In Poker World, They Call What He Did 'the Run'

Not every poker player makes headlines upon his death, but Archie Karas was no ordinary poker player. As PokerNews recounts, Karas drove to Vegas with $50 to his name in late 1992 and went on a streak now cemented into legend as "the Run." The Wall Street Journal captures it this way:

• "What unfolded from there, in the spring and summer of 1993, resembled an old kung-fu movie, with a mob of new adversaries encircling Karas, and Karas pummeling virtually all of them as they stepped forward one at a time," writes Jon Mooallem. He vanquished some of the biggest names in the game at the time, including Doyle Brunson and Stu Ungar.

When the dust settled, Karas had amassed somewhere between $30 million and $50 million—the details are murky. But part of the legend is that Karas then lost the money just as quickly, including $11 million in a single night. (By then he had added craps and baccarat to his repertoire.) This type of boom-and-bust cycle was familiar to Karas, who went from being a millionaire to being broke over and over again throughout his life. Karas, a native of Greece whose real name was Anargyros Karabourniotis, died in September at age 73. A quote he gave long ago to Cigar Aficionado might help explain the legend: "You've got to understand something," he said. "Money means nothing to me." (More poker stories.)