Poker
Legend Still Going Strong
Written by
CardPlayer.com
There
will always be a young, up-and-coming poker aficionado
who wins a million; there will always be a touching
story about a sympathetic character who gets a break
and wins more than he ever dreamed possible; there
will always be a well-played hand, a great moment in
poker, or a story worth retelling; however, there is
only one legend of poker. There is only one man who
has lived through five decades of poker with resolve,
dedication to the game, and an endless passion for the
purity of the competition. There is one man alone who
deserves the utmost respect as a poker icon. That man
is none other than Doyle Brunson, affectionately known
as "Texas Dolly."
After 50 years of trials and tribulations in the
complex and ever-changing world of poker, Doyle
continues to steadfastly demonstrate that gambling can
be a respectable profession.
Besides every accolade he so richly deserves, Doyle is
one class act. He is a gentleman with an endearing
personality, a fabulous sense of humor, striking
recall, and surprising humility for a man of his
stature. When I asked him how it felt to be a poker
icon, he shrugged and modestly responded that he was
just a guy who liked to play poker.
Humble Beginnings
Born in Longworth, Texas, on Aug. 10, 1933, Doyle
describes himself as a country farm boy who knew
everyone in his small town. The entire population was
fewer than 100 people, and most were farmers.
As is often the case with youngsters, Doyle wanted a
way out of the small town. Since his father worked at
a local gymnasium, it was a logical progression that
he would go to the gym with his father and work toward
an athletic scholarship. Because of his competitive
nature, he found himself practicing continually. Doyle
has that unyielding, relentless, winning drive; when
he chooses to engage in an activity, he must be the
best.
By the time Doyle was in high school, he was good
enough to make the all-state team in basketball and he
won the
Texas
state championship in the mile run, which earned him a
scholarship to college and a ticket out of the small
town. He was the second-best miler in the state's
collegiate ranks and was the MVP in his conference.
A young boy's dreams came true when he was drafted by
the NBA's Lakers, then in
Minneapolis
. Just when young Doyle was on top of the
world, the unthinkable happened. He recalls: "I
got injured and busted up my knee. That ended whatever
aspirations I had of becoming a professional athlete.
It wasn't easy to accept the fact that my career in
sports was over, just like that."
One Very Small Paycheck
Doyle went on to earn a master's degree in
administrative education; after all, if he couldn't
play sports, he would teach sports. By that time, he
had already begun traveling to different colleges to
play in small poker games, winning often. When he
realized how little teachers were paid, he decided
against that profession.
He explained to me that he received only one paycheck!
"I went to work selling bookkeeping equipment in
my assigned territory for the Burroughs Corporation.
When I saw my first paycheck, I realized I could rake
in more money in one pot than what I made after a
whole week of hard work! I knew right away where my
'territory' was. It was right there in those small
poker games in
Texas
."
The Good Ol' Days
In the early days, there were no legal poker rooms,
and Doyle drove hundreds of miles to play in a good
"outlaw" poker game. He lived through an era
in which one had to concern oneself not only with
winning, but collecting the money and then being lucky
enough to get out of town safely with the money!
In those years, Doyle explains that he had to worry
about getting cheated, robbed, attacked, beaten, or
even arrested before he got out of Dodge with his
bankroll.
He was robbed more times than he can remember, and
believe me, the man's recollection is phenomenal. He
recalls sitting in a poker game on
Exchange
Avenue
in
Fort
Worth
one bleak day: "All of a sudden, someone busted
the door down blasting a shotgun. The gunman shot off
the head of the guy sittin' next to me. I saw the
guy's head falling off and splattering against the
wall! It was tough, that's what it was, tough."
It was not an easy life, nor a safe one.
Watching Each Other's Back
After becoming comfortable in the small college games,
the ever-competitive Doyle moved up to the bigger
games, which were held on the north side of
Fort
Worth
.
He describes the area as being the toughest place in
the world to play poker. "Robbery and murder were
ordinary occurrences. That's where I got my real
training. The big money was in the games on what we
called the '
Bloodthirsty
Highway
,'
because everybody there was an outlaw of some sort.
There were thieves, robbers, murderers, and pimps, who
just happened to be the guys who made the poker games
really good."
After winning money from these odd characters, Doyle
moved to a bigger game yet, and explained: "I got
to where I was winning pretty regularly. That's when I
first met Sailor Roberts. We started traveling around
together, playing in the big games. We met up with
Amarillo Slim and the three of us formed a kind of
partnership. We worked out of one bankroll and kind of
watched each other's back." Doyle was quick to
add that being partners didn't mean they colluded, but
that they used one bankroll, and everyone knew it.
He explained that back then, there were no computers,
calculators, or instructional books filled with
statistical analyses of poker hands. "I was the
first guy to crunch hands," he said. He would sit
for hours on end, dealing hand after hand, thousands
of hands, until he recognized a pattern.
"After a poker session, Amarillo Slim and I would
go to a Roadway Inn and get twin beds. We'd lie awake
half the night on our separate beds, talking about the
mistakes we'd made and how we could have played
differently. That made me more advanced than other
players at the time."
10-2: "The Doyle Brunson"
Every poker player knows the oft-told 10-2 story, but
nobody tells it like Doyle himself. It was exciting to
hear this poker legend gleefully describe each moment
in vast detail, as if it were yesterday when he won
the championship event of the World Series of Poker in
two consecutive years with 10-2 both times. It is a
story that deserves to be retold over and over in the
memoirs of a poker legend.
But first, Doyle said there was a little-known fact
about him. He was also the first person to win a
cumulative million dollars in tournaments at the WSOP!
Besides winning nine WSOP bracelets and finishing in
the money 23 times, Doyle also distinguishes himself
by being a member of the Poker Hall of Fame and an
inaugural inductee to the World Poker Tour's Walk of
Fame.
I asked Doyle about the famous 10-2 hand, and he
stated, "I had played in every World Series of
Poker since it started in 1970. In '76, I was heads up
against Jessie Alto. I had just beaten the guy in a
big pot; he was a notorious steamer, so, naturally,
when he raised the pot, I called him with the 10 2. He
had an A-J and hit aces and jacks on the flop, with
one spade. I had tens. He bet and I called. When a
deuce fell on the turn, I moved in on him. I caught
another 10 on the river to beat him!
"The next year, I was in the big blind and had
10-2 against Bones Berland. The flop came
10-8-5
.
I checked, and he checked. He had eights and fives.
The fourth card was a deuce. I bet, he moved in on me,
and I called. The last card was a 10 again. So, in
both hands, I made a full house."
Doyle added, "A 10-2 almost won a third
tournament when Stuey (Ungar) and Perry (Green) were
playing the second year that Stuey won it. Perry had
more chips than Stuey and they got it all in. The flop
was J-9-8 with two clubs. Perry had the 10 2, but
Stuey had the A J. The fourth card was a 6 and the
last one was a blank. If a queen or 7 had come, Perry
would have won the tournament with a straight and it
would have been the third time a 10-2 had won
it."
Doyle confided, "I played the 10-2 many times
after that. Let's just say, I don't play it
anymore."
Phil Hellmuth, who won the WSOP championship event at
the tender age of 23, said: "Doyle has plowed the
road for the rest of us. He is the man with all of the
records, recognition, books, and respect. He is the
man I'm chasing in my quest to make poker history, and
he's still winning World Series events at age 70! Rock
on, Doyle!"
Bobby Baldwin
Jesse May was kind enough to send me this great
snippet written about Doyle by Bobby Baldwin,
president and CEO of Mirage Resorts Inc. It is a quote
from the first printing of his 1979 book, Bobby
Baldwin's Winning Poker Secrets, about the first time
he played in the WSOP against Doyle in May 1976:
… Before the first day of competition, I had lunch
with Doyle Brunson, who, although he had never won
this tournament, was considered by most to be the best
no-limit player in the world.
"How do you think I'll do?" I asked him.
"You'll do OK," Brunson said softly. Then as
if inspired, he said, "How 'bout a friendly
wager? Two thousand says I'll last longer than you
will."
Worst bet I ever made. Doyle won the tournament.
Next year, Doyle greeted me as soon as I set foot in
the Horseshoe Club. "Are we on?" he asked.
"On?"
He smiled broadly and, in his typically gentle manner,
said, "Sure, for two thousand. We could make the
same bet as last year."
"No way!" I teased. "You'd have to spot
me something."
"All right. I'll give you two-to-one."
Second-worst bet I ever made. Doyle won the
championship again!
The next year, I said, "Don't even ask, Doyle.
I'm not betting you this year, so you'll just have to
scrape up two grand somewhere else."
Worst laydown I ever made. I won the title!
"Texas Dolly"
Prior to our interview, I read a story about the press
mistakenly reporting on "Texas Dolly"
instead of "Texas Doyle," which was his real
nickname. I asked Doyle about it. "Yes, yes, it's
true," he said. "Jimmy 'the Greek' Snyder is
responsible for my nickname, in a roundabout way. He
used to call me 'Texas Doyle.' One year when we were
both at the World Series, he called me 'Texas Doyle';
some reporters thought he said 'Texas Dolly,' and
that's how they reported it. I just shook my head and
laughed. As you can see, the name stuck."
Shared Wisdom
Most poker players agree that Doyle's book
Super/System, first published in 1979, is the poker
bible. This book is the first legitimate handbook of
how to play poker.
Doyle wrote the part of the book dealing with no-limit
hold'em and asked some young compatriots to write
other sections, including Bobby Baldwin (limit hold'em),
David Sklansky (high-low stud), Mike Caro (draw
poker), Chip Reese (seven-card stud), and Joey
Hawthorne (lowball). Doyle explained that they all
wrote for free, and that writing those sections was
their first step in becoming famous in their own
right.
Sklansky had a slightly different take on it:
"Doyle was the first of the old-school,
seat-of-the-pants, instinctive players to recognize
that most future stars would be coming from a more
analytical academic type of environment. Players who
would use technical tools and mathematical reasoning
were likely to predominate most forms of poker except
perhaps no-limit. Doyle realized that even though he
was not really one of them at the time. One need only
look at the unproven youngsters he chose to co-author
his epic book. His foresight is pretty amazing, as
none of those youngsters exactly faded off into the
sunset."
Doyle's next book, According to Doyle, is a series of
reflections about what it takes to be a successful
gambler. The book has soul and is borne out of Doyle's
own sweat. It was out of print for about a decade, and
has been reprinted and renamed Poker Wisdom of a
Champion. Both of Doyle's books can be purchased at
CardPlayer.com.
Finally, Doyle has come out with Super/System 2,
available only at his new website, DoylesRoom.com. It
is sure to be a classic. One of the co-authors, Daniel
Negreanu, had this to say about Doyle: "In no
other sport/game have we seen anything similar to what
Doyle Brunson is still accomplishing at his age. Over
70 years old and yet he is still a competitive force
in the toughest cash games in the world. He is the
undisputed legend of our game."
Endearing Personality
With a twinkle in his eye, Doyle recalled some
exciting moments from the past. When we first met, I
thought the topic would be only poker, but much to my
delight, we spoke of many different subjects,
beginning with golf. Doyle said, "Golf is a
different kind of win. Nothing is as exhilarating as
golf, because of the physical challenge."
I had heard that in his heyday, Doyle was a fabulous
golfer and made huge golf bets. He said that he
sometimes played for half a million dollars,
explaining, "The guys on the pro golf tour don't
compete for the amount of money we bet on a single
round."
I had read a story about a golf match that was famous
amongst poker players. I never really understood the
story, as I know nothing more than the meaning of a
"birdie." As the story goes, Doyle hadn't
played golf in many years because of his knee injury,
which caused him increasing problems as the years went
on. However, being a betting gentleman, there were
some wagers he simply could not resist. Howard Lederer
bet him half a million on a golf game. It went like
this: Doyle and his golf partner Mike Sexton were
permitted to tee off from the "red tees." I
apologized when I asked Doyle what that meant. With a
devilish, endearing, and mischievous grin, he
answered: "The ladies tees; we teed off from the
red (ladies) tees, which are much closer to the hole,
while Howard (Lederer) and Huck (Seed) teed off from
the blue tees, further back. I'm a much better golfer
than all of them. They didn't have a chance!"
As it turned out, Doyle and Mike won the match, but
only by one stroke. If you could have seen that
playful look on Doyle's face when he told the story,
you instantly would have found his personality
irresistible. It must have been one heck of a bluff to
get his opponents to allow this big man to tee off
from the girlie tees!
Linda Johnson told me that golf match was her favorite
story about Doyle, and that I should hear Mike
Sexton's rendition of it. When I contacted Mike, he
promised to write an entire column about the match. He
told me, "Doyle Brunson is a living legend in the
poker world, golf world, sports-betting world, and any
other type of gambling world. He not only has played
in the biggest games virtually his entire life, he
wrote what most people, including me, consider 'the
Bible' on poker. High-stakes gamblers love to be
around him, because he is a true 'action man.'"
One Class Act
Whether winning or losing, Doyle is the consummate
gentleman. Bellagio Tournament Director Jack
McClelland said, "In the 20 years I have known
and played with Doyle, he has never given the dealers
a hard time. Even when it was inconvenient, Doyle
signed autographs and encouraged newcomers. Doyle has
that easy smile but is a fierce competitor with the
heart of a lion."
Doyle and I were scheduled to meet for our interview
smack-dab in the middle of the 2004 WSOP. He admitted
he had been on his longest losing streak ever, six
weeks. Yet, at the scheduled time, he left a very
juicy game to meet me for an interview.
Doyle was once quoted as saying that after five days
of losing, one should take a break. I asked him about
that, and, smiling ruefully, he answered: "Yeah
— but these World Series side games are soooo
good." He explained that he discussed the
situation with his friend Chip Reese, who agreed that
there was no flaw in his game, even though he had had
gastric bypass surgery only about five months ago.
Doyle and Jan Fisher had the same surgery, one week
apart. Even though Doyle's first month after his
surgery was a rough one, Jan said that when she
visited him, he was a trooper, as usual.
His Sweetheart, Louise
In the early '60s, Doyle married his sweetheart,
Louise, and together they had four children. They also
now have a grandson and two great-grandsons. I asked
Doyle how Louise reacted when he was on such a long
losing streak. He beamed proudly when he told me that
Louise never asked how he did in a poker game, and he
usually told her that he just broke even. Imagine
that! The legend of poker comes home and casually
tells his wife that he broke even again; yet, he lives
in luxury and wants for nothing materially.
Doyle bragged that his wife is "a wonderful
homemaker who does not know an ace from a king."
She has never once called and bugged him at a poker
game. He did admit he wished he could change one
thing: "I regret being gone from my family for so
long. I had to travel and work all the time, and I
missed out on some things." Now, he has a nice
dinner almost every night with Louise, where they
simply enjoy one another's company.
Doyle told me that through the years, he and Louise
lived through incredible experiences. One night, Doyle
was followed home and robbed. He had been robbed many
times before, but this was different, because it was
in his home. He faked a heart attack, and eventually
the robbers left. Lying on the floor, scared out of
their wits, they asked one another: "Did you ever
think that after 37 years of marriage, it would come
to this?" Then, they looked at one another, shook
their heads, and burst out laughing.
Whistling Dixie
No one tells a story like Doyle, who had me in
stitches when he told me about an out-of-towner who
came to play in one of the big games. It was long ago,
when only a few pros paid attention to
"tells" — that is, something someone does
in a poker game to give away his hand. The game had
been going on for quite a while when Doyle noticed
that the man whistled from time to time. Soon, he
realized that every time the man was bluffing, he
started whistling. After a few times, Doyle looked
around the table, and there was a subtle twinkle in
the eyes of the few pros at the table every time they
heard the man whistling Dixie. Of course, it was not
long before the out-of-towner went broke.
Still Going Strong After 50 Years
Doyle admits that if he had a mentor, it was Johnny
Moss, who was the best poker player in the world in
the early days. Doyle recalls: "When he was 50,
Johnny was the best player I'd ever seen. By the time
he reached 70, he'd lost it. I sure don't want that to
happen to me, now that I'm getting up there." No
chance.
Someone was teasing Doyle, saying that he had lost 10
percent of his game. Doyle thought about it for a bit,
and then in that measured, Southern drawl, he answered
slowly: "Well, yeah, but fortunately I was 30
percent ahead of everybody else to start with!"
What's Important
At one point in the interview, Doyle told me that
there are more important things than money and fame.
All of that is nice, but it's not what's really
important. I had read that he and Louise lost their
precious 18-year-old daughter, Doyla Lynn Brunson, in
1980 when she was a freshman at UNLV. I couldn't bring
myself to ask him about it, because the result of that
unspeakable loss was self-evident. He was a changed
man, deeper, more self-reflective. He was kind,
generous, and insightful, reflecting a lifetime of
experiences — some of which he wished he never had.
All of the fame, fortune, and accolades in the world
could not salve the terrible pain of losing a child.
Interview With a Legend
It has been my great honor to give you a peek into the
life of the greatest poker legend the world has ever
known. As we were concluding our interview, I asked
Doyle whom he respects in the poker world, and he
answered: "Anyone who sits down at a poker table,
dangles his feet underneath, and pulls out his money.
I feel a sort of camaraderie and sense of family with
anyone who sits down to play."
When I asked him if he had any parting words, he
thought for a moment and, in his humble way, said:
"During my lifetime, I have tried to promote
poker even when I didn't feel like it. I would like to
be known and remembered as someone who contributed all
I could to poker for 50 years."
No one will dispute that Doyle Brunson is recognized
as a poker legend. Not only is he the king of poker,
whose record cannot be rivaled, he is also a man who
has brought honor and dignity to the poker world for
five decades
- Card Player.com
