I will tell you that I was I think 40, like 25 years ago, and that was the very first time playing with the best of the world. We all knew that Doyle wrote the books and that Doyle is poker, basically. And it was obviously, it was like playing with God back then. Bellagio opened a week later, I started playing the $1,000/$2,000, and it was with Doyle and Chip (Reese). And they made us move all the high limit to Bellagio. And I loved the Mirage because I won my WPT (World Poker Tour) over there. And I remember that when we played at the Mirage, Bobby Baldwin came and said that all the high limit was moving to Bellagio. From countless heads-up Chinese sessions to his last WSOP Main Event final table appearance in 1983, from reminiscing about Texas backroom games to paying $4,000 in a bet involving an illegal golf club, here are the memories those players have with the late Poker Godfather.Ī Look at Doyle Brunson Through the Lens What Is Your First Memory With Doyle Brunson? Doyle Brunson and Eli ElezraĮli Elezra (Poker Hall of Famer longtime friend of Doyle Brunson): The very first time we were playing was, I started playing high limit at The Mirage, and we were playing $500/$1,000 to start. Whether it was at a WSOP Final Table, under the cameras of a televised cash game or inside the legendary Bobby's Room (now the Legends Room) at Bellagio, sitting down with Texas Dolly is a memory few players are likely to forget.ĭuring and shortly after the 2023 WSOP, PokerNews interviewed 13 players who knew and played with Brunson to learn about the impact he had on their lives, playing styles and poker careers. Every poker player who was lucky enough to play with the legendary Doyle Brunson remember doing so, from old-school players like Billy Baxter and Steve Zolotow to a younger generation of players that included Tom Dwan and David Williams. It would be difficult to overstate Brunson's impact on the poker world. Brunson even lived to witness the most recent iteration of the WSOP as it moved on-Strip and revamped the Horseshoe brand in 2022. Brunson saw the World Series of Poker take shape at Binon's Horseshoe in downtown Vegas and was there as it moved to the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in the mid-2000s. Brunson, known to all as the Godfather of Poker, was there in the 1960s and 1970s when poker was a road gambler activity confined to underground Texas card rooms, and he was among those who moved west to play the earliest poker games in Las Vegas. When Doyle Brunson passed away at the age of 89 on May 14, 2023, the poker community lost its most iconic figure. Fake Heart Attacks, Salad Police & Old Groovy.What Is Your First Memory With Doyle Brunson?.

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