In the world of poker, which undeniably remains to be one of the most watched sports in the western world, especially in the States, one of the most popular, influential and arguably one of the best players of all times is the legendary Doyle "Texas Dolly" Brunson. Credited with single handedly giving birth to the phenomenon called Texas Hold-em... Brunson was the first player to earn $1 million with poker. He has completed over fifty years playing professional poker, and is a Poker Hall of Fame inductee. He was the first player to win two consecutive World Series of Poker events.

Born on August 10, 1933, in Longworth, Fisher Country, Texas, Brunson was the eldest of three children. Because of the relatively small size of the town Longworth, Brunson often had to run for long distances to reach other towns for daily needs, and this made him a promising athlete. He was a member of the All state Texas Basketball team, and during the off seasons, he would practice long one mile runs to keep himself fit. He even won the one mile event in Texas interscholastic meet. He chose the Hardons-Simmons University in Texas. Even though the Minneapolis Lakers wanted to hire him, he had to leave basketball due to an unfortunate injury where his leg was broken. He was in a cast for two years, which dashed his dreams of becoming a professional basketball player. He turned his focus to education, and went on to obtain a bachelor’s degree in 1954 and masters in administrative education in the next year. He started working as a business machines salesman, but later realized the true potential of poker and left the business to become a poker pro.

Back in his early days, poker was not an organized game. Rules had not been formulated, and almost all poker institutions were run by criminals and organized crime families. There were several cases when Brunson was robbed or beaten up, but reporting these activities was not a feasible option in those days as poker was not socially acceptable as any gentleman’s game. Brunson had to coax his future wife, Louise, to marry a professional gambler. Brunson was even diagnosed with a cancerous tumour, which had reached a fatal condition. Following an extremely risky operation, the cancer was destroyed, and he went on to have a happy marital life with three children. Starting off with small deals and illegal poker games, he slowly went on to play for higher stakes, travelling extensively. He travelled in Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana. His encounter with Johnny Moss, who became his mentor later, further encouraged him to play for higher stakes in poker. During the next few years, he gained a reputation as an unbeatable high stakes poker player. His expertise in anticipating his opponents’ moves gave him a distinct edge in the game. Later, he settled down in Vegas, where gambling was legal.  Brunson was the star performer in the group of the infamous travelling poker sharks, the Texas Rounders. He was the first player to introduce his brand of power poker to the world. He has an unrivalled ten World Series of Poker events to his credit, he was also awarded the “#1 most influential force in the world of poker” by the Bluff Magazine in January, 2006.

He is a regular player at the World Series of Poker, since it was created in 1970, playing in the Main Event nearly every year since then. He also played in several of the preliminary bracelet events. He even made some WSOP final tables before his back to back wins, but those are not considered as cashes as during that time, poker was played in the “winner takes all” format. Besides his two championships in 1976 and 1977, he also appeared in a number of main event cash lists: in 1980 he was the runner-up to three-time champion Ungar; in 1982 (4th); in 1983 (3rd); in 1997 (16th), and in 2004 (53rd).

In 1978, Brunson revolutionized the game of poker with his book, Super System, which was a complete guide to Texas Hold’em and several other poker games. It has even been dubbed by some as the Bible of Poker. It was followed by a sequel recently, Super System 2. These books remain the top selling books about poker, selling more than 14,000 copies every month. The sequel contains new strategies, new games and inputs by several other great players of poker. At the age of 75, Brunson still continues to play at an extremely elite level. In 2005, he won his 10th WSOP bracelet, thus proving that age has not taken away any of his sharpness or passion for the game.