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Steve Rosenbloom Chicago Tribune reprinted in the March 7, 2005 Edmonton Journal
You have to be something special to have a poker hand named after you, and Doyal Brunson is something special, believe me.
He is a legend. Heck, he might be THE legend.
The former road gambler from a small Texas town has been playing poker for more than 50 years and has won millions. In fact,he was the first member of the World Series of Poker millionaire club, having won a record-tying nine gold bracelets and back to-back world championships in 1976 and '77.
And it was the final hand in each of those back-to-back wins that earned 10-deuce the nickname "Doyle Brunson" because he won both times with those hole cards.
What is instructive about the way Brunson won his first main event with a 10-2 is that the legend seized upon his belief that poker is more about playing people than playing cards.
"I had just beaten Jesse Alto out of big pot, and I knew he was notorious for being a steamer and a bluffing his monet off after he lost a pot," Brunson said. "So, I thought if I could make anything, I was going to try to break him."
With about a 2-1 chip lead, Brunson was on the button with his 10-2. Alto held a A-J offsuit. the flop came A-J_10, giving Brunson a pair of 10's, but Alto flopped top pair and bet out.
"Because I thought he might be steaming," Brunson said, "I called it."
The turn came a deuce, giving Brunson two pair, but he was still trailing. No matter, Brunson moved all in, and Alto called.
A 10 came on the river, giving Brunson 10's full of deuces and his first championship bracelet.
Brunson would go on to win the same event the next year, beating Bones Berland by starting with 10-2 and finishing with 10s full.
In 1978, Brunson came out with the seminal book Super/System, where he laid out his strategy for playing no-limit hold'em and convinced other elite players to detail their expertise in other brands of poker. twenty-six years later, the book is still considered the poker bible. Or at least the first testament, because his Super/System 2 just hit book stores last month.
Now 71, Brunson still plays the kind of power poker he espouses in his books and still wins, as evidenced by his capturing-fittingly-the Legends of Poker event in Los Angeles last year.
"You have to have that competitive spirit," Brunson said, "I don't know what it is. I can't define it. It's and innate ability in you that surfaces in times of stress and hard situations, and that's the difference."
TABLE TALK
A steamer: A player who follows tough beats by betting out big in the next hand; more commonly know as being on tilt.
