Amarillo Slim Near Death: Brunson Insists his Friend was Not a Child Molester

As Amarillo Slim (real name Thomas Austin Preston, Jr.) lay in critical condition in a hospice preparing to die, fellow poker icon Doyle Brunson has found fit to defend his friend and allegations that he once molested a young girl.

“For the record, no way was he ever a child molester,” Brunson tweeted.

Gambling911.com was among the first news outlets to report on Preston’s pending death this past Monday but almost immediately, approximately one half of the poker community expressed outrage over Amarillo Slim’s alleged past indiscretions while the other half offered their condolences. 

The 1972 World Series of Poker Main Event winner was indicted in Randall County, Texas on charges of indecency with a 12-year-old child. The charges were reduced to misdemeanor assault in a plea bargain and on February 10, 2004, Preston pled "no contest" to the reduced charges, "to protect his family".

Preston received a $4,000 fine, two years probation and was ordered to undergo counseling.

In a 2009 interview, he steadfastly denied engaging in any lewd behavior with a minor,  electing to take the plea bargain in order to spare his family from a court trial.

So divided is the poker community over this matter, the popular TwoPlusTwo.com posting forum has had to create two separate discussion threads, one for positive discussion about Amarillo Slim, the other to discuss “anything else” related to the man.   As one might expect, the later thread had a few hundred more views while the former appears to have been hijacked by those with strong negative views of Preston.

One posting forum member had this to say:

This is a public forum not some pre school class. There are numerous solid reasoning pointing to him being a pedo so if people want to say nice things go ahead and if people want to call him a disgusting person they should be able too. This isnt the guys wake.

One thing is clear, Preston’s later life has been marred by crime.  Over the last decade, he was the victim of three armed robberies.

- Ace King, Gambling911.com