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: “If you rob Peter to pay Paul, you can always depend on the support of Paul.”

It seems there are two or three charity poker tournaments every week.  Most all of them are for worthy causes and we should support them.  However, because there are so many, it is impossible to play in all of them.  DoylesRoom (online casino games) almost always donates books, caps, shirts and different paraphernalia to the worthy charities that have poker tournaments.  Even after you decline, those sponsors never give up.  Last week, one of them called me saying Matt Damon said he would come if he could play at my table.  I never thought for a minute Matt really said that, but I went anyway just to see.  After I got there, not only was Matt not there, none of the A-list celebs were.  Matt is probably too busy with Sarah Silverman

On the positive side, the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino had two tournaments this past week announcing the opening of their card room.  The room is ultra nice with the most comfortable chairs I have ever seen.  I wish every card room manager in Vegas would drop by and see them and put the same chairs in their rooms.  There was a big turnout for their 1st tourney with every seat taken and over 100 alternates waiting.  First prize was a custom made Harley motorcycle that had never been ridden.  Guess who won it?  It was a Brunson, but not me or Todd.

My daughter Pam came through the 250 player field to win.  Poor Todd lost another $1,000 to Pam on their last longer bet they make each time they both enter a tournament.  With 19 players left, there were 3 Brunsons still in.   Pam, Todd’s wife Anjela, and me.  We had to listen to that same old, “I’m the last Brunson standing”, from Pam.  She has outlasted both of us the past 7 or 8 tournaments we all played in.  She also bets Hoyt Corkins, but Hoyt only bets $20.  Good thing because she has beat him several in a row.  Congratulations Pam, you must be playing really good poker!

It’s almost time to head out to London for the WSOP Europe.  It’s a long way to go but I’m committed to go so I plan on playing in the HORSE, PLO and Main Event.  I’m going to try to “really” focus on playing and give it my best shot.

Daniel N – “That can’t be my ball.  It’s too old!”
Caddy – “It’s been a long time since we teed off, sir.”

DB

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

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

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