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: “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 only person you are with your entire life is yourself. Be alive while you are alive!”

I can’t believe the interest the Brunson 10 is getting. For the ones who aren’t familiar with this, DoylesRoom is in the process of selecting 10 of the most qualified online poker players to sign up and represent us. The requirements are pretty simple. Not only do the members of the 10 have to be good players, they have to be well mannered and personable. I’m not ready to pass the torch quite yet, but these guys will be the future of DoylesRoom. We have signed three of the 10 already: Amit Makhija, Alec Torelli and Zach Clark. Two more will be signed this month and two more in October. They need three remaining players to finish the 10. If any of you young internet players are interested, join the already long list of prospects at DoylesRoom. Contact will@dbpn.com. These players don’t want to be just another pro at the bigger sites. With DoylesRoom, they will get better exposure. I can’t wait to meet all of them.

The Brunson house has four new pets. A stray cat had kittens up on our rock waterfall and they have made their home in the bushes and trees surrounding the pool. In spite of ourselves, Louise and I are growing attached to them and put food up on the rocks. We can’t make house pets out of them because Casper, my toy poodle, has a fit everytime he sees them and chases them off. It’s too bad, the cats are cute and we love animals.

I’ve been working on my autobiography for the last week. We started this book five years ago, then stopped. At my family’s urging, we finished it and it will be in the stores the first week of November. I still have my reservations about putting this out.

This will be my last blog for 3-4 weeks. I’m going to Budapest for an affiliate convention then to Nottingham, then to Birmingham, then London. I guess I’ll play the WSOP Europe while I’m there plus the Caesar’s Cup and English Open. I come back to Vegas in early Oct. and go to Montana for Todd’s tournament. Then in the middle of Oct., I go to Abilene, Texas where my University is inducting me into their athletic Hall of Fame. It’s about time, after snubbing me for 40 years because I chose to be a gambler. I guess times do change. Then, in early November I go to Orlando for the High Stakes Entertainment poker-golf school. You should go if possible. Check it out on www.pokergolfacademy.com.

Here I am, three-quarters of a century old and traveling the world like some kid. I’ve always suspected I might be a little crazy and this confirms it. When I get back from Orlando, the farthest I’m going is the city limits of Las Vegas. Uh-oh, maybe Montana.

-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

DoylesRoomAffiliates.com Locks Arms with RakeTheRake.com to Give Affiliates and Players More

Renewed relationship between most trusted online poker room and major affiliate powerhouse launches with several rake-related contests

San Jose, Costa Rica – May 21, 2009 – DoylesRoomAffiliates.com, the online poker affiliate program for DoylesRoom.com, announced today a series of rake-related promotions for RakeTheRake.com players, demonstrating a renewed and significantly strengthened partnership with one of the largest and most respected online poker affiliates in the business.

“DoylesRoom.com is unmistakably back on track to being the best online poker destination for RakeTheRake.com affiliates and their players,” noted Will Griffiths, DoylesRoom.com’s VP of Marketing, “and it’s all thanks to two fantastic online poker brands that believe in awarding players with more of what they expect and truly deserve.”

Never before have two online poker forces been so in sync, each dedicated to rewarding rake generators with a bigger piece of the action. The bolstered partnership kicks off with Doyle’s Rake Sprint to Vegas, a rake race that will award the top rake generator at RakeTheRake.com between June 1st and June 15th with a VIP experience that includes a 2-night stay in Las Vegas and an exclusive VIP dinner with Doyle Brunson on July 1st.

To welcome players back, DoylesRoomAffiliates.com is giving the first 500 players to reach $100 in rake in June a signed copy of Doyle Brunson’s Super System I & II. In addition, the first 10 players to reach $1,000 in rake in June 2009 will receive a personalized signed copy of Super System I & II from Doyle himself. And if that’s not enough the first 100 existing players from RakeTheRake.com who return to DoylesRoom.com, reactivate their account and make a deposit a signed poker strategy book from Mike Caro.

Online poker players can utilize their newly learned poker strategy at DoylesRoom’s poker tables to climb to the top of another $5,000 Rake Race that’s being introduced soon exclusively for RakeTheRake.com players. But the free money doesn’t end there. Once every quarter, the top 20 rake generators are invited to take part in a freeroll for a free trip to Vegas that includes another private dinner with Doyle Brunson.

For more information on DoylesRoom promotions and incentives for affiliates, visit www.DoylesRoomAffiliates.com.

About DoylesRoomAffiliates.com:
DoylesRoomAffiliate.com is the official affiliate program for DoylesRoom.com, the only online poker website endorsed by poker legend Doyle Brunson. DoylesRoomAffiliate.com provides affiliates with everything they require to profit from the most trusted name in online gaming, including marketing tools and industry-leading promotions.

About DoylesRoom.com
Online since 2004, DoylesRoom (www.DoylesRoom.com) is the only online poker site to proudly bear the legendary Doyle Brunson name. The newest addition to the Cake Poker Network, DoylesRoom offers its players access to unequaled poker promotions, fast action, and countless opportunities to play with Doyle Brunson and other legends of the game. Poker players from North America and around the world can compete for the biggest stakes on the web or sharpen their poker skills while playing Texas Hold‘em and other popular games for free. With free poker software, lessons, tournaments, nonstop Sit-and-Go tournaments and ring games available at all limits, DoylesRoom is the preeminent poker destination for real live game play—online or anywhere.

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