In December 1992, Archie Karas drove into Las Vegas with $50 in his wallet, having just lost a $2 million poker bankroll in Los Angeles. Two and a half years later he had more than $40 million, so much physical cash that he carried a gun and hired casino security to walk him to his car. This episode follows what gamblers call the run, the longest documented winning streak in casino history, and asks what kind of mind makes it possible.

The answer begins on the Greek island of Cephalonia, where a teenage Karas bet on marbles to avoid going hungry and ran away at 15 after his father hurled a shovel at his head. A man who had already faced the worst, the episode argues, could not be pressured by chips. A $10,000 loan at the Mirage became millions at pool and poker, then a seat at Binion’s Horseshoe where the best players in the world took turns losing to him. When nobody would play, he turned to craps and baccarat, and the house edge did the rest.

• Karas beat a wealthy opponent he would only call Mr. X for $1.2 million at nine ball, at stakes that climbed to $40,000 a game, then took $3 million more from him at poker.
• Stu Ungar lost $1.2 million to him, and Chip Reese dropped over $2 million across 25 matches, more than Reese said he ever lost to anyone else.
• Jack Binion capped his craps bets, briefly raised the limit to $200,000, and lowered it again after Karas won $920,000 on a single roll.
• In 1995 the fortune disappeared in three weeks: $11 million at craps, $2 million back to Reese, and $17 million at baccarat.
• He was arrested in 2013 for marking cards at a blackjack table in San Diego, added to Nevada’s Black Book in 2015, and died in September 2024 at 73.