Doyle Brunson Killed Twice

It was a case of one-upmanship from Doyle Brunson on Twitter this week as he blasted the opposition away in a fun - what’s worse than the Department of Motor Vehicles? - thread, drawing on his years of dodgy poker encounters to win hands down, or perhaps hands up!

The 84-year old Godfather of poker has long been the focus of ‘RIP Dolly’ threads and fake news stories, with even a Facebook page set up for his eventual departure, ‘Texas Dolly’ as he is nicknamed adding his own twist to the joke with his reply…

Quite where the rumours of his untimely demise originated is a mystery, but Doyle is in good company, the great American writer Mark Twain also reading reports that he’d shrugged off this mortal coil, responding with “The report of my death was an exaggeration”.

Brunson, of course, has been through more illness and death-defying moments than most, surviving more than a dozen cancer scares and operations, one shortly after his marriage and with a child on the way, as well as at least five gun-wielding robberies.

In 1998 he faked a heart attack during a gunpoint robbery at his Las Vegas Country Club home, claiming the armed thugs “told me, 'you're going to die' about four times."

Just last year Brunson claims he was the intended target of a robbery gone wrong – the robber getting about $500 from his victim, Doyle’s near-neighbour - and “saying he was going to kill his informants for giving him the wrong house,” according to Brunson.