Amarillo Slim, 1928-2012

From one great Texan to another: Amarillo Slim, giant of poker and peddler of western wisecracks, has died. Now that poker is a mainstream entertainment, you have to do some brain-cudgeling to recall the era when it seemed distant and exotic and even attractively seedy. All that has gone the way of all flesh now that you can, should you be up all night, watch poker on television every day of the week. Poker players, these days, are ordinary guys who can come from anywhere. The game has become a corporate, branded business and, while this has enriched many people, one kinda feels something has been lost too.

In the 1980s, Anthony Holden’s account of a year as a professional poker player seemed a revelation. People lived like this? Who, as Paul Newman asked in a different context, were these guys? His follow-up, Bigger Deal, published five years ago, demonstrated that though the “new” poker circuit was bigger and glitzier it suffered by comparison with the shabby glamour of the older times.