Bandit Keith

Bandit Keith, whose real name is Keith Howard, is the former U.S. Duel Monsters Champion. During the final round of the Inter-continental Championship tournament in New York City, Keith was up against Maximillion Pegasus, who uses his Millennium Eye to read Keith's mind and predict his moves. Afterwards he wrote something down on a piece of paper and calls over a kid from the audience. He tells the kid to duel against Keith using the instructions on his note. Using it, the kid defeats Keith in one turn. Keith, shocked and humiliated at being defeated by a child, fell into depression. He sneaks into Duelist Kingdom to defeat Pegasus and reclaim his glory.

Duelist Kingdom
Along with two duelists named Zygor and Sid; he trains a Ghost and Zombie Duelist named Bonz. He has Bonz duel Joey Wheeler and gives Bonz several rare cards, including the powerful Call of the Haunted, to strengthen his deck. Although Keith directs nearly all of Bonz moves, he still loses. Afterward, Keith calls Bonz a loser and ignores Joey's challenge for a duel face-to-face. After leaving the arena, Keith traps the heroes in the cave, then attacks his own minions and steals their star chips, giving him enough to enter the castle as a finalist.

Keith later duels Joey in the semi-finals of Duelist Kingdom. He unveils a rather devastating deck of Machine cards. His Machine cards not only have superior firepower over Joey, but also are immune to any sort of magical attacks (this is not a real rule). Keith cheats by pulling cards out from underneath his wristband to power up his monsters but, Joey still wins. Afterwards, Keith claims that Joey should be disqualified since the card he used to enter the semi-finals wasn't his. Joey admits that Mai Valentine gave him her card, but then asks how Keith knew that his card didn't belong to him. Pegasus chuckles and explains that Keith obviously stole the card, citing evidence of how he came to the conclusion (earlier, Keith was sure Joey would not be able to find his entry card, and no wonder—Keith had it himself). Joey and the gang then say that Keith should be disqualified, and Pegasus agrees, but not just because of his thievery. He tells Joey that Keith was keeping his 7 Completed cards beneath his wristband, allowing him to use them when needed, and orders his security guards to take Keith away.

In the anime, Keith breaks away and confronts Pegasus. He points a gun at his head (the gun is removed in the US version) and demands the 3 million dollars prize money for the tournament. Pegasus is calm and just makes fun of Keith. Keith steps forward, and Pegasus moves his foot to hit a hidden button. The floor around him falls away, and Keith plummets down a tunnel into the ocean.

Battle City
Keith is then seen in the beginning of the second season being under the control of Marik Ishtar. Disguised as a fortune teller, Keith asks Yugi Muto if he can see his Millennium Puzzle. When Yugi hands it over, Keith steals the Puzzle and flees to a hidden arena. Chaining the Puzzle to the arena, Keith says the only way for Yugi to reclaim the Puzzle is to duel for it. (In the English anime, Marik has Keith duel Yugi to win the Puzzle for him. In the Japanese anime, Marik has Keith duel Yugi in the hopes Dark Yugi will appear.)

Although Keith is hooded, Yugi quickly deduces his identity from his Machine deck. At this point, Marik reveals that he and his Rare Hunters rescued Keith after he was dumped into the ocean by Pegasus. He then took him under his control. Keith's deck, augmented with rare cards courtesy of the Rare Hunters, surprisingly begins to defeat Yugi. However, the duel is watched by Dark Bakura. He senses the dark energies from Keith, and realizes he has been hypnotized. He refuses to let Yugi lose and forfeit the Puzzle since he wants it for himself and uses the Millennium Ring to break Marik's control of Keith. While Marik and Keith struggle for control, Keith shatters the Puzzle against the console (In the English anime, he does this because Marik commands him to. In the Japanese anime, Keith does it himself because he thinks the voice trying to control him is the spirit of the Puzzle). Yami Bakura then swings down, knocking Keith off the arena.

While Yami Bakura leaves Yugi to put the Puzzle back together, Keith hallucinates that Marik is nearby, giving him orders. Grabbing a length of pipe and attacking the images, Keith shatters the arena power unit, causing a fire. While the building burns, Joey and Tristan break down the door. A terrified Keith runs past them, claiming the arena is haunted. He is not seen again, though his "lost soul" is seen when the gang enters Dartz's lair in the Waking the Dragons arc.

Note: In the manga, the Duel between Yugi and Marik-controlled Keith never happened. After Keith loses to Joey in the Duelist Kingdom finals, he threatens Pegasus with a knife. Pegasus uses his Millennium Item to "turn" Keith's hand into a gun. The hand "shoots" Keith, “killing” him instantly.

Deck
Keith's deck consists of all sorts of Machines. In his duel with Yugi, he also uses powerful Dragon cards as well as the legendary Zera the Mant. In his duels, he cheats by hiding cards in his wristband. Similarly, when he wears the Rare Hunter robes, a claw mechanism feeds cards directly to his hand. Because the duelists is so far from each other when dueling at an arena, Keith opponent's rarely realize he is cheating.