Archie Karas - The Greatest Gaming Run in History

If you’ve never heard of Archie Karas, don’t feel bad because there are plenty of people who have no clue who he is. Karas isn’t a TV personality or a rock star, and he never achieved much fame outside of the casino city of Las Vegas. Instead, Karas is more of a legend who online gamers speak of as if he had lived centuries ago.

Of course, Karas’ tales are well worth telling again and again since he went on what is undoubtedly the greatest run in Las Vegas casino history. Karas managed to achieve the dream that every gamer strives for, yet never comes close to realizing; he turned a $50 bankroll into a $40 million bankroll in just a little over two years.

Sound impossible? Perhaps to the average gambler, but when you uncover the history of Karas, you’ll see why he was able to pull off the impossible, and become whom many say is the great casino gamer of all-time.

Like many gaming greats, Archie Karas grew up in poverty. Without much food on the table, Karas turned to shooting marbles in his hometown of Antypata, Greece as a means of feeding himself. What Karas discovered is that he was not only good at marbles, but also other forms of casino gaming.

Unfortunately, Karas’ gambling talents weren’t quite so appreciated at home as there was tension between him and his father. One night, the two got into such a heated argument that Karas’ father threw a shovel at his head. Not surprisingly, Karas decided to skip town, and he found work on a cruise ship.

Initially, Karas was thrilled with his waiter job on the cruise ship because it gave him an opportunity to make money and see the world. But with the inner gamer lurking beneath, Karas knew that traveling the world and waiting tables wasn’t the life for him. So Karas said bon voyage to the ship once he reached America, and made his way to Los Angeles.

It was here, in the back of an unassuming bowling alley, that Karas was reunited with his true passion - casino gaming. First it was pool, which was a game that Karas has never played before settling in Los Angeles. Karas showed an amazing ability to catch on and improve quickly since he was soon hustling lots of pool players out of money. The same would become true with poker, which was another game that Karas had never played before hanging out at the bowling alley. Eventually, Karas found that the casino stakes offered in the back of the bowling alley no longer suited his tastes, so he went to search for much bigger games.

Now in his early 20’s and armed with incredible poker and pool skills, Archie Karas sought out all of the casino action he could find. Karas began playing high stakes poker games and pool on the side; it wasn’t long before this lethal combination made Karas a millionaire. Unfortunately, it wasn’t long before Karas lost most of his newly acquired millions, which began what would become a trend for him.

Karas spent most of the 1970’s and 80’s watching his bankroll reach astronomical heights, only to see it come crashing down. In the late 80’s, Karas lost a multi-million dollar bankroll by playing high stakes poker. With hardly any money to his name, Karas relocated to Las Vegas where he would lay the foundation for what is reportedly the greatest gambling run in history.

As the story goes, Karas would arrive in Las Vegas with around $50 before finding an old gambling buddy who staked him with $10,000 in poker. Karas quickly jumped in a $200/$400 Razz game, and built his bankroll up to $30,000. After giving $20k to the friend who staked him, Karas began scouring Las Vegas for pool games.

It wasn’t long before Karas found an unidentified player with deep pockets, who Karas simply calls “Mr. X”. Mr. X and Karas began playing pool games for the next two months at $10,000 a game. The two players got to know each other pretty well since they played all day throughout this time period. Towards the end, Karas certainly got the better of Mr. X, and so Mr. X raised the stakes to levels that even professionals dared not play - $40k a game. But it was merely a case of different stakes, same results as Karas went on to win an additional $1.2 million.

Mr. X must have been seriously well-funded because he challenged Karas to play poker after the lengthy pool game ended. Of course, Mr. X had a reputation as a great poker player, so this wasn’t just some fish Karas was playing. Even still, Karas dominated Mr. X to the tune of $3 million; after taking enough beatings, Mr. X chose to take the rest of his money and quit. This was only the beginning for Karas though.

He spent the next few months increasing his bankroll from $4 million to $7 million by playing more poker and pool. At this point, Karas had developed such a reputation from beating Mr. X and other gamblers around Las Vegas that only a few people were willing to challenge him in anything.

3-time World Series of Poker champion Stu Ungar was one person willing to challenge Karas. Ungar was a heavy favorite in this match since he was considered to be the greatest Texas Hold’em player at the time. But Karas and Ungar weren’t playing Texas Hold’em; they were playing Razz and Seven Card Stud. Amazingly, Ungar dropped $1.2 million to Karas, which prompted more poker players to try and take him down.

Chip Reese was the next player to step into the ring. Like Ungar, Reese was also a favorite since he was considered by many to be the world’s best all-around cash game player. Despite the billing, Reese proved to be no match for Karas after losing over $2 million to him playing at blind levels of $8,000/$16,000. When it was all over, Reese told Karas, "God made your balls a little bigger. You're too good."

Doyle Brunson, Johnny Moss, and Puggy Pearson all found out the hard way that Reese was right as they lost combined millions to Karas. In fact, the only top pro who could beat Karas was Johnny Chan, who initially lost to Karas, but came back to win $900k. By the end of his miraculous poker run, Karas had ran his bankroll up over $17 million! Unfortunately, Karas would become a victim of his own success because none of the high rollers wanted to play him in poker or pool. So he had to turn to regular casino games.

Despite knowing that poker and pool were his best bets to consistently reap profits, Karas always had an affection for the craps tables. He loved the fact that one could reap quick millions in craps, as opposed to poker where it would take weeks to make the same amount. Of course, to earn this kind of money Karas needed to play at a place where they’d allow him to make huge bets, so he took his millions to Binion’s Horseshoe Casino.

Karas’ incredible run continued into his craps sessions, where he sometimes made as much as $4 million a session! One of the best stories from this craps run is when Karas managed to win all of the $5,000 casino chips at Binion’s. Unfortunately, it’s a little hard to keep winning at this rate when the house holds the edge in craps, and Karas’ great stories and huge winnings were about to end.

First, the bottom finally fell out in craps when he lost over $11 million in a short span of time. Chip Reese must have heard that Karas was on a downswing since Reese challenged him again, and won over $1 million. But the worst was yet to come as Karas hit the baccarat tables where he lost another $17 million.

Down and out, Karas traveled to Greece to take a break from all of the heavy losses. There was no relief to be found upon returning because Karas couldn’t stay away from the craps tables as he dropped another $11 million at the Horseshoe. With his wealth vastly diminished, Karas got some revenge on Johnny Chan by winning a $1 million freezeout match against both Chan and his backer, Lyle Berman.

Once again, Karas headed back to the craps and baccarat tables, and donated another $2 million back to Binion’s within just a couple of days. His bankroll was completely wiped out, and all Karas had to show for it was a vacation to Greece and a car he had bought.

After losing a $40 million casino bankroll, most gamblers would be broken and ready to turn them self into a gambler’s anonymous meeting. But not Karas as he’s proved to be a true gambler through and through by sticking with gambling despite going busto. He’s even managed to go on a few more “small” runs such as the time when he built his casinobankroll back up to $5 million in 1996 before losing in Binion’s craps, and when he won over $1 million just a few years later.

Whether or not the 60-year-old Las Vegas resident goes on another huge run remains to be seen. Regardless, Karas will still always be remembered by the gamingcommunity for the greatest run in Las Vegas history…..if not the greatest run ever!