DOYLEISM OF THE DAY: “Success is peace of mind in knowing you did your best.”

I’ve been getting lots of phone calls asking about my health.  I haven’t been anywhere for a while and its true I haven’t been feeling very good after extensive traveling and other recent events.  But, to my knowledge, there is nothing seriously wrong with me. My bride of 48 years has been having some health problems and I’ve been sticking close to home worrying about her. The only negative thing about my health is I finally have asked myself, “am I really this old?” Of course I know how many years I’ve got behind me but I guess I still think young and about the future. I guess that’s a good thing, anyway, thanks to everyone who called.

It’s been a while since I played any live poker. I play 5-10 NLH at DoylesRoom.com several times a day, but I can’t seem to focus enough for any long sessions. The NBC Heads Up Championship starts this Friday and I’m still debating if I want to play. Granted, I won’t be at my best, but I can put my game on auto-pilot and be competitive in that format. The antes and blinds have to go up very fast and that means whoever wins needs a lot of luck. If I decide not to play, there are lots of players waiting to take my place, but I’m pretty sure I will. It is a fun tournament with no long hours and it will be good to get out of the house. A friend in Texas asked me why he never sees my name on the leaderboard of any recent tournaments. I told him, “I don’t know, could it be because I haven’t played in any of them?”

I think the cash game players, including myself, owe the online pros an apology. I know there are lots of things about the mechanics of online play we don’t know and we shouldn’t criticize the pros that only play online. Maybe the hard truth is cash players are inferior to online players when at the computer and vice versa. I’ve decided there are 4 different kinds of poker players. (1) cash game (2) online (3) tournament (4) all around. Different skills are required for each group. There would probably be a different #1 in each, but if you listed the top 10 in each category, there would be more of the #4 group than any other. So my vote for the best players goes to the all around players. Could it be because I would probably be in that group (LOL)? The bottom line is it’s all poker and poker is the greatest game in the world.

Another question I’ve been pondering during my brief (I hope) exile from the poker scene is how do the old time poker players stack up against today’s best players? As there was no internet or tournaments long ago, you to have to eliminate the specialists in those fields. There wasn’t nearly as many games to choose from so take away the all around players and it leaves the cash game guys. The biggest difference is that the mentality of the two eras are so different. The oldtimers were playing for their living with little or no other income. Many, many times they had their entire net worth in front of them. That makes it a lot harder to make these big bets when you didn’t have much money and didn’t know where you could get any more. These guys were true gamblers. Compare that to today’s great players who have lots of income from today’s poker world. Good luck to the guy that 4 or 5 bet any of the oldtimers trying to make a play on them.

So, for that reason it is almost impossible to make valid comparisons about today and yesteryear. Most of today’s players have good management skills but don’t have the pure gambling mindset of the old guys. There are exceptions. Phil Ivey, Tom Dwan and David Benyamine are some names I think are “throwbacks” to the old time pure gamblers. I think any one of the three would fit right in with the great players of the past.

It makes me think of a Stu Ungar story. Someone brought up the question, “What if there was only one bullet in a six shot revolver, would you spin it and put the gun to your and pull the trigger for 20 million dollars? Everybody agreed that nobody would do that. Stu said, “for 20 million, they could put 5 bullets in the gun and I would do it.” Everyone laughed but I’m not sure Stu was joking.

DoylesRoom has an unusual promotion with our bounty tournament every Wednesday. We have 3 or more bounties each one worth $1,000. Knock out 2, win $10,000, knock out 3, win $50,000. Last week, a player broke 2 bounties and won 10k!  Not bad for a $25 buy-in tournament and if it is your 1st time on DoylesRoom.com, you get the $25 back, I don’t know who comes up with those things.

I hope everyone was as proud of our mayor, Oscar Goodman, as I was. President Obama made a second disparaging remark about Las Vegas in a speech and Oscar refused to meet him on a recent visit to Vegas, unless he apologized. The president didn’t apologize and Oscar was very visible by his absence during our president’s stay. Way to go Oscar!

-DB

DOYLISM OF THE DAY: “Life involves risk. You can’t steal second base and keep your foot on first.”

I’m sitting at my desk at 8:30 at night wondering if I should go to bed, watch a movie and go to sleep.

Good Googa Mooga! What in the world has happened?  Poker games are getting to be scarce in Vegas and all the players are going to tournaments in other cities and even other countries. It’s my opinion that these tournaments may be the end of the high and medium stake poker games. Back in the 80’s, 90’s and the early years of 2000, there were games everywhere. If there wasn’t a game going, Chip Reese, Pug Pearson and myself would sit down and start games that would fill up and run for days. Now between tournaments and the internet, you could shoot a cannon through the high limit sections of Vegas cardrooms and not hit anyone.

Thank goodness for NFL football and the college bowl games. With no poker games going, they fill the time in nicely. I always bet the underdogs in the college bowls and I had a banner year as the underdogs won by a 3-1 margin. The NFL is a little trickier and you have to be lucky to pick the winners.

The Brunson family has a tradition of making Kentucky Colonel Bourbon candy for the holidays. We haven’t done it for a couple of years, so our family, Todd and his wife Anjela and my daughter Pam joined Louise and I to start making the candy again. We made the best tasting candy you ever ate. It was so good I made another batch the next day that was even better. Maybe I’ll join the Food Network on TV.

I took some of my candy down to my doctor and he showed me the results of my last checkup. I’m one lucky guy! All my blood levels were in the normal range and on an echocardiogram they made, everything about my heart was perfect. I know it sounds crazy, but I’ve always felt that  a poker player’s heart pumps so hard it keeps your arteries clean. After all the chit I’ve been through, mine are completely clear. You probably shouldn’t quote me on that . On the flip side of that, seems like we are losing a lot of poker players in the past few years. We lost Amir Vahedi a few days ago with complications from his diabetes. Amir was in the Iranian army before coming to America and becoming one of the more popular poker players. Amir represented DoylesRoom.com for a year and always did anything that was asked of him. He did everything with an infectious laugh that made everybody love him. I hope they put a box of his trademark cigars in his coffin because I know how much he liked them. RIP my friend.

-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

Budapest

I don’t know what I expected Budapest to be, but it was entirely different.  The city is absolutely gorgeous with the Danube River flowing right through the center.  Budapest is two cities – Buda and Pest, the oldest being Pest.  There are ten or more beautiful bridges across the Danube and most of them are breathtaking.  During World War II the Germans bombed all the bridges but they have been restored.  The people were nice and seemed to be genuinely very friendly.

When I went to Manila and Macau I was surprised that so many people knew who I was; but it seemed that in Hungary not only did lots of folks know me, it seemed everyone had a translated SuperSystem and wanted an autograph.  Ok, I finally get it.  Poker players are rock stars!  LOL The truth is we are a bunch of lucky people that came along at the right time.  I don’t see any reason to think we are celebs.  I just hope everybody remembers who they are and where they came from.  I guess this is just the power of television.

I was surprised again in Budapest when a 1960 Cadillac convertible picked us up at the airport, courtesy of the Doyle Brunson Poker Klub.  I remember  a couple of years ago some poker players from Hungary had asked permission to use the name but I had forgotten about it.  The Klub had a party for us with a small tournament, gave us 24-hour car service, took us on a helicopter tour and a river cruise.  The Klub was one of the nicest ones in Budapest and the management team went the extra mile to be sure our stay was an enjoyable one.  It was!

We also went to Buda Castle to a wine tasting festival and afterwards to an old-style Hungarian restaurant for a great meal.  Then we went to a night club called Bed and Beach where we ran into friends Sigmund from Finland and Karim from RaketheRake.  I thought the XS at the Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas was big but this was acres and acres of people dancing.

This was one of my most memorable trips and I just wish my family could have been with me.  Hopefully next year!

-DB

DOYLISM OF THE DAY: “We can’t direct the wind, but we can adjust the sails.”

Since everyone is wondering who is going into the Poker Hall of Fame this year, I thought it would be interesting to have a Poker Hall of Shame. This would consist of poker players who abuse dealers, players, or both. The only other criteria to make the Hall would be you gotta be dead. We all know living players who deserve to be in, but we don’t want to make too many enemies.

Maybe this will inspire some of us living players to be ore courteous to the dealers and our fellow players. I know I could be a lot better even though I do try to keep control of my temper. I never saw Chip Reese lose control, nor have I seen Barry Greenstein be abusive to anyone. We should learn from them. The Poker Hall of Fame started with six inductees the first year so I’ll start with the same number. Perhaps more will be added later.

In no particular order:

1. Puggy Pearson – a great poker player who vented his frustrations to both dealers and players. I once saw a lady Chinese dealer take a high heeled shoe and hit Pug repeatedly after he pushed her when he lost a pot.
2. John “Doc” Holliday – “I’m your huckleberry”, words uttered by Doc Holliday in the movie Tombstone. There are written accounts Doc killed at least nine men, mostly at the poker table. I guess you could call that abusive!
3. Nick “Shoeshine” Simpson – He was abusive on to the dealers. Nick was the head man in the cheating rings in the 60’s and 70’s. I once saw him urinate under the table on a dealer’s leg after a bad beat. Bill Boyd, former card room manager at the Golden Nugget once shot Nick in the butt after warning Nick not to cheat. I always admired Bill for that.
4. “Nigger Nate” Lanette – Please, no racist comments about his name. That is what everybody called him before he died in the early 70’s. He bit a dealer’s ear off in the Stardust then returned the next day and gave the dealer $5,000. Nate was questioned in the shooting death of mobster Arnold Rothstein after an argument about a poker game.
5. Stu Ungar – Stu “The Kid” Ungar was the most volatile person I’ve ever seen at a poker table. It was like some demon possessed person you see in horror movies. He would just erupt and use the most foul language you can imagine. I saw Stu spit on bad cards and throw them back to the dealer. Away from poker, he was a likeable person.
6. Nick Vacchiano – “Nicky Vach”, everybody called this handsome player. He was a ladies man, everywhere except the poker table. He would try to get in the one or eight seat where he could talk in a low voice to the dealers, particularly women. I saw him make a young dealer at the Flamingo actually cry.

This blog is the result of having too much time on your hands. I remember writing something like this a year or so ago. I’m in Montana, it’s too cold to go on the lake and after 4 days, I’m ready to go back to Vegas and find some action

-DB

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