DOYLEISM OF THE DAY: “You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it.”

Little did I know when I chased a pop fly in a baseball game over a half a century ago what problems it would cause me. I ran into a steel post and broke two of my front teeth.  The dentistry wasn’t very good in that time, particularly in small towns. The local dentist pulled both teeth, putting in a bridge attached to other teeth. Because of the damage done by that, I’ve had to go through a total mouth reconstruction. That is 25-30 hours in the dentist chair. The good news is, after a few weeks of suffering, all the different procedures make your mouth and teeth as good as new. It’s extremely expensive and it looks like my land-based poker is over until the WSOP. I’m already having withdrawal pains so DoylesRoom will be seeing me online for the next 3 months.

My daughter Pam called my attention to a blog written for Cardplayer by Dusty Schmidt and the comments that were posted. The comments were insane and some of them are downright comical. The one I like best was that I cheated Andy Beal and was threatened by Andy and had to return 16 million dollars. Do people actually hear these kind of stories or do they make them up? Did Andy say he would kill me if I didn’t give him all that money? Do you supposed he would have intimidated me more than Tony Spilotro did when he tried to get me into his cheating schemes? The next time I see Andy, we will have a good laugh about this little gem.

As far as the other negative stuff about the old time cheating, I spent two long years defending myself about that. I don’t intend to go through it again. For the record, I never had any involvement in cheating in poker from any era. This is America, believe me or not, I really don’t care any longer. It does look like there would be some evidence somewhere besides wild stories.

My thanks to Dusty for the nice things he said about me. I didn’t really know everybody thinks these young guys are so much better poker players than me. I do know I’ve survived through several generations of new superstars. Most of them are gone now. Send this new bunch down to Bobby’s Room and let’s find out if they are really so great.

There were also some positive comments and I appreciate them. Texas Road Gambler (I’m pretty sure I know who he is) really makes good points. If I ever go to court, I would like for him to be my attorney, Cardplayer doesn’t allow comments at the bottom of my blog. I wish they would, I can stand some criticism. Seems like it would be fun to read what poker players think.

-DB

DOYLISM OF THE DAY: “An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.”

In the words of Marlon Brando when he was playing the Godfather, “How did we ever come to this?”  Good Googa Mooga, I never saw anything like the different comments about my “challenge” to play anyone the poker game of my choice.  I saw David Sklansky at Bobby’s Room last night and he told me that the games I’m going to list are not fair.

So what, I’m not trying to be fair, I am what I am, and what I am is a poker professional who loves to play and wants to win.  I believe I can win with this list of games to choose from.  I’m not trying to win any accolades, praise or titles, I’m not trying to compete with Durr’s challenge.  I’m not going to play PLO with him and I don’t think he will be playing my games.  I really like the post one guy put up on a forum.  He put a distance race in his games…LOL.  If it was 55 years ago when I was the best miler in Texas, I would try him.

Let’s have a quick review of how this got started. Patrik Antonius said in an interview, that CardPlayer printed, that he would play me any game for any amount.  The reason he said that, was that he had read I said I would swim a river to play with him.  I have always respected Patrik’s game and I didn’t say that, but he challenged me and it peeved me because I’ve played the high limits now for 53 years and I’m almost certain I know more games than him or almost anyone.  I think Patrik was talking about H.O.R.S.E. plus one or two other games.  If that was the case, I would have let it drop because that would be a tough game.  But that’s not what he said so here is my list:

1) I’ll start with lowball, my favorite.

Any lowball game I choose can be played with 3 different lows, the best hands being 7-5-4-3-2, A-2-3-4-5, A-2,3,4,6.

• 5 Card Draw, Limit or No Limit.
• 7 Card Razz, Limit or Pot Limit.
• 6 Card Razz, Limit or Pot Limit.
• 7 Card Razz, shuck one & draw if you want.  Limit or Pot Limit.
• 6 Card Razz, same as 7 Card shuck.

2) 5 Card draw High, Limit or Pot Limit.

3) Hi Low split, 7 card no qualify, Limit or Pot Limit.

• Eight or better,  7 cards, Limit or Pot Limit.
• Ten or better, 2-7 low, Limit or Pot Limit.
• Six card eight or better, Limit or Pot Limit.
• Six card ten or better, 2-7 low, Limit or Pot Limit.

4) STUD

• 7 Card stud, Limit or Pot Limit.
• 6 Card stud, Limit or Pot Limit.
• 5 Card stud, NL or Pot Limit.

5) Badugi

3 choices of low, Limit or Pot Limit

6) Omaha 8 or Better Limit or Pot Limit

• Omaha 10 or better 2-7 low, Limit or Pot Limit
• Poppyha.  We played this game with George the Greek for months.  FUN Game.  4 hole cards, only two cards on the flop, then the turn, then the river.  Tricky game!

7) Hold ‘Em, Limit, NL, Or Pot Limit.

• Greek Hold’Em – Must play both hole cards – Limit, NL, or Pot Limit.

OK, there they are.  At Sklansky’s suggestion, I refined the list a little.  I’ve played every game listed, in a Las Vegas Casino for high stakes.  If someone wants to play, come to Bobby’s Room at the Bellagio.  We’ll play, have fun and if someone beats me, I’ll shake their hand and tell them good game!

I also heard I defended Russ Hamilton in the UB scandal.  I remember saying, “yeah Russ is innocent”, on High Stakes Poker, but it was a tongue-in-cheek remark.  I don’t know if he is guilty or not, but the evidence does look bad.  However, I’ve heard all sorts of stories about poker players, including myself, that were out and out lies.  So, I’ll wait until all the evidence is in before I make any positive statement about Russ.

The producer of Two and a Half Men, the popular TV show starring Charlie Sheen, watches High Stakes Poker.  He heard me say I really like his show so he sent me Season 3 and Season 4 on DVD.  Thanks Mr. Lorre. Actually, I already had them so I loaned them to David Benyamine. That’s ironic because the High Stakes announcer, Gabe Kaplan, asked why I was looking at David when I mentioned Two and a Half Men.

-DB

DOYLISM OF THE DAY: “A minute of thought is worth more than an hour of talk.”

Even though the tournaments at the Bellagio are by far the best, it still seems to me that the rewards are greater in the cash games.  I played 25 hours, 3 days, beat 432 players and won less than $10,000.  I realize that coming in #66 gave me a great shot at winning the 1.5 million first prize, but there are just so many good tournament players now it is hard to win consistently.  Maybe it’s time for me to back off from tournaments because I was actually tired at the end of the 3rd day.  I’m playing tomorrow in the $200,000 buy-in cash game on High Stakes Poker and I’m looking forward to that.  I’ve won in each one of the previous 12 I’ve played in.  At least it will be real poker for real money.

Layne Flack came up to me and insisted he had been misquoted in the CardPlayer article about buying a bracelet.  He said they were printing a retraction of his statement.  I have no reason to not believe Layne.  We have always been friends and I probably reacted too quickly.  I should have learned by now not to pay any attention to what people say.  Anyway, I’m putting it behind me and I’m sure Layne will do also.

I don’t know if anyone else notices, but Andy Bloch seems to go deep in every tournament.  It’s pretty impressive when you consider he doesn’t really have a poker background like most of the great players have.  I hope he wins a few where he will be recognized a little more for his excellent play.

It’s time to go out for the dreaded Christmas shopping for my family.  I love Christmas because the family gets together, but we have taken the gift giving to the extreme with the stacks of presents under our tree.  We need to remember what Christmas is all about and I wish everyone Happy Holidays!

Daniel:  Do you see any improvement today?
Caddie:  Yes sir, you had your hair done.�

DOYLISM OF THE DAY: “People who try to whittle you down are only trying to reduce you to their size.”

As a rule, I don’t say anything about things people say in interviews.  But I can’t help being deeply offended by the article in CardPlayer where Layne Flack says, “You want to talk about buying a bracelet?  Let’s talk about Doyle’s bracelet when there were 8 people in the tournament.  The critics should look back in history and see where a bracelet has been bought.”

I thought this man was a friend of mine.  Back in the early days of the WSOP, I certainly didn’t even consider that a bracelet would have any value.  I only played in 2 or 3 events a year because Jack Binion expected me to.  I actually didn’t pick up two bracelets in the 70’s-80’s because I already had a couple.  I never won a tournament that had 8 people in it.  There were only 14 entries in a mixed double tournament that Starla Brodie and I won.  If I could find that bracelet, I would sent it to Layne and tell him to stick it where the sun doesn’t shine.

The “bracelet race” has become Harrahs and ESPN’s way of making poker interesting and exciting.  It is a form of competition and I love anything that is competitive, but winning bracelets has never been high on my priority list.  I still play poker because it energizes me and keeps me thinking young.  I like playing real poker for real money and tournament poker for me is a second choice.

It’s Jimmy V week on ESPN.  We need to listen to Jimmy Valvano’s speech as it would put us back to what is important in life.  Jim was dying with cancer and gave an awesome speech when he was presented the Arthur Ashe award.  The Jimmy V foundation raises money for cancer research and we should all support it because 1 out of every 4 persons will have to deal with having cancer in their lifetime.

The Real Deal at the Venetian is moving along well.  This is the slowest time of the year in Vegas and we had a big turnout last night.  Everyone seems to love the show and it’s a lot of fun to do.

Caddie:  Sir, do you know what golf and sex have in common?
Daniel:  Of course, there’s two things you can enjoy even if you are bad at both of them.