Doyle Brunson is known as ‘Texas Dolly’ in the poker world. He was born in the year 1933, August 10 in Longworth Texas. He is not only a former profession poker player of 40 years; he is also a former world champion of poker and has authored many poker books.

He is the first player who has earned $1 million in poker tournaments. In his poker career, Doyle has won ten World Series of Poker bracelets; and this achievement has been tied by Johnny Chan and Phil Hellmuth. Besides this, he is also one of the only four players who have won consecutive main events in the World Series of Poker in 1976 and 1977.

Doyle Brunner grew to become a promising athlete and was an ardent basketball player. While working in unloading sheetrock, the weight landed on his leg and broke it in two places. He was in a cast for two years, and this marked the end of his dream of becoming a professional basketball player. Though he played poker before this injury, its frequency increased after the injury. While he got a job as a business machine salesman, he was invited to play a seven card stud game, where he earned over a month’s salary in three hours. This made him drop his job, and become a professional poker player. 

He first played illegal games but gradually started playing in bigger games. He tried playing poker with a partner, but when he started losing money, in fact, six-figure amounts, he stopped playing as partners. He has played in the biggest poker games in the world where he won his ninth gold bracelet in 2003. It was in the early morning of July 1, 2005 that he won his tenth gold bracelet, to set a new world record.  

Doyle Brunson is proud to have two Texas hold’em hands that are named after him; the Ten and a Two of any suit and the other hand, the ‘Doyle Brunson’ which is the Ace and Queen of any suit. However, Doyle states in his book, the Super/System, that he never plays this hand! It has been calculated that till 2006, he has earned a total live winnings that exceeds $4,800,000. 

Doyle Brunson got married to Louise in 1962; and when Louise got pregnant, a few months later it was found that Doyle had a tumor in his neck. On operating, it was found that cancer had spread and was not curable. However, they went with the operation so that he could see his child. But after the operation, there was no trace of cancer, and doctors considered this to be a miracle! Some time later, Louise too developed a tumor, and when operated, it was found that there was no tumor. This was another miracle, and the third being that their daughter Doyla who was diagnosed with scoliosis, had her spine straitened in three months. But she died at the age of 18 with an over dosage of potassium. Doyle’s son, Todd is also a professional poker player, and together, Doyle and Todd were the first father-son combination to win bracelets in the 2005 WSOP.