DOYLISM OF THE DAY: “It’s choice, not chance, that determines our destiny.”

The most I had ever paid for a hamburger was $10, which I thought was foolish.  Yesterday, I went to Red Rock Casino to go to a movie with my pal Jack Binion.  We stopped in a gourmet hamburger place in the Red Rock and got a $14.75 burger.  It was a big restaurant but almost completely empty.  The way the economy is right now, this is going to be tough for them to survive.  The first thing people cut out is going out for lunch and dinner.  I personally would rather have a whopper from Burger King, anyway.

The election is finally over and I’m glad.  Martin Luther King said that someday, men would be judged by the content of their character, not by the color of their skin.  Looks like that day has come; with Obama being our first African-American president.  I voted for McCain because of some personal beliefs, but now that America has spoken, Obama is my president and I’ll support him in any way that I can.  I can only hope he will be able to turn our country around.  President Obama is one of the best speakers I’ve ever heard.

I get asked a lot where I get the Doylisms I use to start my blog.  A few of them are from me, but most of them are from things that I have read.  They come from all walks of life and from different folks.  I read a lot when I have time and I’ve taken the thoughts of a lot of authors, all the way from Will Rogers to Winston Churchill.  There is a lot of wisdom in books if we take the time to find it.

I didn’t go to Foxwoods for their WPT tournament.  Besides the fact I’m trying to stop traveling so much, my plate is so full now I don’t have any time.  I have to do a book signing at the Rio that I committed to and also have to appear in their “pro pit”.  The Hall of Fame induction is Sunday and I have to make the introduction speech for my pal Dewey Tomko.  I also have to do two shows for the Real Deal because most of their pros are out of town.  I’m also addressing some issues with Microgaming, DoylesRoom’s software provider.  Everything will work out, but it takes time and effort.

Daniel:  What do I do wrong?

Caddie: Sir, you spend so much time in bunkers, you get mail addressed to Hitler!

-DB

DOYLISM OF THE DAY: “If I had observed all the rules, I would never have gotten anywhere.”

I’ve been swimming all my life. As a kid growing up in Longworth, Texas, me and my two best friends ran to a dirt tank about seven miles from where we lived. We would run there and back and over to our small ranch to ride calves and horses. No wonder I turned out to be the State champion in the mile run. When I went off to college, I was a lifeguard in the summer so it is great to now have a heated pool in my back yard and I try to swim every day. It seems as though I do my best thinking when I am in the pool. So, here are some of my thoughts from my morning swim.

I started reflecting on how much effort I am going to put into the WSOP this year. I played in the first event yesterday, the $10,000 buy in Pot Limit Hold’em. I played really good until the hand I was eliminated on which I’ll discuss later. If you try to play in every tournament that is available it is really physically tiring. I am blessed to still have pretty good endurance left, but lets face it…I’ll turn 75 this summer so I have to face the fact that I am not a kid and I need to start pacing myself. As much as I would love to win my eleventh bracelet this year, I’ve got a lot going on so I don’t want to wear myself out playing too many tournaments so I am going to be selective about which ones I play. I feel good, so I might knock off a bracelet anyway.

I don’t like to put too much about poker hands and strategy in my Blog, but I wonder sometimes if my tournament strategy is correct. I read and hear these professional tournament players talk about playing ‘small ball’ pots. That just isn’t and never has been my style. I like to gamble and play big pots. I feel it gives the best player a better chance to win as opposed to just trying to chip away in small pots.

The blinds were 250-500 and I was first to act. I picked up A Clubs, K Clubs and raised to $1800. I got three callers because everybody always wants to beat me, which can be a two-edged sword. Lyle Berman, who I’ve played countless hours with in cash games called and raised $7800 more. I had $48,000 which was more than average chips. I have a mini-tell on Lyle and I was almost sure he had a pair smaller than aces or kings. I tried to play conservatively and only called. If I had raised I probably would have won there, but Lyle likes to gamble and may have called if he had a pair bigger than 10s. The flop came Jd, 7c, 2c and Lyle bet $17,000. Now I have to move all my chips in, and Lyle turned over three jacks. No clubs came and I was out. When I asked Eric Seidel what he would have done he said he probably would have thrown his hand away when Lyle raised. Another top pro said he would have re-raised before the flop. Take me back to the cash games and I can feel what is the right thing to do!

I’ll bet I didn’t know more than 20% of the players in the tournament. There are more and more youngsters coming in to the WSOP. I’m used to being the oldest player at the table but I felt absolutely ancient when I saw my opponents. Lyle was the only player I really knew even if some of the faces looked familiar. Listening to the table talk I correctly assumed these kids were on the tournament circuit when they talked about going to foreign countries to enter tournaments.
Sure enough, they all played very well and it’s going to be tough to win a bracelet but all you can do is try. I’ve got today off and I’ll try to decide what’s next. Please bring back the cash games.

Team Brunson didn’t fare too well. Shannon Elizabeth got Aces beat back to back and was the first player out. Todd, Hoyt, Dewey, Mike Wattel, and I were all eliminated on the first day.

My nephew, Ken, has a cap on it that says Chicken Ranch. As I recall, that’s a house of ill repute somewhere around Pahrump. I told him it wasn’t a good idea to wear something like that and he told me I should see the T-shirt he bought his nephew. It says, “Freshly Laid At The Chicken Ranch”. I’d like to be a fly on the wall when his mother sees that! – DB

DOYLISM OF THE DAY: “When you retire there is only one great event left in your life and I’m not ready for that yet!”

I visited 2+2 again and read some of the posts in the gossip section. There is a lot of good stuff but it is very time consuming so I won’t be a regular reader. I couldn’t help but notice the speculation about me and how long I am expected to live. It seems 85 was the under-over betting range. I’m willing to bet a lot of money I live longer than that if anybody really wants to bet on it. On second thought, I better not bet too much or my opponent might send Tony Soprano after me

The Western Channel on DSS is doing a twenty-four hour ‘Maverick celebration’ based on the TV series about the life and times of a poker playing family with the last name Maverick. The main characters were James Garner as Bret Maverick, Jack Kelley as Bart Maverick, and Roger Moore as Beau Maverick. This series was parallel with my own poker playing as it started in 1956 – my first year as a Pro. It was the first production that showed poker as a respectable profession because most folks looked at professional poker players as second class citizens. I did a lengthy interview about my remembrances of Maverick and the Starz Network is going to use it in promos and between episodes. They also interviewed Hoyt Corkins, Dewey Tomko, Todd Brunson, and Mike Caro along with a few others. I loved watching Maverick and I had no trouble talking about it.

I went to the golf course today and I tried to hit a few practice balls. After hitting thirty shots I had to quit because I was already getting sore. My golf career may be over unless I get my leg fixed soon. Mike Sexton and Dewey Tomko were there but I couldn’t make any games because I’m so bad.

It’s time for the WSOP and I can’t wait to see the changes they made in the tournament. I read Daniel’s blog and it sounds like the changes they have made are really good. For someone who says he is a vegan, Daniel was talking about some pretty unhealthy food that is at the WSOP. Pizza, Krispy Kreme, and candy close to the playing area sound tempting.

There are still no games in Bobby’s Room at the Bellagio. Internet poker has ruined the high limit games. The only time these players leave the internet is when someone they perceive to be a fish shows up. Then there is a mad dash to get a seat. I feel there should be a new set of rules that favors the everyday players over the internet players. -DB

DOYLISM OF THE DAY: “It often takes more courage to change your opinion than to stick to it.”

I haven’t read or posted on any forums for several years but when my daughter Pam told me about some of the posts on 2 plus 2, I went to read some of them. It is interesting to read the difference in peoples’ perspective about things.

One of the threads was about my blog and whether I used a ghost writer or not. I write every word and send it to BJ and Trish at DoylesRoom and they send it out to different publications. I started writing this blog as a lark, but after it became the most read thing from DoylesRoom, I decided to keep going. Unless it is some special hand, I don’t put a lot of poker strategy in it because there are so many books and articles about how to play specific hands.

Another thread was about players that treat dealers badly. The list included some prominent players and told about the dealers’ dislike of them. I’ll write a blog soon about the players I’ve played with that gave the dealers a hard time. I sure hope I don’t make any dealers hate list because I never blame them for any bad luck I might have. If I see a mistake, I might say something but never in an abusive manner. One particular lady dealer at the Bellagio named Penny has dealt me out of millions of dollars. I try my best not to be superstitious but I can’t win a pot when she deals. I’ve been a little mean with her but I hope it was in a good natured way.

I went up on Brunson Mountain today with my grandson, driving these 4 wheelers called Rhinos. Those things will go anywhere and you can’t get them stuck. We went up and down some of the steepest hills you can imagine but finally came to one that went straight down. My grandson drove down it and called me a chicken when I refused to try it. I told him the chance of me driving down that hill was the same as Britney Spears being voted mother of the year.

It’s pretty country on that mountain with the streams and wildlife, but I’m not sure that I would like retiring there as I promised if Patrik beat me playing “Doyle Sez.” Oh well, I don’t feel like I’m in too much danger because I don’t believe he can beat me. Anyway, I’m still willing and waiting to play.

Someone sent me a longevity test to see how long your life expectancy is. If you reach my age you figure to live until you are 84. After factoring in the answers to the 26 questions about your health, habits and genetics on the test, my life expectancy is 87.4. Good thing us poker players don’t have things like stress and money problems huh? Anyway, I’ve lived 27,310 days and have only 4500 more days left. I’ve got a few guys I want to beat before I go to that big game in the sky, so I had better get busy.

In two days I’m heading home to Vegas. As excited as I was to get here, I’m equally excited about going home. All the towns around here roll up the streets at about 9 o’clock and there is nothing to do except watch TV and sleep. Once you live in Vegas, it’s hard to live anywhere else.
What can I say, I’m just a junkie, I not only like the poker action, I need it. I remember now why I left the country! – DB

DOYLISM OF THE DAY: “Ability may take you to the top but it takes character to keep you there.”

It is amazing how things can be taken out of context. I saw in Cardplayer Magazine where Patrik Antonius said that someone told him Doyle Brunson said he would swim a river to play Patrik. I don’t remember exactly. I could have said I would swim a river to play the internet stars in a real cash game. I certainly never used Patrik’s name but he made a challenge to play me any game for any amount. I’ll get to that in a moment.

I feel that there are only a few of today’s players who could have competed on the old ‘Texas Circuit’ cash games. There was a very tough nucleus of pros that kept the games going. It’s funny; Patrik is one of the players I would have named that would have fit in with the old days. He has the style, love of poker, instinct, and the gambling mentality that it takes to compete in high stakes games. So I would never have singled him out to play.

Patrik said he has asked me to play in Bobby’s Room which may be true. If he did, I’m sure I did say no because I don’t like to play anyone heads up, particularly a tough player. Pug Pearson used to always say, “If you are so good, why don’t you and me play two handed?” I never played him because, as I told him, what difference does it make, our games aren’t heads up games? I think I can play two handed very well but it doesn’t make sense to me when you can get softer players in a full game.

I really like Patrik and I think he is a great player, but he cast the gauntlet and I’m prepared to do battle. So, I accept his challenge.

I think he made a mistake when he said, “I’ll play him any game for any amount.” I’ve got 7-10 different games, all of which I’ve played in Las Vegas casinos for high stakes, that I’m willing to commit to for at least a seven figure match. There will be no animosity between us; we are both pros who love a good gamble. It will be interesting if he accepts and I’m sure we will both have a great time playing.

It is only two more days and I’m off to Dublin for the Irish Open. I played in that great city some 20-25 years ago. It might have been the first Irish Open. That was where Todd picked up his name, “The Dark Horse”, from the Irish Press; come to think of it. Todd was eighteen years old so it was nineteen years ago. Todd and Louise are going with me again this time. I remember the great homemade soups and brown bread being served in all the restaurants. I’ll be gone for almost two weeks and I’ll try to update my blog from Ireland – DB

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