Billy Baxter is the picture of a successful gambler. At the age of 66, he’s snagged seven World Series of Poker bracelets, still operates as one of the world’s biggest-winning sports bettors, and is ballsy enough to have successfully sued the US government over issues related to taxation on poker winnings.

The syrupy-voiced southerner and his family live in a great house, in a pastoral Las Vegas neighbourhood, right near the legendary Vegas entertainer Wayne Newton’s domicile, and the place that used to be owned by Mike Tyson. Over the years Baxter has raked in millions of dollars and emerged as one of the classiest, savviest guys on the gambling scene.

You started playing World Series events back in 1975, when the fields were comparatively microscopic.