DOYLEISM OF THE DAY: “You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it.”

Little did I know when I chased a pop fly in a baseball game over a half a century ago what problems it would cause me. I ran into a steel post and broke two of my front teeth.  The dentistry wasn’t very good in that time, particularly in small towns. The local dentist pulled both teeth, putting in a bridge attached to other teeth. Because of the damage done by that, I’ve had to go through a total mouth reconstruction. That is 25-30 hours in the dentist chair. The good news is, after a few weeks of suffering, all the different procedures make your mouth and teeth as good as new. It’s extremely expensive and it looks like my land-based poker is over until the WSOP. I’m already having withdrawal pains so DoylesRoom will be seeing me online for the next 3 months.

My daughter Pam called my attention to a blog written for Cardplayer by Dusty Schmidt and the comments that were posted. The comments were insane and some of them are downright comical. The one I like best was that I cheated Andy Beal and was threatened by Andy and had to return 16 million dollars. Do people actually hear these kind of stories or do they make them up? Did Andy say he would kill me if I didn’t give him all that money? Do you supposed he would have intimidated me more than Tony Spilotro did when he tried to get me into his cheating schemes? The next time I see Andy, we will have a good laugh about this little gem.

As far as the other negative stuff about the old time cheating, I spent two long years defending myself about that. I don’t intend to go through it again. For the record, I never had any involvement in cheating in poker from any era. This is America, believe me or not, I really don’t care any longer. It does look like there would be some evidence somewhere besides wild stories.

My thanks to Dusty for the nice things he said about me. I didn’t really know everybody thinks these young guys are so much better poker players than me. I do know I’ve survived through several generations of new superstars. Most of them are gone now. Send this new bunch down to Bobby’s Room and let’s find out if they are really so great.

There were also some positive comments and I appreciate them. Texas Road Gambler (I’m pretty sure I know who he is) really makes good points. If I ever go to court, I would like for him to be my attorney, Cardplayer doesn’t allow comments at the bottom of my blog. I wish they would, I can stand some criticism. Seems like it would be fun to read what poker players think.

-DB

DOYLEISM OF THE DAY: “There are things you can do in an instant that will give you heartache for life.”

I’ve done a lot of traveling in the last few years and have always prided myself that it doesn’t have very much negative impact on me. But this last trip to London for five days and back has knocked me to my knees. Talk about jet lag!  I’ve literally been in bed over half the time for the past six days. I feel like a truck has run over me. I’ve got all sorts of meetings the next few days so hopefully I’ll feel better soon. And I really look forward to the Super Bowl party every year with my friends. This will be an enjoyable event this year as I made a 100k bet on picking the winner of the championship game. I took the Colts and my opponent took the Patriots. I think I’ll bet 50k on the Saints +4 1/2 and lock up a nice win.  If Indy wins by 4 or less, I’ll win 150K. Nice position to be in huh?

I don’t have much to look forward to after the Super Bowl. The next day I go into a 5 1/2 hour surgery on my teeth and gums. That is going to require a lot of change in my schedule. I’m supposed to play in the Premier League tournament that is being filmed at the M Casino here in Vegas. It is the most widely watched TV show in Europe, with a $100,000 buy in. That would be great exposure for DoylesRoom but there is no way I’ll be 100% recovered from all that dental surgery so I’ll have to cancel.

Then, there is the WPT event at the Commerce Casino in Los Angeles. That is one of my favorite tournaments because the side action is always good. Then the Celebrity tournament is right afterwards and is a fun time. I’ve got an invitation to play in a big Poker Stars TV tournament and immediately afterwards is the NBC Heads Up Championship. I’ll have to bow out of all these tournaments because there is no use playing unless you are at your best. The competition has gotten so good you need to feel good physically as well as mentally to have a chance to win.

My gut feeling is just chill out until the WSOP and try to have a big series. Could it be my age is finally catching up to me?

-DB

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: “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: “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

Next Page »