The legendary Doyle Brunson was born August 10th, 1933 in Longworth Texas. Doyle is considered one of the best known faces in poker, widely credited with bringing the game of No-Limit Hold’em to the mainstream poker community. Doyle Brunson is the first player ever to earn over a million dollars in tournament poker, and was the first player to ever win the World Series Of Poker Main Event in back to back years. Doyle is a member of the coveted Poker Hall Of Fame, an author of several famous poker books, and most recently has created his own online poker site - Doyle’s Room.
Coming from a town of merely 100 people, Doyle was an award winning athelete as a youth. Competing in track and basketball Doyle was in the process of being recruited by the Minnesota Lakers when a knee injury ended the dream.
Most people don’t know but Doyle Brunson is an educated man, holding a master’s degree in administrative education. After graduating college in 1955, he accepted a job as a machine salesman traveling the road. At the end of his first day, he was invited to play a seven card stud home game and won more than he made at his real job in a month in less than three hours! The rest is history as they say because he soon left the life of being a traveling salesman and started traveling the country in search of the best, and biggest poker games.
In the early days of professional poker, games were not only illegal but often run by criminals. Doyle has said that he has been robbed, beaten, and cheated by members of organized crime rings - but he made enough to make the risks worthwhile.
Despite his age, Doyle Brunson continues to play in the biggest poker games in the world, and holds his own against the young guns of internet poker in the biggest tournaments. He is tied with Johnny Chan for second place in all time WSOP bracelet winnings with ten bracelets, winning his most recent bracelet in 2005.
Doyle Brunson has the respect of his fellow poker players, and even has a poker hand named after him. After winning the WSOP Main Event two years in a row with the same hand, the ten and two (any suit) were named as the “Doyle Brunson”.
Doyle Brunson is a family man, married to his wife Louise in 1960 - they eventually had two daughters (Pam and Doyla) and a son Todd. While Todd and Pam both play serious poker, Doyla eventually died from complications of scoliosis at the young age of eighteen.
Doyle Brunson is a highly acclaimed poker author, when his first book “Super System” came out in 1979, he introduced amateur players to his game and feels that it has cost him millions of dollars. Doyle has also written “Super System 2″ and a few other books including “Poker Wisdom Of A Champion”, “Online Poker”, “My 50 Most Memorable Hands” and most recently in 2007 “According to Doyle” Doyle seems to share a passion for writing, where even in his old age he avidly has joined the blogging craze and even participates in some popular poker forums.
Doyle’s current tournament winnings stand at $5,300,000 and he has won the following WSOP bracelets:
1976 $10,000 WSOP Main Event - $230,000
1976 $5,000 Deuce To Seven Draw - $80,250
1977 $10,000 WSOP Main Event - $340,000
1977 $1,000 Seven Card Stud Split - $62,500
1978 $5,000 Seven Card Stud - $68,000
1979 $600 Mixed Doubles - $4,500
1991 $2,500 No Limit Hold’em - $208,000
1998 $1,500 Seven Card Razz - $93,000
2003 $2,000 H.O.R.S.E $84,080
2005 $5,000 No Limit Holde’em (six handed) - $367,000
As you can see by his list of accomplishments, Doyle Brunson is comfortable with every form of poker, and if you care to doubt that you can find him most days in “Bobby’s Room” in the Bellagio playing $4,000 $8,000 Mixed Games with the world’s best poker players.