A natural on the basketball court, only a tragic knee injury prevented Doyle from being scooped up by NBA scouts. Early Sports Injury Prompts Poker Careerĭoyle Brunson’s career in poker now seems like the obvious choice given his luminous achievements in the game, but the early years of Texas’ favorite son were spent dreaming of a sporting legacy to come. The 10-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner will no doubt be viewed as a founding father of poker’s future too, but at this moment in poker’s glorious history, everyone is struck by the sudden loss of one of the touchstones of the game. “We don’t stop playing because we get old, we get old because we stop playing,” Brunson said on a number of occasions.The poker legend Doyle Brunson wasn’t only a symbol of poker’s past but was a statesman of its present until the moment of his passing. Five-time WSOP winner Scotty Nguyen tweeted that he “can’t believe this day has come – you will always be held high in our hearts, the man, the myth, the legend & THE GODFATHER of poker baby! Mr Brunson, you made poker what it is baby! thank you for what you give to all of us baby! RIP Mr Doyle Brunson THE GODFATHER OF POKER.”īrunson continued to play at a high-level well into his 80s and said poker helped him feel young. Tributes poured in from other poker players after Brunson’s death was announced. That’s probably the thing that all the greats share.” “You have to have a sixth sense, a kind of gut feeling that tells you what the other guy’s holding. “The two most important things are a good sense of recall and a good understanding of people,” Brunson said when asked about the secret to success in poker. It created a lasting impact that professional and casual players used to improve their performances.

He wrote Super System in 1979, one of the first books to delve into poker strategy. He won more than $6m in live earnings during his career. He also captured world championships in 19 and was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in 1988. “It was kind of a hangout for the hoodlums and gangsters of Texas and it was very, very volatile.”īrunson, called the Godfather of Poker and also known as “Texas Dolly,” won 10 World Series of Poker tournaments – second only to Phil Hellmuth’s 16. Violence was rampant,” he told the Guardian in 2005, adding he had seen two people shot during games. Brunson started playing seriously in Fort Worth, Texas, where he said the game was far tougher than the glossy, televised tournaments that are prevalent today.

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