Originally Posted by
SharpAngles
Supposedly the "mr. X" that he beat for millions in pool and poker to start the epic run was Bobby Baldwin. If the stories about beating Baldwin and Chip Reese at huge poker games are all true he should be considered a great but there's nobody that was around those games that didn't regard Archie as a fish so that should answer the luck question.
Favorite Karas story...
"One time Chip Reese and I played at the Mirage. Chip sat down with $2,000,000, where half of his chips were $1,000 yellow chips, and the other half was $5,000 in chips. Chip had ten racks of $1,000 chips, and I asked him, 'Why do you have so many yellow chips? We only need $80,000 to $100,000 for the blinds and bring-in.' Chip said, 'I want them like that,' and I said, "Almost all of my chips were $5,000. I thought, 'Well, let's play, as maybe he is superstitious or something.'
"After a while, Chip started to stare at me and my chips, with his eyes darting back and forth, with a look like I was doing something to him! I stopped playing and said, 'What's wrong, Chip? Why are you looking at me that way? What did I do?' Chip looked at me and said, 'Can't you see what you're doing to me?' As I looked down at all of the yellow chips sitting in front of me, it hit me for the first time, what he was referring to: I had almost all of the yellow $1,000 chips! In heads-up poker, whoever wins the antes wins the match. You can bank on this 90 times out of 100. The big pots will usually even out. While an opponent is waiting for aces or a good starting hand, I'm raising every pot and winning the antes and bring-in. Playing $10,000/$20,000 limit, you are talking about $9,000 pots over and over. The antes are $3,000 each and the bring-in is $3,000. Chip was very smart, as he was trying to measure what was going on, after losing to me so much!"