[Ian]

Of the many "characters" that litter the Vegas poker scene, one of the most memorable is Tony Bigcharles (yes, that's his real name). Tony is an autistic, formerly homeless, compulsive gambler who supports himself through grinding out small wins at low limit poker tables. Tony lives in comped hotel rooms that he gets through blowing his poker winnings on video poker and video blackjack machines. If he has any money left over after his machine binges, he hands it over to con-artist women who he thinks are in love with him and always have a story about how they could use some cash.

He keeps a blog about his (mis)adventures on allvegaspoker.com . The blog is almost 2 years old, and follows a pattern of a couple weeks of boredom before being punctuated by an incident that comes totally out of left field. Due to his autism, he repeatedly makes the same sort of mistakes over and over again, but they're always manifested in bizarre ways. He has been 86'd from the Mirage for refusing to flush a toilet, El Cortez for sleeping on their (slanted) roof, MGM Grand for getting into a heated argument with a prostitute he refused to pay, the city of Laughlin, NV for panhandling, and many other places for equally bizarre reasons. He has many personality quirks like being terrified of minorities despite not being white himself, and being a reactionary fundamentalist Christian despite spending almost every hour of his life gambling in casinos.

His blog offers a totally unique look into the mind of an autistic person and the psyche of a compulsive gambler. It alternates between hilarious, heart-rendering, offensive, informative, pathetic, comic, and tragic. I recommend people check it out. Just please be nice to Tony if you post in his thread because there are some people who viciously troll his thread and I know from talking to him that it really bothers him. If you go to Vegas you can probably find him playing in the .50/1 NL game at Bills or the 1-5 spread limit game at O'Sheas.

Here's a pic of Tony.

[mrmarket]

His life is a very sad situation. He is mostly followed because of schadenfreude. The worst in people is displayed when it comes to him both in his actions and from those who discuss about him on the various forums.

[NittanyLionsFan]

TBC is based as fuuuuuuuuuck