The story of Doyle Brunson, an American treasure and the greatest poker
player of all time, is one for the ages. It's a story of guts and glory,
of good luck and bad, of triumph and unspeakable tragedy, of courage and
grace. He has survived whippings, gun fights, stabbings, mobsters (the
real-life ones portrayed in the movie Casino), murderers, and a death
sentence when, riddled with incurable cancer, he was given months to
live by doctors who told him his hand was played out. Apparently, fate
had never played poker with Brunson--he lived. Of a group of 32 men he
played poker with in the tough alleys of Texas, just he and one other
survived the treacherous perils of that life. A master of the bluff, his
most outrageous bluff came after being pistol-whipped and told he's
going to die with a gunman pointing a pistol at his forehead. Again, he
lived. He's gambled for millions of dollars--and with his life against
mobsters and killers--and was the biggest sports bettor in the world
with a reputation of betting enormous sums of money on just about
anything. Doyle has not only made more money at golf than anyone else
until Tiger Woods came along, he once bet one million dollars on a
single hole--that, when he was virtually wheelchair-bound and could
barely stand. He's been hard-up flat broke more times than he's got
fingers and has won millions of dollars just as many times. Brunson has
seen it all: from the athletic dreams and a leg shattered by a freak
injury which waylaid his path to the NBA (he was drafted by the Lakers),
to the devastating death of his first-born daughter, to outrageous
exploits like trying to discover Noah's Ark and raise the Titanic.
Doyle's rollercoaster of a life defines the saying: Truth is stranger
than fiction. Twice a winner of the prestigious World Series of Poker in
Las Vegas, he's won millions and lost millions--sometimes in
seconds--but decidedly more of the former than the latter. Brunson can
still be found playing in the highest stakes poker games in the world,
often with as much as one million dollars in front of him. To every one
of the 250 million people worldwide who play poker each year, Doyle
Brunson, is the legendary "Babe Ruth of Poker"--the greatest gambler and
poker player who has ever lived.
