Doyle F. Brunson was born in Longworth, Texas on August 10, 1933. He won back-to-back World Series of Poker Main Event Championships in 1976 and 1977 and released his “Poker Bible” Super System at the same time in the late 1970’s. Since then he has won another eight WSOP championship bracelets, been inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame, and authored several new books on poker.
Early Life
Doyle grew up in a large family under trying conditions.
The tiny town of Longworth had less than 100 citizens and the local school was more than a mile’s walk, but he and his siblings were loved and kept warm in the winter. When he reached high school Doyle took to running that mile distance and was soon a member of the track team. In 1950 he entered and won the Texas Interscholastic Track Meet’s one-mile event. His winning time was 4:43.
He was also a member of the All-State Texas basketball team and his play drew attention from several colleges. After graduation, Brunson chose Hardin-Simmons University in nearby Abilene, played basketball, and was scouted by the Minneapolis Lakers. Unfortunately, a summer job at a local gypsum plant left him with a badly broken leg after a load of sheet-rock shifted and crushed his side. Brunson spent two years in a full-leg cast and earned his bachelor’s degree in 1954. His leg never healed well enough for him to continue playing basketball and he followed with a master’s degree in administrative education the following year.
When he wasn’t immediately offered a high-paying job in the education field he went to work for a business machine company, but he often found himself playing poker in the evening. After a month of business meetings, Brunson found that his income playing poker far outweighed his income from his real job, so he changed careers.
A Poker Career
Starting with small, illegal games on Exchange Street in the tough town of Fort Worth, Brunson honed his skills playing mostly 7-stud games with friend Dwayne Hamilton. They built their bankrolls, dodged the law, were robbed more than once, and took to driving the back roads of Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana in search of better games.
Games were found in rich oil towns and cow towns too, where ranchers had more money than most city businessmen. The games were good, and so were some of the other traveling players like Brian “Sailor” Roberts, Johnny Moss, and “Amarillo Slim” Preston.
Roberts, Preston, and Brunson eventually put their bankrolls together and started booking football games as well as playing poker. When the US government instituted the “Wire Act” and began cracking down on illegal bookies, the sports betting partnership broke up, but they remained friends.
By that time, Roberts preferred football, Preston was a pool hustler, and Brunson was interested in a young lady named Louise. He says he worked harder for their first date than anything he had ever done. They were married in 1962 and had four children.
Brunson also says that he and his poker partners took their bankroll of nearly six-figures to Las Vegas in the early ‘60’s, but they went home busted, and Doyle took to playing Bridge to grind-out a few dollars when he got home.
Shortly after getting married, Brunson was diagnosed with cancer and the prognosis was not good. His doctor did not expect him to live, and family and friends visited from all over the South-west. Despite the bad odds, Brunson had a rough but successful recovery, with Louise organizing prayer meetings and “Sailor” helping to nurse him back to health. Afterward, when he had the strength to play a little poker, Brunson says everything fell into place.
According to Doyle, he had over 50 consecutive winning sessions at poker and paid his considerable medical bills off and had plenty to live on for the foreseeable future, which included moving to Las Vegas in 1970. His years of traveling the road in search of games were over, but there was something new on the horizon: tournament poker.
The World Series of Poker
Las Vegas agreed with Doyle Brunson. He perfected his golf game, had successes at poker, and started investing in businesses. The World Series of Poker was new to the world in 1971, but it certainly attracted the best poker players in the country. At the start, they all seemed to be Texas poker circuit players, as Johnny Moss, “Amarillo Slim” Preston, “Puggy” Pearson, and “Sailor” Roberts won the early championships.
Doyle’s chance came in 1976 when he won the $10,000 buy-in Texas Hold’em event and then repeated in 1977. At the height of that experience, Brunson released his book Super System, which let the world know just how he and other successful players approached the game. The book is still a treasured addition to many players’ collections.
The main event at the WSOP has been a spotlight for Brunson as he was the runner-up to Stu Ungar in 1980, finished fourth in 1982, third in 1983, 16th in 1997, and 53rd in 2004. His WSOP tournament play has garnered ten championship bracelets.
Brunson finished fourth in the WPT's first championship event and was the first of just five players to win both the WSOP Main Event and a World Poker Tour title. His total winnings from 34 cashes at the WSOP total nearly $3 million and his total live tournament cashes are now over $6 million.
He continues to play occasionally at the Bellagio’s poker room, often in the $4,000/$8,000 limit mixed game, but still prefers no-limit Texas Hold’em, which he considers the Cadillac of poker. His nickname, “Texas Dolly,” was popular for two-decades, but these days most everybody calls him Doyle, or simply Mr. Brunson.
Brunson recently revealed via Twitter that he has been diagnosed with Squamous cell carcinoma, a rather slow-growth from of skin cancer. He said that the prognoses is good, but “It’s still something you’d rather not hear.”
At this time he is doing well, still playing tournaments and cash games at the age of 79.