爱思英语编者按：阿玛里洛•斯里姆玩牌时极富表现力，这在一定程度上促使扑克在美国成了一种体面的游戏。扑克只是以前亡命之徒云集的西部所遗留下来的东西，现在却成为了世界性的摩登游戏——2006年世界扑克锦标赛的参赛者超过8000人。斯里姆一局之内他就以秋风扫落叶之势让对手败走麦城，将一千七百万美元收入囊中。这个曾以沿街兜售、赌博和非法活动为业的家伙竟然在参议院发表过演讲，还和老布什是朋友，这让他自己都难以置信。

Amarillo Slim

阿玛里洛•斯里姆

Thomas “Amarillo Slim” Preston, gambler, died on April 29th, aged 83.

4月29日，赌客阿玛里洛•斯里姆去世，享年83岁。

IF YOU found yourself sitting at the poker table opposite Amarillo Slim, you were wisest not to say one word. He might try to get you talking, of course. How are you and how’ve you been, any sort of yakking. Best to keep quiet. He could get a tell from you just by watching the sweat on your upper lip. In fact he could know your whole hand by looking at the pulse in your cheek. If you tried to read him back, you’d find those cool hard eyes hidden in the shadow of his big old Stetson hat. He had a rattlesnake head on the band of it—killed by himself, so he said—and he might tell you that as a token of affection he’d put a rattler in your pocket and ask you for a match.

若你发现自己坐在扑克桌前，对面是阿玛里洛•斯里姆（Amarillo Slim），那一言不发就是最明智的选择。当然，他可能会和你扯淡，问你好吗、最近怎样啊之类，试着引你开口。但你最好保持沉默。看到你上唇的汗珠，他就知道你在跟他耍把戏。其实，只要扫一眼你的表情有什么风吹草动，他便可以对你的整手牌了如指掌。若你试着对他如法炮制，就只会看到一双冷漠锐利的眼睛，深藏在他那顶又大又旧的斯特森帽的阴影之下。他在帽沿上弄了一个响尾蛇的头（他说蛇乃亲手所杀），他也许会跟你说他要将一条响尾蛇放进你的口袋，再向你借个火，以示友好。

He looked like a Texas cowboy, and that was what he was, with a big spread of acres and many head of registered longhorn cattle. He could rope and drag Arabian stallions faster than they could run, and talk feedlots and milking schedules with the best. But then you noticed that this sonnagun had custom-made ostrich boots with spades, clubs, hearts and diamonds on them, and gold one-dollar-pieces sewn over the buttons on his shirts (or, for best, the uncut emeralds sent to him by Pablo Escobar to apologise for abducting him in Colombia by mistake). Mighty fancy gear, and company, for a cowboy.

看上去他像个德州牛仔，其实这就是他以前的身份，那时他拥有许多土地和多头有血统证明书的长角牛。他可以迅速用绳套上一匹阿拉伯马，马根本来不及跑；谈及饲养场和挤奶时间表，他可不比任何人逊色。但接着你会留意到他脚蹬一双量身定做的鸵鸟皮靴，上有黑桃、梅花、红心和方块图案；所穿衬衣的纽扣最上端缝着纯金的一美元硬币（有时会缝别的，最昂贵的是未经切割的绿宝石，那是巴勃罗•埃斯科瓦尔 （Pablo Escobar）在哥伦比亚错将他绑架，为了道歉而送他的）。一个牛仔如此打扮，有这样的朋友，未免太大牌。

He was so tall and scrawny that he said he feared the bathtub as a boy, in case he vanished down the drain. You’d think you could easily bust his skinny country ass. But when he moved in he was tight and fierce, aggressive as a grizzly bear. So though he sounded like a bumpkin it was all part of the bluff, for you didn’t win four World Series of Poker without a master’s skill in mind-reading and arithmetic, and nerves of steel to match.

他又高又瘦，以致他说小时候很怕用浴缸，惟恐掉进下水道。你会以为能不费吹灰之力便可将这个皮包骨的乡巴佬撂倒。但他玩起扑克来机警凶猛，好斗得像只灰熊。所以，他说话虽像个土包子，但那不过是他虚张声势的一种手段，因为与人较量时若没有高超的读心术、过人的运算能力和钢铁般的意志，如何能拿下四个世界扑克锦标赛冠军。

If you asked him his tips for playing the best poker in the world, he’d gripe that he would rather see an early frost on his peach trees than give his secrets away. But then he’d tell you just the same. Play the players, not the cards, he would say. Watch them from the minute you sit down. Play fast in a slow game, slow in a fast one. Never get out when you’re winning. Look for the sucker and, if you can’t see one, get up and leave, because the sucker is you.

你若问他成为世界一流扑克手秘诀何在，他会发牢骚说宁愿眼看自己的桃树结早霜也不泄露独家秘诀，不过他照样会告诉你：别打牌，要“打”对手。从你坐下的那一刻开始就要观察他们。慢局中出快招，快局中出慢招。赢的时候千万别走，环顾牌桌看看谁老是上当，若找不出来那就起身离席，因为上当的人就是你自己。

A fly on a sugar cube

方糖上的苍蝇

All his skills he honed from boyhood. First hustling for pool shots with Mexicans in Amarillo, then driving out along the dust road with friends to look for poker games. He told his Daddy he was going quail-hunting, but he came back with $800, including the first $100 bill he’d ever seen. After that he spent years touring the south-west, playing all night and sleeping all day in the back of the Pontiac while his wife drove. There wasn’t a more enjoyable way on earth to get rich without having a job.

他的所有本领都是从少时开始磨练的。起初他在阿马里洛当和墨西哥人打花式台球赌钱，专门扮猪吃老虎；后来又和朋友开车沿着尘土飞扬的道路找玩扑克的地方。本来他跟他爸说要去打鹌鹑，回来时却带着八百块美金，里面有他生平第一次见识到的那张百元大钞。自那之后多年，他都在西南部游历，天天通宵打扑克，白天趁他老婆开车时在旁蒂克（汽车名，译者注）后座呼呼大睡。无业游民想发财，世上还有什么法子比这更逍遥。

It could get rough, though. The illegal games were often broken up by both cops and robbers. He was once dumped bound, taped and buck-naked in a bathtub in a hotel in Atlanta, and left another time in his underwear in a Houston street (though after he put in a call to his best friend Benny Binion, boss of the no-limit Horseshoe casino in Las Vegas, the robbers drove by again and gave him back his money and his trousers, pressed). But when they got to Vegas the Texans played poker better than anyone there, and Slim, pumped up on raw honey, played it best of all the Texans; so that by 1972 he was champion of the world, making enough $100 bills to burn up 30 wet mules. He became a big celebrity then, and his own favourite style of poker, Texas Hold’em—featuring both face-down “hole” and face-up “community” cards—became a national craze.

不过日子有时也很艰难。那些非法牌局常被警察或强盗搅局。有一次他被人丢在亚特兰大一家酒店的浴缸里，手脚被绑、嘴上贴着胶带、一丝不挂；还有一次被人扔在休斯顿的大街上，身上只剩内裤（不过后来他给挚友——拉斯维加斯可以无限下注的马蹄赌场（Horseshoe）的老板——本尼•比尼恩（Benny Binion）打了个电话，那些强盗便开车回来将他的钱、裤子全部奉还，裤子还熨得平平整整）。不过，德州人踏足拉斯维加斯后便雄霸扑克桌；而喝原生蜂蜜长大的斯里姆则是德州玩家中的佼佼者；所以到1972年他已是世界扑克锦标赛冠军，赢得的百元美钞多得可以拿来当柴烧。他成了大明星，而他最喜欢的玩法德州扑克——特色是底牌朝下、公共牌朝上——在全国掀起了热潮。

He made wild bets, too, on anything, as long as he was likely to win. He bet on which of five sugar cubes a fly would land on; whether a stray cat could carry a Coke bottle across a room; whether he could beat Bobby Riggs at table tennis played with iron skillets, and Minnesota Fats at pool with a broom; whether he dared ride a camel through the fanciest casino in Marakesh, and whether he could hang on to a horse’s tail for a quarter of a mile. He won them all until, as the song said, even the Devil wouldn’t bet with him.

他也会和别人打赌，只要他有赢的机会，内容便天马行空、五花八门：一只苍蝇会在五块方糖的哪块上落脚、流浪猫能不能带着一个可乐瓶穿过房间、他能不能用铁锅当球拍在网球比赛中打赢波比•里格斯（Bobby Riggs）、用扫帚当球杆在台球比赛中打赢“明尼苏达胖子”；他敢不敢在马拉克什最高级的赌场骑骆驼、他能不能抓着马尾巴让马跑四分之一英里。他逢赌必赢，一如歌词所唱——直到连魔鬼都不跟他打赌。

As a result of all his showmanship poker became respectable in America, more or less. It was taken out of the dens and into glittering rooms with thick carpets. From a relic of the old outlaw West, like cowboys themselves, it became corporate and modern: the World Series of 2006 had more than 8,000 players. Slim played with Richard Nixon, Lyndon Johnson, Mickey Rooney and Larry Flynt, whom he ate up like a ginger cake for $1.7m in one sitting. He appeared 11 times on the Johnny Carson show. He could never quite believe that he, who had made a life’s career out of hustling and gambling and illegal activity, had addressed the Senate and was a personal friend of George Bush senior.

或多或少，因为他玩牌时极富表现力，在美国扑克成了一种体面的游戏。玩扑克的场所从地下赌场变为灯火通明、铺着厚地毯的房间。一如西部牛仔，扑克只是以前亡命之徒云集的西部所遗留下来的东西，现在却成为了世界性的摩登游戏：2006年世界扑克锦标赛的参赛者超过8000人。斯里姆曾与理查德•尼克松（Richard Nixon）、林登•约翰逊（Lyndon Johnson）、米基•鲁尼（Mickey Rooney）、拉里•弗林特（Larry Flynt）交手，一局之内他就以秋风扫落叶之势让对手败走麦城，将一千七百万美元收入囊中；他上过强尼•卡尔森（Johnny Carson）的节目，而且多达十一次。一个曾以沿街兜售、赌博和非法活动为业的家伙竟然在参议院发表过演讲，还和老布什是朋友，这让他自己都难以置信。

There was a limit, though. He bragged about taking bribes, which sounded bad. And his ostrich-leather boots tripped over the line when he was accused in 2003 of molesting a grandchild. His reputation took a dive then from which it never recovered. He pleaded guilty to three misdemeanour charges, but also said he was innocent of the whole thing. People wondered. For no one was better than Slim at bluffing; and if you thought you could get a tell on him that would reveal the truth of the matter, those hard cool eyes beneath the Stetson were giving nothing away.

不过他自身也存在局限性。他吹嘘自己曾经受贿，听起来甚是不好。2003年，他被指控对别人的孙女进行性骚扰，那双鸵鸟皮的靴子越了雷池了。自此他的名声一落千丈，再也没能恢复。有三宗非法行为的控告他都认罪了，但同时又称自己完全是清白的。世人都心存疑惑。因为若论虚张声势，斯里姆无人能敌；你别以为看他一眼就能洞悉事情的真相，那顶斯泰森帽下冷酷无情的双眸只会对一切讳莫如深。