DOYLISM OF THE DAY: “Man is a creature made at the end of a week’s work when God was tired.”

Congratulations to Joe Cada for winning the WSOP final table. Joe is the youngest player to win and I met him at the party in the ESPN Zone. He seemed to be a very likable 21 year old and I believe he will do his best to promote poker. I hear the new poker term is when you lose with AK vs. AQ will be you got “moon’ed”. Of course they will be referencing the hand Darvin Moon knocked Phil Ivey out with.

“Go die under a deck of cards” is what Joan Rivers told me to do. Unknowingly, a Miami radio station scheduled Joan and myself for interviews the same day. One of the announcers on the show had read my blog where I said f someone gave Joan Rivers a penny for her intelligence, she would have to give a refund. I was trashing Mrs. Rivers for her comments about poker players on the TV show, “The Apprentice”. Joan was mad at Annie Duke, who was winning the game hands down, but included the entire poker world, calling us “trash, gangsters and morons”. So until Joan apologizes to all the poker world, I’ll continue to insult her at every opportunity. She also bragged about having an IQ of 135, Annie Duke must have one of 270 because she was twice as smart as Joan on the TV show.

I guess my autobiography hit the bookstores yesterday. I had telephone calls from radio stations across America for interviews but I’m going to curtail those, also.

Things are finally winding down now where I can get some much needed rest. Since I got food poisoning 10 days ago, I’ve been groggy. I play in the HSP this Friday and then it’s clear sailing on my schedule. I’m going for 17 straight wins on TV cash games. I wonder if Friday the 13th is a bad omen? Nah, I don’t believe in that stuff. Still…..

-DB

DOYLISM OF THE DAY: “He who buries his talent is making a grave mistake.”

Well, I thought I would be pulling for Phil Ivey and Jeff Shulman at the WSOP final table. But when Daniel wanted to bet Ivey over Moon, I had to take Moon who has 5 times the chips of Ivey. It is a must-win bet so probably we won’t have action. Sorry Phil, I won’t be rooting for you now. Business is business.

The game is going every night at Bobby’s Room. It’s really great to get up and know there will be somewhere to go. I’ve been breaking almost even every night and I was worrying that I might be playing bad. I try to analyze the hands I play every night before I go to sleep and I couldn’t see that I was doing anything wrong. Finally, I made a nice win last night so maybe there is still some gas in my tank.

I try to slow down, but things just keep piling up on me. I have to do an interview with the Associated Press, meet ESPN for my thoughts on the WSOP final table (what thoughts), go to dinner with the winner of the Vegas Experience from DoylesRoom.com and then the CEO and marketing staff are coming in for all kinds of meetings. The Hall of Fame dinner is also this week and I’m supposed to do the “shuffle up and deal” for the final table, followed by a book signing. My dentist is waiting with some implants that are overdue and my wife tells me that I should move to the Bellagio because I never spend any time with her. Oh well, nobody ever said life was easy.

This Twitter business is getting out of hand. My followers are going up close to 3,000 a day. Don’t know why but with 115,000 following, I’ve starting blocking all the negative and name calling tweeters. I’ve got enough problems without folks taking their frustrations out on me.

I just finished another interview with a national magazine. They asked me what I attributed my success and longevity to. I had never thought about it but I came up with a pretty good answer. I told them I never let self-made limitations happen. I’ve always pushed the envelope in everything I do. Actually, that’s pretty profound, I surprise myself sometimes!

-DB

DOYLISM OF THE DAY: “May the work that you have be the play that you love.”

There is finally some poker action in Bobby’s Room at the Bellagio.  We have lowered the stakes and more players are coming in. It’s really dumb to play so high no one except the ultra rich guys can play. I was completely exhausted when I got through traveling but after playing poker for 4 straight days, I feel great again. It is really amazing how playing helps me. I guess I’m a junkie after all these years.

DoylesRoom.com is putting on a “Twitter Followers Freeroll”  because I’ve got over 100,000 followers on Twitter. The winner gets a weekend in Vegas, dinner with me and partying with the young DoylesRoom pros. I guess they decided I couldn’t handle the partying and they may be right. The tournament is on this Sunday at 6pm Eastern time. I’ll tweet the password at 4pm Eastern the same day because our tournaments hold a few thousand players at a time. You have to have an account at DoylesRoom along with the password to play.

Cardoza publishing has already ordered the second printing of my autobiography because of the unexpected number of advance sells. It is going to hit the bookstores Nov. 10th and I’ve still got mixed feelings about writing this book.

I appreciate all the tweets, emails and phone calls expressing concerns over my toy poodle Casper. Casper jumped off a desk and knocked both his hips out of socket and Louise has to carry him everywhere because he can’t walk.  I should say couldn’t walk because he is able to walk on level ground now, he just can’t jump or put any weight on his back legs. Casper is tough and I expect him to last a lot longer as he is only 13 years old.

I’m back in retirement on pro football. I bet on Minn +6 points when Pitt made 2 defensive touchdowns in the last 5 minutes to beat me. I had Miami +6 against N.O. Saints and was ahead 24-3 at the half and lost. Then, I had Houston -3 and was ahead 21-0 at the half and managed to tie that one 24-21. I’m sure I’m going to get lots of sympathy, all poker players are unlucky when betting on sports.

-DB

DOYLISM OF THE DAY: “Arguments are a poor chisel to carve out solutions.”

After a week long trip to Texas for my induction in the Athletic Hall of Fame at my alma mater, Hardin Simmons University, I’m back home and it’s going to take a nuclear bomb to get me out of Vegas until next year. I had a great time visiting with old classmates, some of whom I hadn’t seen in over 50 yeas. There were about 15 of my ex-teammates who attended and I was on my best behavior and never mentioned the many times the school had rejected me because of my profession. But I understand and would like to let bygones be bygones.

The most notable thing about Texas is that the recession hasn’t affected it very much. The farms are white with a good cotton crop, the oil wells are pumping and the biggest saviour of all are the wind farms. The wind towers are amazing with each one generating enough electricity for 35-40 homes. There are thousands of the giant generators as far as you can see as you drive along the interstate highways. It makes you wonder why these wind farms aren’t all across the USA. It only takes a 6 mile per hour wind to turn them. If we had enough of them, we would be out of the bondage the Middle East has us in.

I went out to the little town of Longworth where I grew up. It is almost a ghost town with maybe 10 families living there. The old Brunson house is long gone but there is a trailer parked on the lot and the man living there invited us in to look around. Some of the things are still there, the old chicken coops, the barn where we had our cows and an old root cellar I helped dig in 1949. I enjoy going back every decade or so because it makes me realize you can’t go back, you have to go forward with your life.

Congrats to Mike Sexton on being selected for the poker Hall of Fame. It is a well-deserved honor and Harrah’s has some great plans for his induction. The time is getting close for the WSOP Final Table, also. I wish all of the guys good luck but I’m pulling for Ivey and Schulman. I’m sure it will be a lot of fun for everyone.

Avery Cardoza, my publisher, called me today and my autobiography has come in. It will be in the bookstores Nov. 10th and I’ve got mixed feelings about having done this book. Everyone seems to like it so maybe it will be o.k. The author of the book, Mike Cochran, was at the presentation dinner at my University and we had a nice visit. It is absolutely amazing how fast time can go, it seems like yesterday I was in school. I also saw Ann, my college fiance who looks much better than I do. She probably didn’t have as tough a life as me. I certainly hope not!

-DB

DOYLISM OF THE DAY: “Winning is not everything – but making the effort to win is.”

Back from Montana! I’ll never complain about hot weather again. It was 3 degrees on the mountain my grandson lives on, along with 8 inches of snow. That cold cut through me like a knife. We had talked about having the Brunson Christmas at my place on the Flathead Lake but they can scratch that!

There are so many deer in upper Montana that you to be super careful not to hit one while driving. I saw 6 bodies on the side of the road on a 20 mile trip. There is all kind of wildlife. My friend has a large pond stocked with fish. He told me the eagles and osprey take 60-70 fish a day out of it. I had better be careful letting Casper run around outside because one of those big eagles could pick him up and fly away with him. I’ll bet Casper would get one good bite of that eagle if that happened.

I was there for the Todd Brunson Montana Challenge poker tournament. The weather was so bad we had less than 100 players but everyone had a good time. I told Todd to have his next on in the summertime. Of course, my daughter Pam was the “Last Brunson Standing.”

No disrespect intended, but these poker shows are awful. Full Tilt’s “Face the Ace” and Poker Stars “Million Dollar Challenge” are so bad, it’s embarrassing. There is no skill involved in either show and I can’t imagine getting an audience that will watch the shows. As I travel around, the High Stakes cash games are the ones all the fans talk about and I agree with them that they are by far the most interesting. Speaking of that, I read where A.J. Benza is being replaced on GSN’s High Stakes Poker show. That’s too bad, I like A.J.’s subtle sense of humor. Vanessa Rousso is named as his likely replacement. I’m pro-Vanessa so I think she will fit in nicely with the old comic Gabe Kaplan.

The golf-poker tournament in Orlando with David Leadbetter has been postponed because of some complications. I’m glad because along with Mike Caro, Daniel Negreanu, Todd Brunson and Dewey Tomko, I was one of the poker instructors. To tell you the truth, I’m traveled out! I look forward to staying home for a while. Harrah’s has asked me to do a few things in conjunction with the WSOP final table that I’m glad to do, but it would have been a tight fit to be back from Orland in time to do them.

My autobiography is supposed to be out November 10th and I’m doing a book signing right after the final table is completed. I’m having a special edition that I’m going to give to the final  nine. Also, at the book signing, or right afterwards, we are having a press conference to announce the signing of the 5th player to the Brunson 10 at DoylesRoom.com  I’m really pleased at the selection of this young man, as I am with the previous four.

I’ve started reading blogs. Again, I find the blogs about poker hands extremely boring. The same thing with the tweets on Twitter; does anyone really care about the hand by hand update of a poker tournament? If it was a real poker game and someone tweeted they had just won a million dollar pot, it would interest me.  But I guess some folks like the updates, that’s why they make chocolate and vanilla – different tastes.

After saying I want to stay home, I’m leaving in the morning for Abilene, Texas. My University is inducting me into their athletic Hall of Fame. After being turned down for 40 years I have mixed feelings, but all my old teammates will be there, so I’m going down and will be on my best behavior.

-DB

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