"Americans bet too much money when losing and too little when winning"

She would love Archie Karas who was born in Greece. Click the link below if you don't know who he is.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archie_Karas

I first met him a couple of years before his big winning streak through a mutual friend & pool player from California. I was also there when Archie started his big run. It was at the Rum Runner which is across the street from the Liberace Museum.

The person they are talking about where they say..."He found a wealthy and respected poker and pool player" is Bobby Baldwin who won the 1977 World Series of Poker main event. Last I heard he was President of City Center. You can read about him at the link below.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_Baldwin

I don't know why they refer to him as "Mr. X" as it is common knowledge that is who Archie first started playing.

The part where they say..."Baldwin is also known as a world class billiards player." is nowhere close to the truth, he played well enough to go broke if he kept playing. I had seen him play numerous times at the Rum Runner & quite a bit when he was playing Archie. Archie beat him & Archie is nowhere near world class either. Archie could get plenty of action at the Rum Runner at the time, but would not play the locals as he could not beat them.

When they were playing at the Rum Runner they started playing for $20,000 a set. They would keep the money in a brown paper bag under the pool table. What is not in either link above, is that the reason they quit playing at the Rum Runner was because there was an article in the RJ saying that a well known casino executive was losing big money at a local bar playing pool. Bobby had also lost a $50,000 set to a local player at the Rum Runner. Once that article came out he never played at the Rum Runner again. He & Archie went elsewhere & also started playing poker, which Archie also won quite a bit at & ran that money into the $30, $40 or $50 million he won during that streak. I don't think anyone but Archie knows the exact figure. It was at least $30 million though.

The last time I saw Archie was the last year they held the WSOP at the Horseshoe. We were both playing in a one table Razz satellite & got heads-up. He wanted to have me let him win & he said he would give me a precentage of anything he won in the tournament the next day. I declined & ended up winning the satellite & the entry into the WSOP $1,500 Razz tournament. Both Archie & I ended up not cashing the next day.

Andy - Las Vegas