Doyle Brunson

Born in 1933, Doyle Brunson has been a professional poker player for over 50 years. He has ten bracelets from World Series of Poker (WSOP), including one from 1976 Main Event and another from 1977 Main Event. The only poker player with more WSOP-bracelets than Brunson is Phil Hellmuth who holds eleven. Johnny Chan has the same amount of bracelets as Brunson. In addition to playing poker, Brunson has wrote several books on the subject.

Background

Brunson was born in Longworth, a small town in Texas with a population of about 100 residents. Brunson was a promising athlete and played in the All-State Texas basketball team. He was also fond of running and did for instance win the one-mile event at the 1950 Texas Interscholastic Track Meet with a time of 4:43.

While in college, Brunson took a summer job that involved unloading sheetrock. When the ton of weight shifted as Brunson was unloading it, he instinctively tried to stop it with his body and it fell on his leg. The leg was broken in two places and he had to remain in cast to two years. Prior to the accident, the Minneapolis Lakers had been interested in Brunson but now his dreams of becoming a professional basketball player was effectively over.

Brunson decided to focus on his college studies instead and obtained a bachelor's degree in 1954 followed by a master's degree in administrative education in 1955.

Playing poker

Even before his injury, Brunson had been playing five-card draw and found it to be an easy game for him. After being injured he started playing more frequently and used his winnings to pay for his expenses. After graduating from college, he accepted a position as a business machines salesman and during his very first day at work he was invited to play seven-card stud. In less than three hours, Brunson had won more than a month's salary. Eventually, Brunson left the company and started playing full time.

Brunson started his poker career by attending illegal games held at Exchange Street in Fort Worth, Texas. Soon he started traveling throughout Texas and in the neighboring states of Oklahoma and Louisiana to find bigger games to play in.

Brunson teamed up with Amarillo Slim and Sailor Roberts and started traveling with them. They pooled their money and gambled on poker, golf, etc. After six years, they went to Las Vegas and lost a six figure amount – their entire savings. After that they stopped playing together but remained close friends.

Despite the harsh welcome, Brunson eventually ended up living in Las Vegas.

World Series of Poker bracelets