Celebrating 25 Great Years: Gambling911 Looks Back at Doyle Brunson
Long time readers will know that the late great Doyle Brunson was among the most celebrated features on the pages of Gambling911.com throughout a good portion of our nearly 25 years online. Doyle was often in on the gag. Today we take a trip back in time to look back at some of the more memorable moments involving Doyle Brunson, who passed away in 2023 at the age of 89. Be sure to visit our new Gambling Directory page to find the stories you love dating back to the year 2000 (this project will be in development through 2024 leading up to our 25th anniversary).
Doyle Brunson: Do You Think I'm Sexy?
Our intrepid reporter Jenny Woo, now working at an interfaith ministry, really was fond of Doyle and indeed found him one of the sexiest men in poker.
"It's not all about cheekbones," Ms. Woo said at the time, referencing every woman's dream (and a bunch of men we suppose) back in 2010, Patrik Antonios.
For Woo, Doyle represented the real man's man.
"Age is just a number. Just ask most women a few years back when Sean Connery was still active in films deep into his 60's. He typically ranked among the top three sexiest men alongside the likes of Michael Jordan and Brad Pitt. I find Doyle extremely sexy even as he approaches 80. He may laugh but it's true and I'm not alone."
The year prior, she ranked Doyle her "Sexiest Man Alive in Poker".
Ms. Woo at the time was mesmerized by Doyle's ability to lead the way with a new social media platform called Twitter. He had one of the biggest followings on the brand new platform we now sort of know as X (many still call it Twitter).
"Doyle's only getting hotter now that he's discovered a new technology known as Twitter. Some would say he's becoming more dangerous too. Thankfully, he admits to being a "dinosaur" when it comes to stuff like Twitter, otherwise I think he'd become a complete freak online."
Doyle Once Told Daniel Negreanu 'You Need to Change Your Meds'
Doyle Brunson and Daniel Negreanu formed teams to bet on at the 2010 World Series of Poker. Brunson, however, was conspicuously absent from his team as he explained....
"I actually think Daniel, you need to change medications because I think you have lost it when it comes to these bets. But you certainly have your six world beaters I've never heard of against my three great old timers. But again, my old pal Titanic Thompson used to tell me that difference in opinion is what makes good gambling. Would your bunch be interested in coming by Bobby's Room and give us some lessons afterwards? They have to leave their poker tracking, HUDs, etc at home though.
"No, I wouldn't bet on Dewey Tomko in golf against someone I didn't know. It shouldn't be too hard to figure out that I know there are plenty of golfers that can beat Dewey that I don't know. However, I don't believe there are very many players better than three proven world champions. Our bets are won on the amount of money cashed in the main event. Win or lose, I'll be glad to be on my team any place, any time. It will be fun, we will work out how much we are betting."
Eagles Imposter, Pam Anderson, Kid Rock, Brad Garrett All Attended Doyle's Roast....As Did Gambling911
Pam Anderson at the time was starting her own online poker room partnering up with Doyles Room (now ACR Poker). The hilarious Brad Garrett hosted Doyle's roast with Pam and her then boyfriend, Kid Rock, in attendance.
After Brad joked that Pam needed to get out from under all the tables engaging in activities we can't repeat on this family friendly site, Kid Rock angrily whisked her out of there and the two would go on to get married in Vegas that night.
Garrett later discussed the roast and his poking fun at Pam in an interview with the Las Vegas Sun.
"What happened was: I'm a poker player. I love to play poker. I'm not a good one; the problem is if I have a good hand I become incontinent. It's a very bad tell. So I'm not a great poker player.
"Doyle Brunson asked me to do a roast for him and his poker buddies at the hotel for his 80th birthday last year. It was a roast. I've done quite a few of them. Pam Anderson was supposed to be on the dais. She showed up with nine guys. It was her bachelor party that night. It was a bachelorette party and she was with nine guys. If you're going to go out, that's the way to go out."
Meanwhile, at our table we had who we thought was Eagles band member Randy Meisner. It was not. It was his long time impostor.
Doyle Was Ahead of His Time and Called it Like it is
Brunson showed little respect for all those self-entitled young poker players who thought they were all the s*** and are now pretty much long forgotten, unlike Doyle, who will be remembered for all eternity.
"I guess I never really understood that people regard me as one of the ancient and old-time players. Really! I don't do a lot of time studying spreadsheets and trying to figure out my opponents patterns, etc. That stuff may work online against players you are unfamiliar with but I still believe poker is a 'people game'.
"All the top poker players develop what we call mini-tells on every we play with. How? By the way a newcomer handles his chips, his table talk, plus physical tells that almost everyone has. The older pros are aware of this and try to change several times in each session how they bet, etc.
"I sit back and wait for the young guys to make mistakes. And they always do. Call me crazy, but I only see 5 or 6 players that I can think are fundamentally sound. You can get away with it sometimes but if you don't observe some simple fundamentals, they are going to bite you in the ass. There must really be a big difference in the online play because most of the youngsters from the Internet don't have a clue."
- Nagesh Rath, Gambling911.com
