Sam Angel, a colorful character known as the “Suitcase,” launched himself into the Vegas limelight in the 1950s. We don’t know that much about his early life, aside from that he served in World War II. But once he stepped onto the Vegas scene, the arc of his remarkable life becomes quite clear.

Sam Angel was hired as a driver by Nick “The Greek” Dandalos, a legendary high-roller, which gave Sam his entry into the world of high-stakes poker. Angel began to gain his reputation as a poker player by the 1960s. And as his reputation grew, he began to sit in on some of the town’s biggest games.

Through playing razz, Sam Angel gained most of his fame. He made four finals tables as well as earning two gold bracelets in the course of his razz career. His passion for duece to seven lowball and Texas Hold’em with no limits allowed him the opportunity to test his mettle against such legends of the game as Doyle Brunson, Crandell Addington and Johnny Moss. In 1967, Angel made sure to sit in on Vegas’s first ever Hold’em high stakes game. And when the game moved to the Dune from the Golden Nugget, Sam Angel followed.

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.

But Sam only rode high for so long — in the end three things that brought him down. First, he started every day at noon with a drink. His alcoholism endangered to his health. Even his doctor tried to warn Sam that his drinking would be his death, but even so the hotshot gambler kept knocking back the Seagram’s V. O. Canadian Whiskey and Heinekens. Even worse, his temper flared when he drank, which was the second downfall. While Angel had enough charisma to earn the love of many, his temper also earned him a number of 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.

Tags: Gambling

Share This