Life according to Doyle Brunson is like poker: “You don’t get dealt the hand you’d like to play again, you get dealt the hand you’d like to play, and all you can do is try to play it the best way you can. That’s what I always tried to create. If you’re playing a tough hand, you have to play it as best you can.”
Also known as “Texas Dolly“, he is one of the most iconic and recognizable figures in the poker world, known for his adaptable and aggressive playing style and his undeniable ability to read his opponents.
Born in the United States, in Longworth, Texas in 1933 and died in Las Vegas, Nevada, on May 14, 2023. He was the first player to win more than $1 million in live tournaments.
Member of the poker hall of fame since 1988 and winner of 10 bracelets for World Series Of Poker (WSOP) tournaments, of which he won 4 in a row. In addition to being a WSOP Main Event winner in 1976 and 1977.
He also won the World Poker Tour’s (WPT) flagship Legends of Poker event in 2004, in which he won a $1.1 million prize. And in 2013 he won in the WSOP $10,00 No Limit Hold’em Championship event.
During his long poker career, he went on to earn over $6 million in tournament winnings.
Bracelets
1976 tournament $5,000 Deuce to Seven Draw1976 tournament $10,000 No Limit Hold’em World Championship1977 tournament $1,000 Seven-Card Stud Split1977 tournament $10,000 No Limit Hold’em World Championship1978 tournament $5,000 Seven-Card Stud1979 tournament $600 Mixed Doubles1991 tournament $2,500 No Limit Hold’em1998 tournament $1,500 Seven-Card Razz2003 tournament $2,000 H.O.R.S.E.2005 tournament $5,000 No Limit Shorthanded Texas Hold’em
“Poker is war. People pretend it’s a game.”
Doyle Brunson: His Beginnings in the World of Poker
During his college years, he was a basketball player, but after a knee injury, he had to give up the sport and change careers, pursuing a master’s degree in administrative education. Prior to his accident, Doyle played poker as a hobby, but during his recovery, he began to play more regularly, as his winnings helped him pay for his medical treatments.
Still, this was not the time or the reason he became a poker player, it was years later, on his first day of work while he was a salesman of commercial machines, that his colleagues invited him to play a game, in which Doyle would end up winning and getting the equivalent of more than a month’s salary. Some time later he realized his potential and decided to resign from the company and start a professional poker career.
Books by Doyle Brunson
Author of Super/System: A Course in Power Poker (1979), one of the first books to delve into detailed poker strategy, helped transform the game by giving recreational players an understanding of how professional players like Brunson played and won.
Its updated sequel, Super/System 2 (2004), has become a valuable resource for thousands of emerging and established players, thanks to the many innovative strategies Doyle Brunson created and shared in his books.
In addition, he published other books such as Power Wisdom of a Champion (2005), his autobiography The Godfather of Poker (2009) and My Most 50 memorable Hands (2007).
“To be a successful player you have to be completely unconcerned about money.”
Curious facts
♠ Doyle Brunson was one of the first players to promote poker as a mind sport and an art form, as well as making the case that poker is a game of skill and not luck.
♦ His favorite hand was ten-two (10-2), the same hand with which he won his two main events, for two consecutive years, at the WSOP. In his honor, this hand is known as the “Doyle Hand”.
♣ The ace-queen hand (of any suit) in Texas Hold’em is named after him, as a joke, since he never played that hand.
♥ Participated in the first edition of the WSOP in 1970 and since then, I have been present in most of these.
♠ He was one of the first players to adopt an aggressive style of play.
♦ He stood out for always wearing a cowboy hat.
♣ Along with his friends Amarillo Slim and Sailor Roberts (well-known gamblers), Doyle Brunson traveled in his youth through the states of Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana, participating in illegal and clandestine games. In the 1970s, he settled in Las Vegas.
♥ The WPT named an event in his honor, the Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic, held at the Bellagio in Las Vegas, is one of the WPT’s most prestigious events.
“Money is just a tool in poker. If you can scare a man, you can beat him.”
Although he is gone, Doyle Brunson’s influence and legacy in the poker world will live on. His skill, combined with his contribution to the strategy and teaching of the game, ensures him a place of honor in the history of poker.
