- Doyle Brunson @TexDolly. Since 1988, CardPlayer has provided poker players with poker strategy, poker news, and poker results.
- WPT Career Highlights Value Rank; Career Earnings: $2,096,034: 64: Cashes: 8: 371: Final Tables: 3: 131: Titles: 1: 57.
Home Strategy Poker Terms Doyle Brunson. It's a Holdem hand consisting of a 10-2 (Brunson won the world championship two years in a row on the final hand with these cards). Doyle Brunson was in the prime of his poker playing career and was gunning for his first Main Event title. Down to heads-up play against a final-table fixture of the day in Jesse Alto, The Doyle Brunson hand would make its first mark on the poker world. Preflop, Alto raised with his unsuited A.
Doyle Brunson has announced his retirement from the game of poker. After 62 years of being a professional player, Texas Dolly will muck his cards one last time at the end of this summer when he says goodbye to the felt that has brought him success, fame, and a legacy that will resonate with poker players for decades to come.
Brunson will enter his final event at the World Series of Poker today, the $10,000 No Limit 2-7 Single Draw, as a late entrant on Day 2. Speaking with the ‘Godfather of Poker' before play got underway, Brunson spoke about his decision, some of his best memories, and the way he'd like to be remembered.
'I'm planning on retiring after the summer. My wife is not in very good health, and I will stay with her for the duration of either her life or mine,' Brunson said.
Doyle met his wife Louise in 1959 and got married in August 1962, added that he's not only making his final appearance at the World Series of Poker, but he's also saying farewell to his beloved Bobby's Room.
'I'm going to stop playing completely, but while I might change my mind, I don't think that I will. This will be the last time that my wife and I have to spend together, and right now, every day that I leave the house I feel guilty.'
'My daughter stays with my wife a lot, and I never play until late anymore these days so I can be with her, and after 57 years of marriage I feel like owe it to my wife to stay with her.'
Brunson, who won his 10th WSOP bracelet in 2005, says that he still cares about the prestige of the World Series of Poker and that he wished that he had tried harder in the early days to win them.
'The tournaments were just a means to get players to come out to Las Vegas. I never cared for them much. Looking back, I kind of wish that I had, because I could have won a lot more of them. On the other hand, I did really well in the cash games by skipping the World Series.'
In reference to the early days of the World Series of Poker and what he's the proudest of, Brunson doesn't mention any bracelet wins or big cash game sessions.
'It's the friends that I've made through all those years. We all had a really tight bond, the original poker players that started the World Series of Poker. It was like a reunion every year, and these days I don't remember more than two people in this room. Sadly, most of my close friends have passed away, but it's that companionship that I look back on so fondly.'
Brunson was instrumental in growing the popularity of poker, most notably through his book Super System, and appearing on every major televised tournament and cash game. When looking back on his career that spanned more than six decades, Brunson refers to something else when asked about how he'd like to be remembered.
Doyle met his wife Louise in 1959 and got married in August 1962, added that he's not only making his final appearance at the World Series of Poker, but he's also saying farewell to his beloved Bobby's Room.
'I'm going to stop playing completely, but while I might change my mind, I don't think that I will. This will be the last time that my wife and I have to spend together, and right now, every day that I leave the house I feel guilty.'
'My daughter stays with my wife a lot, and I never play until late anymore these days so I can be with her, and after 57 years of marriage I feel like owe it to my wife to stay with her.'
Brunson, who won his 10th WSOP bracelet in 2005, says that he still cares about the prestige of the World Series of Poker and that he wished that he had tried harder in the early days to win them.
'The tournaments were just a means to get players to come out to Las Vegas. I never cared for them much. Looking back, I kind of wish that I had, because I could have won a lot more of them. On the other hand, I did really well in the cash games by skipping the World Series.'
In reference to the early days of the World Series of Poker and what he's the proudest of, Brunson doesn't mention any bracelet wins or big cash game sessions.
'It's the friends that I've made through all those years. We all had a really tight bond, the original poker players that started the World Series of Poker. It was like a reunion every year, and these days I don't remember more than two people in this room. Sadly, most of my close friends have passed away, but it's that companionship that I look back on so fondly.'
Brunson was instrumental in growing the popularity of poker, most notably through his book Super System, and appearing on every major televised tournament and cash game. When looking back on his career that spanned more than six decades, Brunson refers to something else when asked about how he'd like to be remembered.
'I'd like people to make up their own mind about me, but if anything it's the longevity in the game that I'm most proud of, and being able to have played at the ultra high stakes for all those years. I think that's how I'd like to be remembered.'
Right now, Brunson is surrounded by poker fans from all over the world as he gears up for what might very well be his last ever appearance inside the Amazon room.
'At this point, my mind is still at 80-90% of where it once was. I enjoy poker and I still win, and that's my barometer. I still feel great, I feel like I'm 30 years old, except for my body. My body is breaking down, which I guess is normal, and it would be nice to win another bracelet. I don't have many more opportunities, and in fact, this might be might be my last tournament ever.'
Over the course of his career, during which he was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in 1988, Brunson appeared on more poker TV shows than any player. PokerGO offers a wide variety of those episodes including throwbacks to the early days of Poker After Dark, the Super High Roller Cash Game and more recent appearances on 'The Return of Tom Dwan' and 'Holidays with Hellmuth.' Poker legend Phil Ivey spoke on Doyle's retirement, read here what he had to say.
In the second of a 10-part series, the Paul Phua Poker School recalls how 10-2 became the luckiest hand in World Series of Poker history
With the sheer number of hands that have been played during all the successive World Series of Poker (WSOP) tournaments, you would think that anything could happen. But of all the unlikely strokes of fortune over nearly 50 years of the WSOP, there cannot be anything to rival Doyle Brunson taking down the championship two years running – with the very same lucky hand!
Who is Doyle Brunson?
Doyle Brunson, nicknamed 'Texas Dolly' or 'The Godfather of Poker', is one of the last of the old poker greats still standing – or at least sitting, since you'll often see him in a motorised chair these days. He's 83 years old, and has been plagued for most of that time by the bad knee that ended his youthful dream of becoming a professional basketball player.
Basketball's loss is poker's gain. Brunson has won 10 WSOP bracelets, and his poker strategy book Super/System, originally self-published in 1978, became the bible for a whole generation of poker players. In 2006, after Super/System 2 was published, Brunson was voted by Bluff Magazine the most influential force in the world of poker.
1976: Doyle Brunson wins the WSOP Main Event
In the 1976 WSOP Main Event, Doyle Brunson was heads-up with a player called Jesse Alto. Unlike Brunson, Alto was a keen amateur rather than a professional: his day job was as a car dealer. As a result, he had not fully learned to keep cool in tight spots, and Brunson said he was looking to exploit that weakness.
Jesse Alto bet out with A-J, an excellent starting hand when heads-up. Brunson called with 10-2 suited. The flop came A-J-10, giving Alto two pair. Brunson went all-in with the weaker hand, Alto of course called.
The story of the 1976 WSOP could have been about how an amateur car dealer bested the world's top pros… but the poker gods decided otherwise. In one of the worst bad beats in Main Event history, Brunson caught runner-runner 2s on the turn and river to make a full house!
1977: Doyle Brunson wins the WSOP Main Event again – with the same hand!
They say lightning never strikes twice. Perhaps it does in Texas. The very next year, Doyle Brunson was defending his title heads-up against Gary 'Bones' Berland when he looked down at 10-2 – again. Berland was dealt 8-5.
Yet again Brunson found himself behind when the flop of 10-8-5 gave him a pair, and his opponent two pair. Yet again, the 2 hit on the turn to give Brunson two pair, and this time he was ahead. When Berland pushed all-in, Brunson gladly called. Incredibly, Brunson yet again made a full house on the river when a 10 hit, and he was crowned world champion for the second year in a row.
The 'Doyle Brunson hand'
There are many colourful names for different poker hands. Aces are nicknamed 'bullets' or 'pocket rockets'; pocket Kings are nicknamed 'cowboys'; J-5 is known as 'Jackson Five' or just 'Motown'.
To this day, if you show 10-2, another player around the table is likely to nod wisely and say, 'Ah, the ‘Doyle Brunson hand''.
Who is Doyle Brunson? Poker player profile
- Born in 1933, Doyle Brunson is nicknamed 'Texas Dolly' or 'the Godfather of Poker'
- He is second equal in WSOP bracelets, with 10
- He won back-to-back WSOP Main Events in 1976 and 1977
- Doyle Brunson is the author of several books on poker including Super/System and Super/System 2
Doyle Brunson Poker Room
Read the first blog in our World Series of Poker mini series on how the World Series of Poker was born, and how 'the Grand Old Man of Poker' earned his name.
Doyle Brunson Poker Site
Or come back tomorrow and read abouthow the tournament phrase 'a chip and a chair' was born at the WSOP.
