A poker fan usually uses the history of other
poker legends to study their game, to know aspects of their technique that are
helpful and, incidentally, to use the trajectory of their precedents to find a
reflection that allows him to have references in order to evolve and gain
experience. If we ask those who today are true modern legends of poker, we can
see that each one has his reference and will justify the reasons that
have led him to such a choice.
However, there is consensus in affirming that
Doyle Brunson is the most transcendent poker legend of the last century.
Brunson has dedicated his whole life to poker: he has played for more than
60 years, has played games that today are considered legendary and has been
a reference for a whole generation of players who saw in him their aspirations
for the future on the green carpet. But let's go step by step and get to know
Doyle Brunson better.
Doyle Brunson is considered by many as one of
the founding fathers of poker. And the mark Brunson has managed to leave has
been so deep that the new generations of players often take Doyle Brunson as
their main reference (but not the only one). But poker was not always the
American's aspiration. Did you know that his passion was the NBA?
Yes, Doyle Brunson's dream was to become an NBA
star. But that dream was cut short when a knee injury dashed all his
aspirations. Among his college classmates, however, his passion for
basketball always stood out, a sport to which he was able to devote part of his
youth thanks to the scholarships he received to study at Hardin-Simmons
University in Abilene, Texas.
That passion for basketball came as a child.
Brunson was born on August 10, 1933 in Longworth, a small community located in
Fisher County, Texas. It was a small rural town of barely a hundred
inhabitants, where they were mainly engaged in agriculture and where
Brunson spent his entire childhood.
In fact, Doyle Brunson and poker did not come
together until later in life. His family lived on a small cotton farm where
they lacked basic supplies: no running water, no electricity. Despite these
shortcomings, Brunson was a very active and curious child from the
start, and it was in high school that he began to excel in basketball and track
and field.
Brunson's passion for basketball was not merely
testimonial. It was also evident to the Minneapolis Lakers players that Doyle
Brunson was a top player and the team was interested in having him on their
roster. However, as we mentioned a few lines above, this dream came to nothing
because of a particularly serious accident suffered in a local plaster factory
that would leave Brunson with a knee injury for the rest of his life. Despite
the setback and having his aspirations thwarted, Brunson continued his studies
and graduated in 1954. In the years that followed, he earned a master's
degree in administrative education and set his sights on becoming a school
principal. But fate had other plans.
Despite seeing his other aspirations fulfilled,
Brunson was not entirely happy. He felt that the salary for school principals
at the time was too low and made the decision to explore other avenues. Before
deciding to become a school principal, Brunson ended up working as a commercial
machine salesman to earn a living. His colleagues invited him to a poker
game on his first day to get to know him better and integrate him. The
result? Brunson won more than a month's salary that night. It was clear that
young Brunson had potential.
These feelings were confirmed over time. The
more poker games he played, the more it became clear to him that he was good at
poker, and the idea of aspiring to more soon crossed his mind. When he was
fully aware of his potential, Brunson decided to leave the company to begin
a career as a professional poker player. Doyle Brunson and poker had begun
to combine their paths. The rest, as they say, is history.
Brunson is considered by many to be one of the
founding fathers of poker. He has won 10 World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelets
in his career, including two consecutive Main Event titles in 1966 and 1967. Only
Phil Ivey and Johnny Chan have equaled those records, and even Phil
Hellmuth surpassed him, reaching 15. And there goes another record: Brunson was
the first person in history to win more than $1 million in live poker
tournament winnings. Almost nothing.
A particularly important chapter in Brunson's
career is the one that has to do with the so-called "Legendary Texas
Rounders", a team of professional poker players who dominated the game
between the 1950s and 1960s and of which Brunson was a member. But let's
recap a bit.
Brunson met his wife Louise in 1959. In August
1962 they were married and Louise became pregnant shortly thereafter. All was
happiness until bad news hit the family like a cold shower: a cancer had
appeared in Doyle's neck and had been spreading, as the doctors found out when
they performed surgery. The prognosis was not good: doctors gave him no
more than three months to live, although palliative treatment promised to
extend his life long enough to see the birth of his daughter.
What happened next was little short of a
miracle. After the second operation, and after the doctors' check-up, the tumor
had suddenly disappeared completely from Brunson's body. Time confirmed that
this was no mirage: the cancer had completely disappeared. Brunson was able
to witness the birth of her daughter and has suffered no sequelae from the
disease for decades. The tumor suddenly seemed to be completely cured.
When his daughter was born, Brunson moved to
Fort Worth, a central Texas city where he played poker games of dubious
legality with Dwayne Hamilton, one of his good friends. In the following years
he would meet other figures who are now poker legends, such as Sailor Roberts
or Amarillo Slim. This friendship would forge what would end up being the
group of the Texas Rounders, starting their activity at the gaming tables
during the following months.
The years of bonanza came to nothing when the
legendary players came face to face with reality. They spent the money they had
won on a trip to Las Vegas and lost all their funds at the drop of a hat. They
arrived as legends and left as rookies, a lesson that should serve mid-level
players well so that they don't lose everything they've earned by getting
carried away by a mirage. To this day, that anecdote is fondly remembered.
Doyle Brunson has left phrases for posterity
throughout his more than 60 years of poker career, but the one his fans liked
the most was undoubtedly the one he used to announce his return to Las Vegas.
Things had changed since that fateful youthful escapade, and he continued to
play until 2018 when the American announced his definitive retirement from poker.
Having participated in almost every Main Event up to that point, Brunson
decided to put an end to his prolific career. He had already left an indelible
mark on the poker world and would always be remembered as a legend.
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