<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=10 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=top>Doyle Brunson
"I had never had over five hundred dollars at one time in my life, so I still remember the thrill of that game." </TD><TD class=style10 vAlign=top width=75><!--
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</TD><TD class=cpblack vAlign=top>Doyle's Personal Notes
• Born in Longworth, Texas, 1933
• Holds Masters Degree in business from Hardin-Simmons University
• Married with four grown children
• Longtime professional cash poker player
• Spends his summers on Flathead Lake, Montana
• Resides in Las Vegas
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<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=2 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD class=cpblack2>Doyle Brunson has had a long and successful career at the poker table, and after fifty years of card playing he’s trying to slow down and smell the roses. “But I’m having trouble doing that,” he admits, “because I crave the action and enjoyment of playing poker.” He’s also been contending with his own fame. Some Hollywood writers recently completed a movie script about his life, he’s writing two books, and he’s considering being a spokesman for an Internet poker site––never a dull moment for this Doyle.
Texas Dolly’s poker career stretches way back to his days of playing high school basketball when his team went to Austin to play in the state finals. It was there in Austin, between championship basketball games that Doyle first played poker. He won $23 over three days. “That was 1950,” he says, “and I have never stopped playing.”
Though he enjoyed a good game of poker, at that point he hadn’t yet given up on his dream to become a professional athlete. His naturally competitive nature led him to pursue an athletic scholarship to college. His choice from over 100 offers was Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene where he went on to become the second best mile-distance runner in the state collegiate ranks and Most Valuable Player in his conference. Fate intervened however, in the guise of a serious knee injury. “That ended whatever aspirations I had of becoming a pro athlete,” says Doyle. “Once I accepted the fact my career in sports was over, I started playing poker to support myself.”
It was at this time, as a young college student, that Doyle played the most memorable poker game of his life. “Even my back-to-back WSOP championships pale in comparison to winning $3,700 from a wealthy Texas oil man,” he says. “I had never had over five hundred dollars at one time in my life, so I still remember the thrill of that game.”
Doyle gradually worked his way up to playing in the bigger private games in Texas, eventually hooking up with two other poker legends, Sailor Roberts, the 1975 World Poker Champion, and “Amarillo Slim” Preston. Doyle remembers those days as a constant tap dance to avoid getting arrested for playing an illegal poker game or looking down the barrel of a gun or at the shaft of a knife. “It was a harrowing experience,” recalls Doyle.“People today who play in all the big fancy (legal) cardrooms don’t understand what it was like back in those days to be a poker player with all the problems we had.”
Texas Dolly credits much of his success at the tables to an intense study of the game. “Back in those days, there were no computers––so I did all the strategy work manually. I dealt out a hand here. I put another hand there. I just kept doing it thousands and thousands of times, over and over.” He also considers himself to be a student of the game who is now teaching others (through his books) what he learned by the sweat of his brow over the many years he has played the game.
If Doyle had anything to say to a young player just starting out it would probably be to be careful and play as much as possible and to read some good poker books (presumably some of the many that Brunson has authored would do). He also recommends that if marriage is in the future, that the player “had better get an exceptional spouse because the spouse will have to put up with a lot of unusual things. Fortunately, I found the perfect (for me) soul mate over 40 years ago,” boasts Doyle.
Although Doyle made his name in cash poker games, he was also instrumental in giving tournament poker a major boost. His best friend was Benny Binion, the man who started the World Series of Poker at his Horseshoe Casino, and Doyle did everything he could to make the tournament a success. “The idea was to get people to come to Vegas, where we could have better cash games,” he says. “This happened for ten years or so until the satellites started up and took the players out of the cash games.”
Doyle has never been a stranger to the WSOP final tables through the years. In fact, he still holds the record (tied now with Johnny Chan and Phil Hellmuth) for the most gold bracelets at nine. His goal, of course, is to win even more. And he says that he hopes he can play poker profitably until he’s ninety years old. Given that he’s only a young septuagenarian, that would give him two more decades to compete at the table. In the meantime, he says he’ll continue to enjoy his grown children and his extended family. “Life is good!” he says.
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"I had never had over five hundred dollars at one time in my life, so I still remember the thrill of that game." </TD><TD class=style10 vAlign=top width=75><!--
--></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=10 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD class=cpblack vAlign=top width=75>
• Born in Longworth, Texas, 1933
• Holds Masters Degree in business from Hardin-Simmons University
• Married with four grown children
• Longtime professional cash poker player
• Spends his summers on Flathead Lake, Montana
• Resides in Las Vegas
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<HR width="100%" noShade SIZE=1>
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=2 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD class=cpblack2>Doyle Brunson has had a long and successful career at the poker table, and after fifty years of card playing he’s trying to slow down and smell the roses. “But I’m having trouble doing that,” he admits, “because I crave the action and enjoyment of playing poker.” He’s also been contending with his own fame. Some Hollywood writers recently completed a movie script about his life, he’s writing two books, and he’s considering being a spokesman for an Internet poker site––never a dull moment for this Doyle.
Though he enjoyed a good game of poker, at that point he hadn’t yet given up on his dream to become a professional athlete. His naturally competitive nature led him to pursue an athletic scholarship to college. His choice from over 100 offers was Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene where he went on to become the second best mile-distance runner in the state collegiate ranks and Most Valuable Player in his conference. Fate intervened however, in the guise of a serious knee injury. “That ended whatever aspirations I had of becoming a pro athlete,” says Doyle. “Once I accepted the fact my career in sports was over, I started playing poker to support myself.”
It was at this time, as a young college student, that Doyle played the most memorable poker game of his life. “Even my back-to-back WSOP championships pale in comparison to winning $3,700 from a wealthy Texas oil man,” he says. “I had never had over five hundred dollars at one time in my life, so I still remember the thrill of that game.”
Doyle gradually worked his way up to playing in the bigger private games in Texas, eventually hooking up with two other poker legends, Sailor Roberts, the 1975 World Poker Champion, and “Amarillo Slim” Preston. Doyle remembers those days as a constant tap dance to avoid getting arrested for playing an illegal poker game or looking down the barrel of a gun or at the shaft of a knife. “It was a harrowing experience,” recalls Doyle.“People today who play in all the big fancy (legal) cardrooms don’t understand what it was like back in those days to be a poker player with all the problems we had.”
If Doyle had anything to say to a young player just starting out it would probably be to be careful and play as much as possible and to read some good poker books (presumably some of the many that Brunson has authored would do). He also recommends that if marriage is in the future, that the player “had better get an exceptional spouse because the spouse will have to put up with a lot of unusual things. Fortunately, I found the perfect (for me) soul mate over 40 years ago,” boasts Doyle.
Although Doyle made his name in cash poker games, he was also instrumental in giving tournament poker a major boost. His best friend was Benny Binion, the man who started the World Series of Poker at his Horseshoe Casino, and Doyle did everything he could to make the tournament a success. “The idea was to get people to come to Vegas, where we could have better cash games,” he says. “This happened for ten years or so until the satellites started up and took the players out of the cash games.”
Doyle has never been a stranger to the WSOP final tables through the years. In fact, he still holds the record (tied now with Johnny Chan and Phil Hellmuth) for the most gold bracelets at nine. His goal, of course, is to win even more. And he says that he hopes he can play poker profitably until he’s ninety years old. Given that he’s only a young septuagenarian, that would give him two more decades to compete at the table. In the meantime, he says he’ll continue to enjoy his grown children and his extended family. “Life is good!” he says.
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