Archie Karas

Anargyros Karabourniotis (Ανάργυρος Καραβουρνιώτης, born 1951), commonly known as Archie Karas, is a Greek American gambler, high roller, poker player, and pool shark famous for the largest and longest documented winning streak in casino gambling history simply known as The Run when he turned $50 in December 1992 into more than $40 million by the beginning of 1995, only to lose it all later that year. He is considered by many to be the greatest gambler of all time and has often been compared to Nick the Greek, another high-stakes gambler. Karas himself claims to have gambled with more money in casinos than anyone else in history.

Early life

Karas was born in 1951 at Antypata on the island of Cefalonia, Greece. He grew up in poverty and had to shoot marbles as a teenager to avoid going hungry. His father, Nickolas, was a construction worker who struggled financially.

Karas ran away from home at the age of 15 after, in a rage, his father threw a shovel at him, barely missing his head. He never saw his father again. Nickolas died four years later.