Godfather of Poker

Book excerpt: The story of Doyle Brunson, an American treasure and the greatest poker player of all time, is one for the ages. Its 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.A master of the bluff, his most outrageous bluff came after being pistol-whipped and told hes going to die with a gunman pointing a pistol at his forehead. Again, he lived. 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 Ark and raise the Titanic. Doyles 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.