The Godfather of Poker Tells All

Tweet Share

If there were a Mount Rushmore for poker players Doyle Brunson’s face would certainly be carved into it. No one else alive today qualifies for the title Godfather more than the Texas poker legend who was there from the beginning of everything that matters: poker, Vegas, Texas Hold’em, the World Series of Poker. But unlike Vito Corleone, this Godfather does not respect the laws of Omerta, and tells all in his recently released autobiography. For that we should all be grateful.

The Godfather of Poker: The Doyle Brunson Story, coauthored with award-winning AP reporter and three-time Pulitzer Prize nominee Mike Cochran, is 352 pages of western lore and legend. And while many poker players are familiar with 76-year-old Doyle’s history and have undoubtedly heard a story or two, the book unfolds in a leisurely, unpretentious, chronological fashion that covers the complete history without once backing away from the more uncomfortable episodes in Texas Dolly’s life.

And what a life it was. Born in one of the West Texas brown towns that raise more dust than anything else, Brunson busted out of college athletics and a contract with the Lakers when a load of sheet rock crushed his leg along with his NBA hopes. Many believe that tragic event proved to be fortuitous because it led him eventually into poker where he found he could make more in one pot than he could with a week’s paycheck from selling business machines. Poker was something he excelled at, something that came easily to him.

Through the 50s and 60s Brunson began his real education as a Texas road gambler in the backwaters, back alleys and oil-rich boomtowns, and of that time Brunson is quoted as saying that out of a group of 32 guys he played poker with, only he and one other survived the perils of that life. He and his pals were robbed often and it was not uncommon to have men patrolling the roofs with shotguns.

All the characters Brunson bumped up against are here in this book, from the world-class con artists, to the cheats, the scammers, the liars, and the squares, the gangsters, the bookies, the stickup artists and the shills, and they collectively comprise a mosaic of American western realism unmatched in any autobiography that comes to mind.

And yet the best part of the book just may be its portrayal of the ups and downs, of the dizzying roller coaster peaks and valleys common to a gambler’s life. Such as betting $1 million on a single hole of golf. Turning a dollar chip into 100s of thousands of dollars. The disastrous legitimate business failures as well as eventually prospering in the tough field of book publishing. The huge sums of money that flowed through Brunson’s hands are truly remarkable.

It also allows the reader to view the 35 years of life in Las Vegas as seen through a high-stakes poker player’s eyes. Some of the famous and infamous characters include, the mobster known for the movie Casino — Tony Spilotro — Jack and Benny Binion, Chip Reese, and a long list of other legendary figures who became a part of Brunson’s world.

This book has it all and then some.

Find more poker books here >