If you’ve ever watched the World Series of Poker on ESPN, then you’ve likely heard of longtime gambler Archie Karas (pictured), whose real name is Anargyros Karabourniotis. According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Karas is pent up in the Clark County Detention Center after allegedly marking cards at blackjack. He has reportedly agreed to a plea bargain.

The incident went down at the Barona Casino in California. There, according to the Las Vegas newspaper, “Karas was caught on Barona Casino surveillance cameras putting ‘subtle, but distinguishable marks on the backs of playing cards‘ so he could secretly identify the value of the cards he was dealt.” The casino allegedly lost $8,000 as a result.

The Journal noted that Karas has been arrested four other times during the course of his longstanding gambling career. In 1988, he was picked up at the Flamingo in Reno for marking cards. Four years later, he was arrested as a result of what the news outlet dubbed “card cheating” at the River Palms in Laughlin. The Journal added, “He was arrested four years later at the California Club in downtown Las Vegas and in 2007 at the Aquarius in Laughlin, both times for cheating at cards.” Laughlin is in the very southern end of Nevada.

Karas first cashed in a major live poker tournament in 1997, according to the Hendon Mob, and has seven cashes in World Series of Poker events.

He is widely known for running $50 up to $40 million, only to lose it all back, according to an article by Tom Sexton that was published on PokerNews: “Can you imagine anyone driving to Las Vegas in 1992 with $50 in his pocket, then borrowing $10,000 to start playing $200/$400 Razz and Seven-Card Stud, and in six months, running it up to a $17,000,000 fortune shooting pool, playing poker, and shooting dice? Then, instead of cashing out, he decides to gamble sky-high and runs his bankroll to over $40,000,000, before losing it all back by 1995?”

The Review-Journal pointed out that during Karas’ timeless run, back-to-back WSOP Main Event champion Johnny Chan (pictured) was the only player who got the best of him: “Johnny Chan is the only gambler who actually beat Karas during the streak, taking $900,000 in a series of Hold’em poker games.”

Sexton quoted Jack Binion, who helped develop and popularize the WSOP, as saying, “Archie has more gamble in him than anybody I’ve ever seen. He was either going to win the Horseshoe or go broke. Nobody had ever won that much from us, and definitely not in the whole town… Archie didn’t cheat [during his streak at the Horseshoe], and I don’t think he ever tried to cheat. The sheer amount of money he won causes you to be cautious.”

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