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• A book by Ted Thackrey was published in 1968 titled Gambling Secrets of Nick the Greek. A novel about Nick's life was written by Harry Mark Petrakisin 1978 titled Nick the Greek.

4.0 out of 5 stars The Gambling Secrets of Nick the Greek. Reviewed in the United States on April 17, 2014 Intersting look at a fascinating life. Also, taught me how to limit my losses, while maximizing my winnings, the exact opposite of what I used to do. Get this from a library! Gambling secrets of Nick the Greek. Ted Thackrey; Groucho Marx.

Nikolaos Andreas Dandolos (Greek: Νικόλαος Ανδρέας Δάνδολος; April 27, 1883 – December 25, 1966), commonly known as Nick the Greek, was a Greek professional gambler and high roller.

Early life[edit]

Dandolos was the son of wealthy parents. He attended the Greek Evangelical College and earned a degree in philosophy. When he was 18 years old, his grandfather sent him to the U.S.A. with an allowance of $150 per week. Although Dandolos settled down in Chicago he eventually moved to Montreal where he began gambling on horse races.

Dandolos was known throughout his life for winning and losing large sums of money. After winning over $500,000 on horse racing, he moved back to Chicago where he lost it all on card and dice games. He quickly became a master of these games, however, and became a prime attraction at casinos when he would play in them.

Poker and gambling[edit]

From January 1949 to May 1949, Dandolos played a two-person 'heads up' poker match against poker legend Johnny Moss where the two played virtually every variation of the game that existed at the time. The game, set up by Benny Binion as a tourist attraction, is widely credited as being the inspiration for the modern day World Series of Poker.

At the end of this five-month poker marathon, down an estimated $2–4 million, Dandolos uttered what has become one of the most famous poker quotes ever: 'Mr. Moss, I have to let you go.'^[1]

One urban legend claims that Dandolos once had the opportunity to escort Albert Einstein around Las Vegas. Thinking that his gambling friends may not be familiar with him, Dandolos allegedly introduced Einstein as 'Little Al from Princeton' and stated that he 'controlled a lot of the numbers action around Jersey.'^{[citation needed]} According to Dandolos's own testimony in Gambling Secrets of Nick the Greek, just before the end of World War II, he got a call from a friend at the United States State Department. The caller said that there was someone who was looking for a poker game on a weekend in Manhattan. Dandolos reminded his friend that gambling is illegal in New York, but his friend said that he would see to it that no law enforcement would get involved. At the game, according to Dandolos, he introduced Albert Einstein as 'little Al from Jersey.'

Another urban legend has him winning one million dollars against a Texan. In the early hours of the morning, Nick felt tired and called an end to the game. The Texan accused him of chickening out while the going was good. Nick the Greek then called for a new deck of cards, shuffled them and asked the Texan if he wanted to cut the cards (high card wins) one time, for double or quit. The Texan declined and they went home.^{[citation needed]}

Nobel Prize–winning physicist Richard Feynman also met Nick the Greek, according to the autobiographical Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!. Nick explains how he wins big not by playing the tables, but by knowing the odds at the tables and betting against others who have superstitious beliefs about the outcome. He then relies on his reputation to bet against others.

In Eliot Asinof's Eight Men Out, the author attributes this gambling wisdom to Nick the Greek: 'Never bet on anything that can talk.' [1]^{[permanent dead link]}

Later life[edit]

Near the end of his life, Dandolos was near-broke and playing $5 limit draw poker games in Gardena, California. When asked by a fellow player how he could once play for millions and now be playing for such small stakes, Dandolos supposedly replied, 'Hey, it's action, isn't it?'

Death[edit]

He died on Christmas Day in 1966 and was a charter inductee of the Poker Hall of Fame in 1979.

Legacy[edit]

It's estimated^{[by whom?]} that he won and lost over $500 million in his lifetime. He himself claimed that he went from rags to riches over 73 times. He donated over $20 million to education and charity.^[2]

A book by Ted Thackrey was published in 1968 titled Gambling Secrets of Nick the Greek.

A novel about Nick's life was written by Harry Mark Petrakis in 1978 titled Nick the Greek.

In popular culture[edit]

In the Damon Runyon short story, ‘Romance in the Roaring Forties’, Nick the Greek is mentioned by name, as a guest at the Prohibition-era New York wedding of Miss Billy Perry. Other guests are Waldo Winchester (a thinly-disguised Walter Winchell), Skeets Boliver, Feet Samuels, and Good Time Charley Bernstein, showing Nick as part of the louche guys-and-dolls culture of Broadway in the Roaring Twenties.

He also appears in Runyon’s short story “Blood Pressure”, playing at Nathan Detroit’s floating crap game in New York. The unnamed narrator has been dragged into the game by a gangster, and notes that it is more than somewhat full of very tough guys indeed, there with some of the towns highest rollers:“...there they are wedged up against the table with Nick the Greek, Big Nig, Grey John, Okay Okun, and many other high shots, and they all have big coarse G notes [thousand dollar bills] in their hands which they are tossing around back and forth as if these G notes are nothing but pieces of waste paper”.

Gambling Secrets Of Nick The Greek Mythology

A brief appearance is made by Nick at a party in Runyon’s short story “Madame La Gimp”, where he impersonates Heywood Broun.

See also[edit]

• Nick the Greek named as unindicted co-conspirator in Ray Ryan’s attempted kidnapping/extortion^[3]

References[edit]

1. ^Moe, Albert Woods.: Nevada's Golden Age of Gambling, Puget Sound Books, 2001, ISBN0-9715019-0-4
2. ^Jon Bradshaw, Fast Company p219
3. ^https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/270558/john-marshall-and-charles-del-monico-v-united-states/

His full name was Nicholas Andrea Dandolos, but he was known throughout the
gambling world as “Nick the Greek”.

Nick Dandalos was born in Crete in 1883. During his life, he won and lost an
estimated $500 million.

But that’s not an accurate statement-since he died over 50 years ago, it’s
only fair to account for inflation and translate that into today’s dollars:

He won and lost $15 billion of today’s money during his life.

He went from rags to riches and back to rags again dozens of times.

He did all this as an independent gambler, too. He never had anyone staking
him. If he had a marker, he paid it, and he was always on time, too.

This is Nick Dandalos’s story.

A Portrait of a Gambler as a Young Man

Nick Dandalos was raised rich. His father sold rugs. His godfather built
ships. His childhood was a life of privilege, and he earned a degree in
philosophy from the Greek Evangelical College. He moved to the United States
when he was only 18, but unlike many immigrants, he came here with more than the
clothes on his back.

His grandfather gave him a $150 weekly allowance. That doesn’t sound like
much now, but this would have been in 1901. Accounting for inflation, that would
be $4000 a week in today’s money.

We don’t care where you live. $4000 a week is enough to live on, especially
for an 18-year-old.

It was fashionable at the turn of the century for well-to-do families to send
their young men to the United States with an allowance. The goal was to provide
him with an education.

Nick the Greek sure got one, but it wasn’t quite what his family had in
mind.

Dandolos started his life in the United States in Chicago, but it didn’t take
him long to move to Montreal.

What did he do there?

He gambled on horses after befriending a jockey named Phil Musgrave. It
didn’t take him long to use his keen mind and education to get a good grasp of
probabilities and how to use them to his advantage.

He won over $500,000 on horse racing in a single season. That was a fortune
then. He could have done anything he wanted to.

What did Nick the Greek want to do?

He apparently wanted to move back to Chicago and lose his fortune playing
dice and cards.

He got good at those games, though. When he played cards or dice in a casino,
he was an attraction. His personality surely helped. And he often won or lost
$100,000 during a session.

In fact, he once lost $1.6 million playing craps in New York. That craps
session had gone on for 12 days straight. It’s probably the biggest loss in the
history of the game.

The Poker Career of Nick the Greek

Below we share some of the anecdotes we’ve heard about Nick the Greek’s
career as a poker player.

Nick the Greek Makes a Poker Player Cry

Nick Dandalos once bought into a stud poker game for $20,000. After 7 hours
of hard play, he’d won over $500,000. The biggest post during that session was
$150,000, which he won when he had four of a kind (10s), and his opponent had a
full house with aces and jacks.

But that’s not the most interesting part of the story. Those are just numbers
and hands.

The other player had been rude and insulting to Dandalos throughout the
session.

At the end of the session, Dandalos challenged him to cut the cards once for
$200,000.

The other player lost. He slumped in his seat and started crying.

Apparently it doesn’t pay to be rude to one of the greatest gamblers in the
world.

Little Al from Wherever: Nick the Greek and Albert Einstein Gamble Together

One of the more entertaining anecdotes about Nick the Greek’s exploits
involves his escorting of Albert Einstein to various poker games-either in Las
Vegas or in Manhattan-the details aren’t entirely clear. Depending on which
version of the story you hear, Nick introduced Albert Einstein to the other
poker players as “Little Al from Princeton” or as “Little Al from Jersey”.

In some versions of the story, this took place in Vegas, but according to
Dandalos’s memoir, it was actually set up by the State Department and happened
in Manhattan. Since poker for money was illegal in Manhattan, Dandalos insisted
upon assurances from his friend in the State Department that they would make
sure that the law didn’t get involved.

Another Double or Nothing Story

Another anecdote we often see related is about Dandalos gambling with a high
roller from Texas. Dandalos was up a million dollars, but he got tired and
wanted to call it a night.

The Texan accused him of being a chicken.

Dandalos asked for a new deck of cards. He shuffled them, asked the Texas to
cut the cards, and offered to bet the entire million on which of them got the
higher card.

The Texan lost this game of chicken, and Nick Dandalos got to go home and get
some much-needed rest.

Johnny Moss, Benny Binion, and the Inspiration for the World Series of Poker

You’ve heard of the World Series of Poker, right?

What if we told you that Nick the Greek started the World Series of Poker?

It’s true. In January of 1949, Nick Dandalos sat down to play heads-up poker
with Johnny Moss. They played every game imaginable, too:

• 5 Card Draw
• 5 Card Stud
• 7 Card Stud
• 7 Card Stud High-Low
• Ace-5 Lowball
• 2-7 Lowbal

And the game lasted almost 5 months. The two players only stopped to eat and
sleep.

It was actually the brain child of Benny Binion, a master promoter. It was
meant to be a tourist attraction, and boy did it work. They played every day in
the foyer of the Horseshoe Casino.

It later became the inspiration for the World Series of Poker.

It’s hard to imagine two more distinct styles of play, either. Nick Dandalos
was well-educated, well-spoken, and talkative. He’d beat practically every poker
game on the East Coast at this point. By contrast, Johnny Moss wasn’t
well-educated, and he’d spent most of his career playing poker in Texas in
private games. He was quiet and introspective.

Moss turned out to be the better poker player. Dandalos lost between $2 and
$4 million to him.

He ended this first WSOP by telling Moss: “Mr. Moss, I have to let you go.”

The Low Rolling Years and Death of Nick Dandalos

When you gamble for large sums of money long enough, you inevitably face
periods where you’re up a lot of money and other periods when you’re down a lot
of money.

Dandalos himself estimated that he had won and lost a fortune at least 73
times in his life.

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But in his later years, he was almost broke. He played poker for $5 a hand in
his twilight years.

Someone asked him how he could be interested in gambling for such low stakes
when he used to bet millions at a time.

Nick Dandalos replied, “Hey, it’s action, isn’t it?”

He stayed in action even when he was tired and sick. He even had physicians
treating him while he was at the poker table.

He died on December 25, 1966. He was broke.

It’s estimated that over the course of his life he had donated over $20
million to charity.

Hank Greenspun, found of the Las Vegas Sun, famously called him the “King of
the Gamblers”. Here’s what he wrote about his friend:

“Luck was a lady and she has been the love of his life.”

He was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame 13 years later-at the same time
as his once-rival, Johnny Moss. They were the first two players to be so
honored.

Nick the Greek is the subject of two books:

1. Ted Thackrey’s 1968 volume, Gambling Secrets of Nick the Greek, is mostly nonfiction about how to gamble like Nick Dandalos.
2. Harry Mark Petrakis’s 1978 novel, Nick the Greek, is a fictionalized account of Nick the Greek’s life.

Conclusion

You won’t find many more interesting characters in the annals of gambler
history than Nick the Greek. From his origins as an actual Greek from a wealthy
family, Nick Dandalos distinguished himself in multiple ways.

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But as a gambler, his biggest claim to fame is the fortune he won and then
lost again repeatedly throughout his life.