On November 11th, “The Godfather of Poker” will hit bookstores and online retailers. The autobiography of “Texas Dolly” himself, Doyle Brunson, includes 372 pages of indelible tales and never-before-seen images of poker’s marquee ambassador. Poker News Daily reviews an advanced copy.
The publication officially runs $26.95 in the United States and $34.99 in Canada. It opens with a bang, literally, as Brunson recalls a fateful day, April 19th, 1998. He began, “When a man points a gun at your head, you’ve got to take stock of things quickly.” The day after winning his eighth World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet, Brunson returned home to his gated Las Vegas community only to be robbed by two men at gunpoint on his doorstep. The attackers flung Brunson inside his house, where he yelled, “I’m having a heart attack!”
The alarm went off, causing its company to call in order to ensure that all was normal. He explained, “I mumbled some false numbers because I knew the alarm was probably my best chance, if not my only chance, to summon help.” His wife Louise was also at home and came downstairs into the fray, telling the security company under duress, “This is Mrs. Brunson, everything is all right.” The end of “Book 1” leaves readers in suspense, with Brunson admitting, “I knew Louise and I could die at any moment.”
Brunson’s father was a poker player, making the game the family pastime. However, his elder never spoke of it to his family. Brunson explained, “Dad had played poker for years and years and helped support us with his winnings, but never talked about it.” Brunson’s college, Hardin-Simmons University, also frowned upon his extracurricular activity: “Hardin-Simmons disapproved of my poker playing, and I eventually wound up in front of the disciplinary board five times for gambling.”
Brunson was destined for the NBA’s Minneapolis Lakers before a freak accident derailed the dream. Consequently, he entered the world of poker, then a backroom game with ties to organized crime and Wild West. Brunson recalls countless transgressions, including, “Another night I saw a man get stabbed in a bar [and] one day I saw what looked like an ‘OK Corral’ shootout on Exchange Avenue. All the shooters were behind cars and firing away, and I saw two of them gunned down. Both died, and both were friends of mine.”
In 1958, Brunson became exposed to Hold’em. He noted, “Hold’em was a fun poker variation, and it moved faster than most games. That’s why it eventually became so popular. I know I enjoyed it right away.” The same year, when he was just 25 years-old, he lost his father, brother, grandmother, and two aunts. He lamented, “It was a tragic merry-go-round that year, going back and forth to Longworth and all the family funerals.” When family members would ask young Brunson what his profession was, his answer was working for Convair, an aircraft manufacturer in Dallas.
In 1962, Brunson was told that he was on the verge of death due to melanoma. He recalled, “Melanoma cancer had spread through my body like wildfire… They said it was too widespread to even consider further surgery.” The cancer had emanated from a mole that Brunson had removed one year prior and he learned that “there was no chance I would live to see our baby born.” Brunson underwent a 15-hour “radical head and neck surgery” and, soon after, the cancer had miraculously disappeared. However, Brunson was warned that the disease could strike at any moment in the future.
Ten years later, Brunson entered the festivities at the 1972 WSOP. However, with media and television cameras roving the event, Brunson questioned whether winning would be the optimal strategy: “I was afraid of the publicity that winning this event would bring, and the terrible shame it would bring to my family.” Many interviews with Brunson in the present day reveal how surprised “Texas Dolly” is that poker has become a legitimate sport and profession; from reading “The Godfather of Poker,” you can easily grasp why.
Jimmy “The Greek” Snyder coined the term “Texas Dolly” when Brunson refused to allow him to use his last name. Instead, he was referred to as “Texas Doyle,” which later became “Texas Dolly.” The new nickname appeared in an Associated Press article and the rest is history. Besides the two-word nickname, Brunson is also immortalized in the starting hand 10-2. He candidly admitted, “I didn’t particularly like the ten-deuce being immortalized in my name because it isn’t a quality hand.”
“The Godfather of Poker” includes a foreword by Mike Cochran and its cover features endorsements from Bluff Magazine, Nolan Dalla, Mike Sexton, Mike Caro, and Allyn Jaffrey Shulman. Look for “The Godfather of Poker” on November 11th.
