Question of the Day - 21 July 2023

Doyle Brunson didn’t quite make it to his 90th birthday, dying in Las Vegas last May 14.

The first player to win $1 million in the World Series of Poker (WSOP), Brunson was born in Longworth, Texas, on August 10, 1933. Thus, he fell short of 90 by less than three months. 

Recognizable by the Stetson he wore, Brunson left behind a net worth of $75 million, amassed over five decades of playing poker and, no doubt, some shrewd investing. 

Brunson was the second-highest WSOP winner (tied with Phil Ivey and Johnny Chan) of all time, amassing 10 bracelets. Only Phil Hellmuth has more, with 17. He belongs in a WSOP elite that includes winning the Main Event on more than one occasion (1976 and 1977), along with being one of only three players who have won WSOP tourneys four consecutive times.

Only six players have won both a World Poker title and the WSOP Main Event and Brunson was the first to do so. His accomplishments in both were so myriad that it would be tedious to recite them all. Suffice it to say that his 50-year career was so elite that he made the final table of the WSOP no fewer than 26 times.

Early on growing up in Texas, it looked as though Brunson was cut out for athletic achievement. The Sweetwater High School alum won a track meet with a 4:43 time in the mile. He was courted by several colleges, settling on Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene.

However, Brunson’s promising career on the field of play was truncated by a broken leg he suffered while still in school. This scuttled his hopes of playing for the NBA’s Minneapolis Lakers. Instead, Brunson concentrated on his studies, thinking he'd fall back on being a school principal.

Fortunately for the world of poker, Brunson had taken up the game as an undergrad, becoming so proficient that his winnings paid for his tuition. After college, he took a job with Burroughs Corp., maker of business machines. He left soon thereafter, discovering that his poker skills could make him more money than his salesmanship could.

Although gambling was illegal, Brunson quickly started making a mark playing poker in Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana. The joints where he played were often run by organized crime, an experience that left him with some indelible memories, such as the time he saw a man shot dead at the table.

Fast-forward to 1970 and the inaugural World Series of Poker in downtown Las Vegas. Brunson, no stranger to Sin City, was one of the first players. Not for nothing had he run with the likes of Amarillo Slim. He became a dominant force in the game and moved to Las Vegas permanently in the mid-'70s. He made it to the Main Event for the first time in 1972, followed by his back-to-back triumphs in ’76 and ’77. His last Main Event appearance as a player was in 2013.

Brunson also published the authoritative Doyle Brunson’s Super System. He later rued giving away his championship secrets, allowing that they'd cost him money once they were widely known. 

Tragedy visited Brunson at least once. His daughter Doyla was born with scoliosis and died in her late teens, due to cardiac issues. Brunson himself was diagnosed with cancer just before Doyla’s birth. After surgery, he made a full recovery and became a devout Christian out of gratitude. Children Pamela and Todd went on to follow in Dad’s footsteps and become poker pros.

Later in life, Brunson was besmirched by an SEC investigation into a pump-and-dump stock scheme in which he was implicated. His attorneys made an unsolicited 2005 attempt to buy the World Poker Tour at a vast markup. WPT stock shot up in value, whereupon Brunson and his lawyers became mum about the purchase. Brunson then pulled his offer back and WPT investors were left holding the bag.

Some canny Fifth Amendment invocations by Brunson frustrated the SEC probe. Stymied, the prolonged investigation folded in 2007. By that point, Brunson had long since moved on to online poker, although this occasioned another run-in with the law. Doyle’s Room was confiscated in 2011 as part of the Black Monday crackdown on ipoker. Brunson quickly severed ties with the site.

Although he's now gone, you can’t play poker without the spirit of Doyle Brunson being present. For instance, any hand containing both an ace and queen is called a “Doyle Brunson,” ironically because it's a hand he had a reputation for never playing.