The Godfather of Poker: The Doyle Brunson Story

About this book

Fascinating true-life adventure of an American treasure a man who bluffed death survived the mean streets of Fort Worth and mob-run Las Vegas and bet millions of dollars on everything from poker to golf to become a two-time world champion poker player. The story of Doyle Brunson an American treasure and the greatest poker player of all time is one for the ages. Its a story of guts and glory of good luck and bad of triumph and unspeakable tragedy of courage and grace. He has survived whippings gun fights stabbings mobsters (the real-life ones portrayed in the movie Casino) murderers and a death sentence when riddled with incurable cancer he was given months to live by doctors who told him his hand was played out. Apparently fate had never played poker with Brunsonhe lived. Of a group of 32 men he played poker with in the tough alleys of Texas just he and one other survived the treacherous perils of that life. A master of the bluff his most outrageous bluff came after being pistol-whipped and told hes going to die with a gunman pointing a pistol at his forehead. Again he lived. Hes gambled for millions of dollarsand with his life against the real-life mobsters and killers made famous in the movie Casinoand was the biggest sports bettor in the world with a reputation of betting enormous sums of money on just about anything. Doyle has not only made more money at golf than anyone else until Tiger Woods came along he once bet one million dollars on a single holethat when he was virtually wheelchair-bound and could barely stand. Hes been hard-up flat broke more times than hes got fingers and has won millions of dollars just as many times. Brunson has seen it all: from the athletic dreams and a leg shattered by a freak injury which waylaid his path to the NBA (he was drafted by the Lakers) to the devastating death of his first-born daughter to outrageous exploits like trying to discover Noahs Ark and raise the Titanic. Doyles rollercoaster of a life defines the saying: Truth is stranger than fiction. Twice a winner of the prestigious World Series of Poker in Las Vegas hes won millions and lost millionssometimes in secondsbut decidedly more of the former than the latter. Brunson can still be found playing in the highest stakes poker games in the world often with as much as one million dollars in front of him. To every one of the 250 million people worldwide who play poker each year Doyle Brunson is the legendary Babe Ruth of Pokerthe greatest gambler and poker player who has ever lived.