Doyle Brunson

“We don’t stop playing because we get old, we get old because we stop playing.”

Accomplishments:

• 10-time WSOP gold bracelet winner
• Two-time back-to-back WSOP Main Event winner
• World-famous cash game player at Bobby’s Room
• Also christened ‘Texas Dolly’ along with ten-deuce
• Former college basketball star

Biography

Doyle Brunson is the only poker player who is known merely by the shape of his silhouette. The image of ‘Texas Dolly’ in his cowboy hat is one that is ingrained with poker itself. Passing away aged 89 in 2022, ‘The Godfather of Poker’ was a Poker Hall of Famer, a back-to-back world champion and the first major author of a poker strategy book with Super System 1 & 2.

As a young man, the gifted athlete and Texas-born Doyle Brunson was on target to fulfil his dream of playing in the NBA. A college basketball star, the Minneapolis Lakers were interested in signing him. Tragedy lay in front of Brunson, however, when he broke his leg and the knee injury ruled out a professional sports career. Pivoting to his hobby of playing five card draw, Brunson began playing illegal ‘road games’ meeting other legends in their poker infancy, Amarillo Slim and Johnny Moss.

In 1970, Doyle was part of a six-strong group of men who essentially created the World Series of Poker, as cash games initially decided who was the best player in the world. This changed to tournaments, with a Main Event in No Limit Hold’em, which Brunson won in 1976. Claiming victory the following year with exactly the same final hand, ten-deuce, the hand became known as the ‘Texas Dolly’.

Over the following half a century, Brunson has changed the face of the game from one played by cowboys to one that has been played by an estimated 6% of the world’s population – and that number is growing. Winning titles on the World Poker Tour, crushing the upper limits of cash games in Bobby’s Room and winning 10 WSOP bracelets, ‘Texas Dolly’ is a member of the Poker Hall of Fame.

Doyle Brunson’s WSOP Bracelet Wins

Post-COVID, Brunson’s return to the World Series of Poker felt was as much of a surprise as it was a delight for poker fans, following his noted retirement at the end of the previous decade. Sadly for Doyle fans, that return was not for long. Just a fortnight before the start of the 2023 WSOP in Las Vegas, the Godfather of Poker passed away peacefully at home surrounded by family.

Before he left, he scheduled one last message for the poker world, which was posted posthumously on his social media account:

Just cashed in my chips but before I walk out that door one last time, I just wanted to tell you all how much I loved this poker world. I didn’t want to go yet, was actually planning to play some events this summer….

— Doyle Brunson Legacy (@TexDolly) May 19, 2023

Doyle Brunson in Action