Famous Gamblers and Their Personalities

What Makes a Professional Gambler?

Ruthlessness, a disregard for money, and a head for calculations seem to mark out the very best gamblers. Casual bettors may fret about gambling $10 on their favorite football team. For the whales, however, it’s all about how much action they can get down, and how best they can get an edge over the house. 
With those things in mind, here is our pick of the biggest, most famous gamblers in history.

1 – Archie Karas

The legend goes that “The Greek Gambler” arrived in Las Vegas with just $50. By the time Anargyros Karavourniotis made his first million bucks, he had become as masterful at the poker tables as he was at the pool table. 

Despite a tournament record of just over $200,000, it was the cash games where Karas cleaned up. He boasted about losing millions in a night and sleeping in the Mercedes a night after driving around in it. 

As with huge gamblers such as match-fixer Dan Tan, Karas’s gung-ho attitude to risk would spill over into crime. He was arrested in 2013 for cheating at the blackjack tables at a San Diego County casino.  

2 – Stu Ungar

Stu “The Kid” Ungar was the greatest poker player, and one of the game’s most tragic figures. He was skilled at poker beyond his years. Plus, like some of the gamblers on our list, learned his trade with a strong head for math and a skill in other games. 

For Stuey, it was Gin Rummy: it was rumored that Ungar moved to poker after being unable to get a game anymore in his native New York City. 

Ungar hit the WSOP in 1980, winning a bracelet in his second event, the $10,000 World Championship. He would go on to claim $3.6m in poker winnings and took down the 1997 WSOP World Championship once again. 12 months later, ravaged by drugs and alcohol, Ungar was found in a Vegas hotel room with pennies to his name. 

3 – Edward O. Thorp

Unlike some gamblers on our list, Edward O. Thorp may not have a disregard for money. However, he did have a keen handle on mathematics. Plus, like Dan Bilzerian, he was a former hedge fund manager and someone who knew how to take calculated risks. 

Thorp was the author of Beat the Dealer, the first book to show how card counting could be used to crack casino blackjack. His revolutionary 1962 book proved mathematically that blackjack could be beaten. 

Thorp also used primitive game theory and computers to calculate ideal equations for making moves in blackjack. It was his skill with probability that led Thorp to become a skilled hedge fund manager, helping him to a net worth close to $800m.