By KEN HOFFMAN

As a professional high-stakes poker player, he's always pretending that he has a full house when he's really holding a big handful of nothing.

Farha is a star, whether he's playing poker on TV in Las Vegas, selling authentic Sam Farha merchandise at http://www.samfarha.com/ or signing autographs outside a movie theater in Houston, his hometown.

With his open collar, expensive tailored suits, thick gold necklace and rings, sunglasses at night and unlit cigarette dangling from his lip, he's recognizably "a pro whose cultivated look of disreputability is an artistic achievement," according to Time magazine.

He's a character. He looks like a poker player. Pity the chump amateur who scrounges $10,000 to enter the World Series of Poker and finds Farha at his table.

"I like playing amateurs; they're easy. I feel like I can talk them into doing whatever I want. I tell them, 'If you lose to me, at least you have a story to tell your friends.' Then they do what I want, either fold or play the hand."

Now Farha is taking on the big screen. He's got a part in the upcoming movie Lucky You, starring Drew Barrymore, Robert Duvall, Eric Bana, Debra Messing and Robert Downey Jr. It's set for release in November.

"Doing the movie was really a lot of fun. Actually, I felt like I was watching a movie instead of acting in one," Farha said.

"In one scene I'm playing poker, naturally, and Robert Duvall is sitting next to me at the table. It was really an exciting experience to work with him. ... The thing that surprised me, and the one thing I didn't like so much, was all the time it took.

"One scene can take 10 hours, a whole day."

Born in Lebanon, Farha moved to the United States in 1977 to attend the University of Kansas. He majored in business administration and minored in hustling games of Pac-Man, pinball and anything else where he could find a sucker.

"I like games. I've always been good at them. It's the way my mind works. I love to play Monopoly and games like that, too. I was a great pinball player, the best. I like shooting pool. I was great at that, too.

"Poker is like all other games. You have to develop a strategy. Anybody can play poker when you have pocket aces. It takes something extra to play when you have a four and deuce. In poker, you take more risks than other games, and there's more to lose," he said.

After graduation, Farha moved to Houston, where his brother got him a job managing a gift shop in the old Westwood Mall.

"It was my first job, and I developed a strategy of running the store. I learned business in college, but college doesn't teach you experience. I had fun working in the store, but I was doing better at poker. So I left the store and became a professional poker player about 17 years ago," he said.

He's never had a real job since.

While his unreal job is primarily in Las Vegas and other cities with legalized gambling, Farha continues to live in Houston.

"It's nice here. I like gambling and it's what I do, but living in Las Vegas is not really healthy. Las Vegas is a beautiful city, but gambling can get too much.

"Houston is a control for me. I live here, I do things with my girlfriend, I work out. Houston has all the things I enjoy about a city," he said.

Farha said it's a safe bet that he'll continue to live here.