Find out the Truth About Poker Legend Sam Angel

The colorful “Suitcase” Sam Angel entered the Las Vegas limelight in 1950s. Little is known of his life before then, other than he served in World War II.

Nick “The Greek” Dandalos, a legend in the world of poker, first hired Sam Angel as a driver, putting Angel right in the center of the high-stakes poker world in Vegas. As the decade came to a close, Angel’s reputation began to grow. And as it did, he was soon sitting in on the biggest games in town.

His gained most of his fame from playing razz. During the course of his razz career, he made four finals tables and won two gold bracelets. He also enjoyed playing no-limit Texas holdem and deuce-to seven lowball.

He played against the likes of Texas gamblers Johnny Moss, Crandell Addington, and Doyle Brunson. In fact, 1967 Angel sat in one of the first high-stakes Texas holdem poker games ever played in Vegas. That first game was held at the Golden Nugget, but when it migrated to the Dune, the poker star moved with it.

Sam Angel’s nickname was earned because of the suitcase full of jewelry that he carried everywhere. He would open the suitcase wherever the hottest action in gambling happened to be. His exceptional sales abilities and personality of a winner helped him build his fortune by selling to gamblers the jewelry he had brought along. He was also known to hold parties that hosted hundreds of people.

His doctor pleaded with him, trying to make him see how his addiction to the bottle was killing his body, but Sam would not be deterred from his Seagram’s V. O. Canadian Whiskey and Heinekens. And to make matters worse, he was an angry drunk. This became his second downfall. In spite of his charisma, which earned him a number of loving fans, his temper also made him enemies.

His third downfall was actually and ironically due to the wealth and fame that his legitimate sales of jewelry earned. Over the course of his life, Angel was robbed (by estimate) over 130 times. That attrition due to theft in combination with the extravagance of his lifestyle slowly depleted his assets.

As his wealth diminished, so did his poker playing. For Angel, if he could not play high-stakes poker, he did not want to play poker at all. This small man, standing little more than five feet tall, had a huge personality. He left an unmistakable market on the history of poker and the city of Las Vegas.