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: “The word listen contains the same letters as the word silent.”

It’s almost time to go to the Commerce for the WPT event.  I’m going to play in the $10K H.O.R.S.E. on the 16th of this month.  Matt Savage is responsible for adding this game and it was a brilliant move.  A lot of us wouldn’t be going this early but the H.O.R.S.E. will bring us.  I also think there will be lots of cash games.

I’m almost through Season 3 of the old miniseries, “Dallas”.  As I was watching J.R. Ewing in his role, I noticed his hat with a feather band around it.  About 10 years ago, Irwin Molansky, who produced Dallas, gave me that hat when he found out I was a fan of the show.  I think it is in my garage, I’m going to check it out.  It has been a couple of decades since Louise and I watched this series and she can’t believe I still remember what happened.  I guess it’s just a poker player’s memory.  It’s a really lazy time for me.  I can’t seem to get any enthusiasm for anything.  Besides watching Dallas, there are Oscar-winning movies on a movie channel and I’ve been watching the great “oldies” like, “An Officer and a Gentleman”, “The Bridge on the River Kwai”, “Gone With the Wind”, and the best of all, “The Godfather” trilogy.  I hate it when I get in a funk like this and I’ve got to snap out of it.  I need to start eating healthy and get out on the golf course.  The trouble with playing golf is I hurt for two or three days afterwards.  Nobody ever said getting old was for sissies.

ESPN called me and they are coming to my house to film.  They are doing a documentary on “Jimmy The Greek”, who I knew very well.  Jimmy Snyder was a columnist for the Las Vegas Sun back in the early 70’s.  He is the guy that stuck the “Texas Dolly” nickname on me because I was trying to avoid publicity.  Jimmy went on to become a national celebrity when he became the football analyst on CBS with Brent Musburger.  “The Greek” as we called him, was a unique guy and also endorsed my first Super System book.

The old group of poker players called the Texas Rounders is getting smaller and smaller.  David Baxter from Corpus Christi, Texas passed from a long illness.  He was instrumental in getting tournament poker started and he won several events before he retired back to Texas.  The only remaining player I can think of out of the professional players that brought Texas Hold’Em to Vegas, are Crandell Addington, Aubrey Day, James “Goody” Roy, Bobby Hoff and Carl McKelvey.  I miss those guys that have died and I remember and miss the great times we shared.

Michael Phelps is getting a lot of flak about his picture smoking dope.  It’s too bad, he is a nice kid but he has to realize his every move is scrutinized and he can’t make mistakes like that.  He has lost lots of money because he has lost some major endorsement deals.  I think Michael will get back on track.  Remember, he is a 23 year old kid.

-DB

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.

DOYLISM OF THE DAY: “The future that we expect and plan for, begins today.”

I tried one more tournament today. The $5,000 Mixed Hold’Em seemed to be a good spot and I was well rested after my day off. It was also a 5 p.m. start, which isn’t too bad, but I was knocked out the second hour. Oh well, Daniel Negreanu was at my table and he went out before I did. At least I’ll get to bed early and be ready to play the next tournament I choose. Also, I got to sit next to Isabelle Mercier, which was nice. She is such a great gal. My next event will probably be Wednesday when the mixed games start at 5 p.m. This should be one of my strongest tournaments, so I’m going to rest up for it.

I had a lengthy interview with ESPN before I started today. It was a little different than most interviews because they asked unusual questions. They asked me if I could be any poker player for a day, who would I be and why. I answered Patrik Antonius because, if I looked like him, I could get all the girls in town. Then they asked, if I could play with any three poker players, dead or fictional, who would it be. I replied, “Doc Holliday, Maverick, and my old pal Chip Reese”. I sure would like to see Jack Strauss and Sailor Roberts, also.

Harrah’s has a VIP room that charges $2,750 for the entire tournament and $1,000 goes to charity. Quite a jump from the $1,000 they charged last year, but I think it is well worth it. There’s been a lot of complaining about the food because the food was fabulous last year and only sandwiches have been put out this year. It’s a great place to relax though, and they are bringing in a pool table and putting green.

Todd was the first person in Team Brunson to cash in an event. He came in the top 300 in the $1,500 NHL. There were 4,000 entries in that one, so maybe that will get us going. Shannon Elizabeth isn’t back yet, but I expect her tomorrow.

I was driving my scooter back to my car when a lady came screaming up to me and literally knocked me out of the scooter onto the floor. She was from Idaho and said she watches every poker show and I was her favorite player.
That’s nice, but please be more gentle! – DB