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: “In the valley of the blind, the one eyed man is king.”

The Celebrity Apprentice is over. What a joke! If Donald Trump was really hiring someone, who do you think he would pick? I think that when Joan Rivers threatened to not come back, Trump assured her she would be the winner. That’s just my opinion, but they certainly got great ratings for the show. I thought it was impossible for anyone to outtalk Annie, but Joan started screaming everytime Annie tried to say anything and Trump allowed it. As to the remark about Annie’s friends being in the Mafia, I’m from Texas and we have possums, raccoons and skunks. There is no such animal as Mafia down there. I like everyone on the show (even Melissa) except the winner. But it goes back to the old saying, “That’s why they make chocolate and vanilla.”

The month before the WSOP is the slowest time of the year for poker. Everyone is home preparing for the long grind that’s coming. It will be interesting to see how the recession affects the number of players in each event. Because of the internet poker sites sending players, I feel it won’t be down more than 10-20 percent from last year. I’ve always said the best barometer of the economy is the poker players. If they have money, the economy is ok, if they don’t, look out because hard times are coming.

I’m completely lost on what is going on in the gambling world. Since I had this sinus lift by the dentist, I’ve hardly gone out of the house. I don’t know if there is any golf action but I’m pretty sure there hasn’t been any poker games. Mostly because of boredom, I’ve been betting on the NBA playoffs with terrible results. I thought the Lakers would be the champion but now I can’t see anyone beating Cleveland. But the way I’m going you should bet against that.

We have two bounty tournaments at DoylesRoom, Doyle’s Bounty and Beat The Brunsons. It is a pleasant break to play in those every week. I don’t do too well in these tourneys but my daughter Pam is smoking. I think I probably get too impatient.

I also was supposed to go to Montana for Todd’s tournament. My face is so black and blue and sore, I’ve decided to stay home. I was really looking forward to going because that is my favorite place in the whole world. It reminds me of Texas when I was growing up. Everybody knows everybody and folks will help you in any way they can. Great place and the temperature was 44 degrees last night.

-DB

DOYLISM OF THE DAY: “It’s better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid, than to open it and remove any doubt.”

Annie Duke is kicking butt on the Celebrity Apprentice. She is definitely manipulating everyone but that’s the game, right? Annie should be the winner which I think speaks well for the poker community. I think Joan Rivers is really out of line with her comments, not only about Annie, but the entire poker world. Joan looks like she is losing it and probably will be able to hide her own Easter eggs next year. And by the way Miss Rivers, my last name is Brunson.

I guess when you get older, you aren’t allowed to have an opinion. These young poker players are jumping down my throat because I said I thought Stu Ungar would beat Phil Ivey in a heads up tournament-style poker game. If it was for real money, I would make Phil a huge favorite, but where all you can lose is your buy-in, Stu has so much imagination, I think he would win. I’ve talked about this before, Stu was the best winning player I’ve ever seen. He was also one of the worst losing players. Stu isn’t in my top 20 best all-time players, while Phil definitely is.

What people don’t seem to understand is that there is much more than talent and knowledge that is required to be a great poker player. You have to be able to handle adversity without going off the deep end. You have to have the character to handle the pitfalls fo life. Also there is the ability to implement the things you do know. That is probably the biggest difference between good poker players and great poker players. Anyway, a freezeout between good poker players is usually a coin flip.

I just got my dog back from the eye doctor. She has been bumping into things lately and I thought she might have cataracts or glaucoma but the doctor said she is just getting old. I had a blind dog for 7 years and it is really tough to care for them. I’m a dog person, I would hate to choose between them and my kids

-DB