Doyle Brunson
You may hear the professional poker player known as “Texas Dolly” often cited as the Godfather of Poker. This is because Doyle Brunson has been playing poker professionally for more than 40 years. He was the first player ever to win a $1,000,000 prize in a poker tournament, and went on to become one of only three gentlemen (the others being “The Orient Express” Johnny Chan and “Poker Brat” Phil Hellmuth, Jr.) to earn 10 World Series of Poker bracelets.
Along with Chan, Doyle Brunson is also one of only four to have won more than one main event consecutively. He achieved that record in 1976 and 1977. But Brunson’s poker starts came long before that. He was out searching Texas, Louisiana, and Oklahoma for games when most of the ones available were illegal poker games run by people involved in organized crime. Doyle Brunson’s poker playing past in peppered with violence, being mugged, beaten and having a gun be pulled on him multiple times.
It was during this period in his life when he met and befriended fellow future poker greats like Sailor Roberts, Johnny Moss, and Amarillo Slim Preston, with whom he traveled around, pooling his money with theirs, and gambling together in every arena, from poker to golf and more. On their first trip to Vegas together they lost their entire six-figure bankroll. It was then that they dissolved their partnership and decided to continue playing as individuals, but remain friends.
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A well-rounded player, to say the least, Doyle Brunson has picked up WSOP bracelets in Deuce to Seven Draw (1977), Seve-Card Stud Split (1977), Seven Card Stud (1978), Mixed Doubles (1979, with Starla Brodie), Seven-Card Razz (1998), H.O.R.S.E. (2003), and No Limit Shorthanded Texas Hold’em (2005).
In 2004, Doyle Brunson won the World Poker Tour Legends of Poker Tournament at the Bicycle Casino and a sweet $1.1 million. He also came in 4th place in $25,000 No Limit Texas Hold’em at the 2003 World Poker Tour World Championship and placed 3rd in $15,000 No Limit Texas Hold’em at the World Poker Tour Five Diamond Classic - both held at the Bellagio.
Doyle Brunson has always defied the odds, such as by winning over the heart of an honest woman in 1960 and 2 years later getting her to commit herself to a professional gambler. Or such as by miraculously overcoming a purportedly fatal cancer in time to see his son born. Doyle’s son Todd Brunson is also an accomplished professional poker player and fellow poker star.
It’s an incredible feat for a man of over 70 years old to still be going strong in any field of work, but especially when one considers that Doyle Brunson wasn’t even “supposed” to be in professional poker. An accomplished track and field athlete in his youth, in college Doyle Brunson was drafted into the NBA by the Minneapolis Lakers, but a severe knee injury early on wrecked his chances for a career in professional basketball. All the better for him, though, as the calling he heeded next has made him one of the most successful, respected, and durable names in his field.
Doyle Brunson is such a poker celebrity that he’s even had two hands - 10-2 and AQ - named after him. He is author of four books on poker: “Super System: A Course in Power Poker”, “Super System II”, “Poker Wisdom of a Champion”, and “Online Poker: Your Guide to Playing Online Poker Safely & Winning Money”. He can often be found playing online poker his the highly-acclaimed internet poker site that bears his grinning endorsement, Doyles Room.
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