DOYLISM OF THE DAY: “Winning is not everything – but making the effort to win is.”

Back from Montana! I’ll never complain about hot weather again. It was 3 degrees on the mountain my grandson lives on, along with 8 inches of snow. That cold cut through me like a knife. We had talked about having the Brunson Christmas at my place on the Flathead Lake but they can scratch that!

There are so many deer in upper Montana that you to be super careful not to hit one while driving. I saw 6 bodies on the side of the road on a 20 mile trip. There is all kind of wildlife. My friend has a large pond stocked with fish. He told me the eagles and osprey take 60-70 fish a day out of it. I had better be careful letting Casper run around outside because one of those big eagles could pick him up and fly away with him. I’ll bet Casper would get one good bite of that eagle if that happened.

I was there for the Todd Brunson Montana Challenge poker tournament. The weather was so bad we had less than 100 players but everyone had a good time. I told Todd to have his next on in the summertime. Of course, my daughter Pam was the “Last Brunson Standing.”

No disrespect intended, but these poker shows are awful. Full Tilt’s “Face the Ace” and Poker Stars “Million Dollar Challenge” are so bad, it’s embarrassing. There is no skill involved in either show and I can’t imagine getting an audience that will watch the shows. As I travel around, the High Stakes cash games are the ones all the fans talk about and I agree with them that they are by far the most interesting. Speaking of that, I read where A.J. Benza is being replaced on GSN’s High Stakes Poker show. That’s too bad, I like A.J.’s subtle sense of humor. Vanessa Rousso is named as his likely replacement. I’m pro-Vanessa so I think she will fit in nicely with the old comic Gabe Kaplan.

The golf-poker tournament in Orlando with David Leadbetter has been postponed because of some complications. I’m glad because along with Mike Caro, Daniel Negreanu, Todd Brunson and Dewey Tomko, I was one of the poker instructors. To tell you the truth, I’m traveled out! I look forward to staying home for a while. Harrah’s has asked me to do a few things in conjunction with the WSOP final table that I’m glad to do, but it would have been a tight fit to be back from Orland in time to do them.

My autobiography is supposed to be out November 10th and I’m doing a book signing right after the final table is completed. I’m having a special edition that I’m going to give to the final  nine. Also, at the book signing, or right afterwards, we are having a press conference to announce the signing of the 5th player to the Brunson 10 at DoylesRoom.com  I’m really pleased at the selection of this young man, as I am with the previous four.

I’ve started reading blogs. Again, I find the blogs about poker hands extremely boring. The same thing with the tweets on Twitter; does anyone really care about the hand by hand update of a poker tournament? If it was a real poker game and someone tweeted they had just won a million dollar pot, it would interest me.  But I guess some folks like the updates, that’s why they make chocolate and vanilla – different tastes.

After saying I want to stay home, I’m leaving in the morning for Abilene, Texas. My University is inducting me into their athletic Hall of Fame. After being turned down for 40 years I have mixed feelings, but all my old teammates will be there, so I’m going down and will be on my best behavior.

-DB

DOYLISM OF THE DAY: “Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.”

After all of my complaining about how bad I was feeling, I found the cure.  I’ve been staying at home for the past 2-3 months because there haven’t been any cash games to speak of and I’m really cutting down on my traveling to poker tournaments.  I’ve decided the tournaments have to come to me, here in Vegas, so I won’t be in very many away.

Anyways, I went down to the NBC Heads Up Championship, got beat my first match and went home.  Next day, there was a nice cash game.  I went and played and again the next day. Now I feel like a 30-year-old again.  I need to keep playing and remember an old Texas saying,  “Burn brightly but don’t burn out.”

Congrats to Huck Seed for winning the NBC Heads Up.  Huck has the best record of anyone in that tournament at 18-4.  Huck was the next “great player” 20 years ago but had some personal problems and was overlooked the past few years.  He is a cool guy and I hope he continues to keep his head on straight and wins.  The Heads Up Tournament is fast paced and I don’t think it is a good barometer of how people play, but 18-4 is pretty impressive.  Eric Seidel is 0-5 in the tournament.  Does that mean Huck is better?  I’ll let you answer that.

Huck beat Vanessa Rousso in the finals and I don’t understand all the negative comments about Vanessa.  Anybody can beat anybody else but that don’t take away from the fact she beat five pros who are considered to be pretty good.  I thought she played well against me.  Vanessa is obviously very smart and I think she should command everyone’s respect for what she did.

I would never have believed that I would watch of the programs I have been watching on TV. I’m now into season 8 of Dallas DVDs.  I watched The Celebrity Apprentice because Annie Duke is on it. She kicked butt in the 2nd episode; she is a cinch to go a long way because she outclasses her competition.  Louise even had me watching The Bachelor, which I believe is the dumbest thing I’ve ever watched.  She likes it, and I guess that’s why they make chocolate and vanilla.

In our weekly Bounty Tournament at DoylesRoom, we often have celebrity bounties.  This week is Jamie-Lynn Sigler, Broadway star and Tony’s daughter Meadow in the hit TV show, The Sopranos. I’ve met her three times and she is really a down to earth lady, not to mention gorgeous.  We had Nicky Hilton last week and both of these girls are pretty darn good poker players.  Come play with us.

-DB

DOYLISM OF THE DAY: “Make failure your teacher, not your undertaker.”

I didn’t have a very good result in my return to poker, after a few months off. In the NBC Heads Up Championship, I lost in the 1st round to Vanessa Rousso.  I’ve got no excuses, she held the best hands and I never really had a chance.  I made two hidden pair twice and she beat both hands.  It’s hard to overcome a bad start and she played very well and now I’m on the rail.  Vanessa is the GoDaddy representative and is going to be in the poker world for a long time.

At least maybe we will be able to have a few cash games down at Bobby’s Room. Out of the 64 entries in the Heads Up Tournament, there are a dozen or so high limit cash game players.  The eliminations come very quickly so everyone will be looking for a game.  I know I’m ready and I feel much better just getting out of the house.  I guess I just need action.

I got a call from Eli Elezra and the boys and girl (Jen Harman), are gathering at the Bellagio.  I can’t wait to get there.  I’ve waited in the house until I’m going nuts.

I noticed this morning that Vanessa Rousso is down to the final four in the NBC Heads Up Tournament.  She beat me, Phil Ivey, Paul Wasicka and Daniel Negreanu.  That’s pretty impressive and it shows how many good players that are out there that aren’t really recognized. Vanessa probably isn’t ready for the high stakes cash games but she is certainly good enough for the tournaments.  I hope she wins, it would be really good for poker.

I saw Barry Greenstein at the tournament and he told me about the thread on a forum that questioned if I could beat a 1k NL game.  For the record, and you can say this is written in stone, I’ve never seen a poker game that I can’t beat.  I am going to exclude PLO because, even though I’ve had good results playing it, I have never felt comfortable.  Why?  I don’t know for sure, but I always go with my gut feeling.  Can I win multi-tabling?  No, I wouldn’t even try because that is something I know nothing about. I’m certainly not trying to win a spot on the great internet players, but if anyone wants to play real poker, come on down to where everyone knows the big games are. And as I’ve always said, the best players in the world are playing in the biggest games in the world.  How do you think we got there?  Almost every high limit player, including me, came up through the ranks.  I played 1-2-5 NL Hold’em for years and years and worked my way up.  I realize there are good players at the lower levels and some could make the grade, but my question is why haven’t they moved up?  Don’t like money?  Water seeks its own level and so do poker players!
-DB