Poker legend Doyle Brunson has shared another incredible story with his fans – the time he lost $6million to Chip Reese during the World Series of Poker, handing him his only losing year out of 65 at the poker tables…
Brunson’s lifetime of cardroom tales has included shootings, robberies, deaths and more as well as the highest stakes cash games, biggest tournament victories and clashes with his fellow greats.
Losing $6million has to be up there with the most outrageous of them, and perhaps the reason Brunson often describes Reese as a prime contender for poker’s GOAT – Greatest of All-Time.
Although he boasts 10 WSOP gold bracelets, Texas Dolly uses the WSOP as a means to playing many of the world’s best players in cash games in Bobby’s Room at the Bellagio.
That, it seems, is where the $6million he lost to Reese disappeared – most of it at Chinese poker where the “stakes were huge” says Doyle.
It’s far from his most outrageous times at the table, though, recalling one game in Fort Worth, Texas.
“My 1st year as a pro, I was playing in a pool hall on the stockyards when a man came in and shot a player. His brains seemed to splatter all over the wall. We all ran out the back door to keep from talking to cops. We had to go through a cold, cold creek.”
Death at the table, it seems, wasn’t entirely unusual…
…and a discussion of armed robberies in the cardroom saw Doyle reveal one poker rule you might not have heard of:
“When the robbers get the drop on you, you give it up. But not if you had an even chance.”
Doyle’s favourite defence, however, seems to be the love of a good woman – his wife of 58 years, Louise, always supporting him.
“I knew when the feds called her to a grand jury, she took the 5th on every question. That's when I knew she was the one. this was before we married.”