990. In the $2,500 Pot Limit Omaha event at the 2000 WSOP, he came in second to Phil Ivey. In January/February 1980, Amarillo Slim hosted the Second Annual Poker Classic, which was the second-most prestigious poker tournament of its time. This series eventually came to be called the Super Bowl of Poker and continued until 1991. Gabe Kaplan became the first winner of this tournament series and Stu Ungar won the title three times. The video game Amarillo Slim Dealer's Choice was published by Villa Crespo Software in 1991. Preston's lifetime tournament earnings totaled more than $587,000. World Series of Poker bracelets Author In 1973, Preston and Bill G. Cox wrote Play Poker to Win which was published by Grosset and Dunlap. A revised edition of the book was published by HarperCollins in 2005 entitled Amarillo Slim's Play Poker to Win. In May 2003, Preston published his autobiography Amarillo Slim in a World Full of Fat People, where he wrote of playing poker with Larry Flynt, Lyndon Johnson, and Richard Nixon among others. In addition to his poker exploits, Preston wrote about his exploits in proposition betting. In April 2007, Preston created a website and released