Fascinating true-life adventure of an American treasure, a man who
bluffed death, survived the mean streets of Fort Worth and mob-run Las
Vegas, and bet millions of dollars on everything from poker to golf, to
become a two-time world champion poker player.
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
the real-life mobsters and killers made famous in the movie Casino--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.
