Doyle Brunson Blog

I just got back from Texas again. It’s like stepping into another world when I get there. The economy is thriving and the people are optimistic, quite a far cry from the doom and gloom you hear around Vegas. The oil wells, wind farms, dairy farms, cattle ranches and cotton and peanut farms seem to make the residents of West Texas have plenty of money. that translates into successful restaurants, shops, banks, etc. We tend to live in our own small part of the world and we just forget just how big our planet is.

Because I came from the farming country, I found some interesting changes. When I was young we used to watch the skies praying for rain to enable our cotton to grow. We had to fight boll weevil, lice, rabbits that ate the cotton, etc. We had to spray the cotton, chop the weeds out of it, then harvest it by hand. Today’s farmers have a new strain of cotton that eliminates the weevils and lice completely. They spray the young cotton one time which kills all the weeds. Most of the farms are irrigated and harvested mechanically. In the meantime, a single tractor can cost upward of $250,000. Farmers have to have lots of crops to afford all the machinery they have to buy.

Another interesting thing was as I was driving away from the Midland-Odessa airport, I could see hundreds of cars parking in a giant field. They were having a huge three-day concert by a group of rockers called Rock the Desert. I googled them and they play Christian rock music. Lots of Christian folks down in Texas, again a far cry from the majority of young people around Vegas.

My sister had just gotten a cast off her broken arm when I arrived. She had fallen on her patio and snapped the bone. I think falling is one of the primary dangers in older poeple’s lives. Puggy Pearson got up to go to the bathroom, slipped and hit his head, killing him. My old golfing buddy, Fred Barnes from Mobile, fell backward going up some steps, killing himself instantly. I saw a boy from Amarillo who told me Amarillo Slim had fallen down a flight of stairs, breaking 5 ribs. I know my crutch has saved me many times.

Nothing much to do in Andrews, TX so I watched a lot of TV. While I was there I watched a couple things I had no idea about on 60 Minutes. turkey is 90% Muslim (I googled it and 98% profess the Islamic faith) and has mosques everywhere where they go to pray 5 times a day. If the current trend continues, Muslims will control the world in just over 1/2 a century.

The other thing that amazed me was that our country spends 55 billion dollars a year on terminally ill people during the last two months of their lives. Even if the patients in a hospital have a clause in their will or living trust (as I have) about declining any use of life support, the money is spent giving almost useless tests from head to toe. Good Googa Mooga! I know I won’t die tied down to some hospital bed hooked up to some machine.

I’d like to thank the hundreds, maybe thousands, of people that wished me Happy B-day on Facebook and Twitter. I ran out of room on Twitter trying to read the messages and my e-mail overflowed with messages on my wall from Facebook. I was surprised at the number of folks that had the same birthday as mine. Even though I remember the old gambler/con man Titanic Thompson used to have all sorts of proposition bets about that. I believe if you take 22 random people you are a big favorite to find two with the same birthday. I’m pretty sure if you take 50 random people you will find one that has your B-day. Titanic had other props but I’m not sure what the B-day props were. Anyway, I know my lucky number has always been 7 and now I have a pair of 7’s to draw to

-DB

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I got to play in a big cash game in L.A. last week. It was a bunch of fun guys (rich, too) and I really enjoyed it. One of the regulars was a friend of mine that I hadn’t seen for 35 years. He didn’t have two nickels to rub together when I knew him and now he has hundreds of millions. I’d say that is a pretty good success story. I played twice winning one time and losing once.

When I got to the house the game is played in, I couldn’t believe it. It was 5 stories high on the top of a mountain overlooking the city. The lift was broken and I climbed the five stories of marble stairways with my crutch. My legs and knees are so sore I have trouble sleeping at nights. I’m not going back until the lift is fixed.

At the top of the house where the game is sits a piano. It was Nat King Cole’s instrument and I sat down and played a song my mom taught me when I was six years old. I didn’t know I could play anything besides chopsticks. Yep, me and Nat.

Every time I fly I think about how unfair our system is. I usually get a wheelchair to ride to my gate because of my bad leg. Every single time, because I have a metal implant in my shoulder and set off the alarm, I go through an intensive search that takes a long time because not only do they shake me down completely, they go over the chair with a fine tooth comb. I suppose it’s necessary but it seems a little extreme. The funny part is that almost all of the security guards must be poker fans and they recognize me. However it doesn’t keep them from being very thorough on their final examination. I even have to take my shoes and belt off along with the usual stuff. I guess it’s better safe than sorry though.

My publicist, Lara Miller, sold everything she owned except what she could carry in a backpack. She left her business and embarked on a 3-4 year journey around the world. She is currently in India and she regularly blogs and sends tweets about her trip. She has a $14 a day budget and plans on hitchhiking across Asia and Europe. I can’t imagine all the dangers she is going to encounter doing that. But, she is determined to do so even after I tried to talk her out of it. Can you just imagine an attractive 34 year old woman hitchhiking across some of those countries? I told her the only way she could possibly not get raped is to carry cards in every language and give them out at the opportune moment. The card would say, “Go ahead, but I have aids.” That might save her but I really fear for what could happen, being all alone in foreign countries.

I just got a tweet from Lara saying she is having a great time. She says the only poker players the folks in India know are “texdolly” and the “unabomber”. Can you imagine that? The world is a funny place.

Someone sent me an e-mail about the World’s Shortest Books. I thought some of them were very funny so I tweeted a few of them on Twitter. The response was amazing. I got hundreds and hundreds of humorous jokes about short books. I retweeted the ones I thought were the best and they just kept coming and I kept retweeting them. I had 346,000 followers when I started and I lost 900 of them because they didn’t like it because of the volume. After two days of travel and no tweets, I’m back to 345,500. The one that I received the most was “Humility” by Phil Hellmuth. My favorite was “Different ways to comb your hair” by Doyle Brunson.

I’m almost through with my seven implants (yeaaah-). It’s time to make my way to Montana for a relaxing time with my dogs and my family. I’m gonna beat Todd at the shooting range this time. Adios 110 degree weather, hello 81 degree weather!!

-DB

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The 2010 WSOP is over finally. At least my part is finished and I’m sweating Johnny Chan and rooting for him. I had a bad series, playing nine events without cashing. I feel I played reasonably good in six of them but played two poorly and one extremely bad. I was on a losing streak going into the World Series of Poker and I’m a complete bottom line guy and don’t believe in making excuses. I do still have a very good memory and I review my play in my mind after every game. While I can see a couple of things that I’ve been doing that are definitely wrong, it seems I’ve been unlucky and am playing well enough that I should be winning. But I’m going to take a little time off, come back to the cash games and re-evaluate my game.

For all the people that have asked about the results of Daniel Negreanu and my bets in the main event, I’ve won two and lost one. It was a lot of fun sweating the tournament and while our bets weren’t 7 figures, they were large enough to be interesting.

All my neighbors were referring to my backyard as Brunson’s Brothel because all the feral cats came to a spot over my waterfall to give birth to their kittens. My family was trapping the kittens and taking them to no-kill shelters and vets for adoption. The daddy of almost all of the kittens was a scoundrel Siamese cat. He is white and has the cutest offspring you can imagine. We tried to adopt two of them but my wife is so allergic we had to give them up. It’s really a shame because they were a lot of fun. I’m putting out cat repellent, which is nothing but pepper, to close down Brunson’s Brothel.

My high school class is having our 60th reunion this fall and I can’t wait to see some of my old friends. The class of 1950 has had a reunion every five years and we have really developed some strong bonds among us. We have lots of success stories from our class, all the way from State Senators, famous lawyers, award winning journalists, and lots of distinguished teachers and educators. I was the black sheep of the class but thank goodness, they finally accept me and my profession. Took a while though.

-DB

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Bets for Daniel

I actually think Daniel, you need to change medications because I think you have lost it when it comes to these bets. But you certainly have your six world beaters I’ve never heard of against my three great old timers. But again, my old pal Titanic Thompson used to tell me that difference in opinion is what makes good gambling. Would your bunch be interested in coming by Bobby’s Room and give us some lessons afterwards? They have to leave their poker tracking, HUDs, etc at home though.

No, I wouldn’t bet on Dewey Tomko in golf against someone I didn’t know. It shouldn’t be too hard to figure out that I know there are plenty of golfers that can beat Dewey that I don’t know. However, I don’t believe there are very many players better than three proven world champions. Our bets are won on the amount of money cashed in the main event. Win or lose, I’ll be glad to be on my team any place, any time. It will be fun, we will work out how much we are betting.

1st Bet

My team is:

Todd Brunson
Hoyt Corkins
Dewey Tomko
Zach Clark
Steve Gross
Amit Makhija
Alex Kamberis
Chris Moorman
Dani Stern
Daniel Kelly
Faraz Jaka
David Sands
Michael Martin

Dan’s team is:

Jason Mercier
Dan Negreanu
Joe Hachem
Elky Grospellier
Ivan Demidov
Will Thorson
JP Kelly
Jose Barbero
Lex Velduis
Jude Ainsworth
Arnaud Mattern
?
?

Daniel needs to add 2 more PS players. In the event everyone doesn’t start, we take players from the bottom of the list until we have an equal number of starteres

2nd Bet

I have:

Johnny Chan
Phil Hellmuth
Barry Greenstein

Dan has:

Bill Reynolds
Will Molson
Tom Marchese

3rd Bet

I have:

John Chan
Phil Hellmuth
Barry Greenstein

Dan has:

Vivek Rajkunar
Jason Somerville
Richard Lyndaker

I just got word that Daniel Kelly won the $25k tournament. That’s 1,300,00 for a 21 year old kid and it officially makes him the newest member of the Brunson 10.

Way to go Daniel!

Yes, I know I left myself off our team. My mouth hurts from all the dental work, my leg hurts, my back hurts, etc. I’ve been around long enough to know I’m not playing my best right now so I’m not going to let my ego hurt my team’s chances. I need a few weeks of rest in Montana.

-DB

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I went to the dentist Wednesday instead of playing in the 25K tournament at the WSOP. I desperately want to get this implant stuff out of the way because it’s driving me crazy. It’s like getting on a Ferris Wheel at the circus, once you start, you can’t stop. Six months ago, I thought I would be through before now but when you go into sinus lifts, extractions, bone grafts, healing caps, etc. It seems you never get through. It will be October before it’s over.

It is absolutely amazing how different people interpret things. In my last blog I said I get along with Phil Ivey if we don’t have to use the same bathroom. Surely the entire world would know that was a joke. I remember seeing the movie Brian’s Song where a teammate of Gayle Sayers said that and I thought it was very funny. But no, I’ve been accused of racism, being a redneck and a hillbilly. One article said I wanted separate bathrooms because of the difference of our penis size and I would be embarrassed. It’s comical but also a little bit aggravating.

Daniel Negreanu is pretty talkative about our TOC bets (which I still like). It’s too bad I didn’t get to the Rio instead of the dentist. Dan said he would take Bill Reynolds, Will Nelson and Tom Manchese against Chan, Greenstein and Hellmuth. Wow, would he have got that on! Is that offer good for the main event? Or any other tournament you can find?

I’ve got an interesting bet for Daniel. I’ll take 10 DoylesRoom pros against any 10 Poker Stars pros in the main event. 4 bets, who goes farther, who cashes, who makes final table and who wins. That will be fun and maybe Dan can finally pick himself.

I see where Ivey and Juanda have motor homes in the parking lot at the Rio. That’s a great idea and I have a motor home in Montana that I’m going to bring to the 2011 WSOP. That would be a neat spot to take the long breaks in. Also, you could sleep there if you had an early start the next day.

-DB

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After playing 5 events at the WSOP I still haven’t cashed. I played the worst poker of my life yesterday in the Omaha 8 or Better. I had little interest in the event and played like a rank beginning. At least I got down to the final 30 players in 3 of the 5 tournaments. I may take a few days off and try to figure out my lack of enthusiasm. It’s hard enough to win when you are focused so I’ve gotta turn things around.

I noticed a few men entered the ladies tournament. I think they should be barred from entering anymore events this year. I suppose the WSOP had to allow them to enter but what self respecting man would stoop to entering a ladies tournament?

Congrats to Phil Laak for breaking the existing Guinness record for playing longer than any recorded session. Phil played 115 hours with no drugs, not even caffeine. Not to take away from his remarkable achievement, when I was 25 years old I played 5 days and nights. But I drank tons of coffee. I also saw two old time cowboy poker players Johnny Moss and Paul Harvey, play from Monday morning until Friday night. They slept Saturday and Sunday and came back the next Monday morning and played until the next Friday night. They also drank a lot of coffee so that makes Phil’s 115 hours a credible mark.

There has been a lot of ink about Annette Obrestad and me and our “feud”. Actually I believe now that Annette’s remark about cash game players vs. online players was taken out of context. That’s an old argument and will never be proven either way. My response was ill-advised and very inappropriate. I should know better after all these years of listening to poker talk.

I didn’t mean to offend anyone in my last blog about being an atheist. This is America and you can believe whatever you want. What I don’t understand is why most atheists, particularly the younger ones, get so angry when someone does profess their faith. I’ve listened and studied both sides and I can’t imagine believing there is not a higher power. As for Christianity, there was one compelling fact that convinced me. Almost all of the scholars believe the Jewish scribes kept accurate records. Those records say that all of Jesus’ disciples met violent deaths (except Paul). Every one of them died saying Jesus was God the Son. That’s pretty impressive. But don’t get mad at me because I believe and I won’t be mad at you if you don’t.

P.S. Elpokero, I admire your work and commend you for it. Did you know that my daughter Pam was the executive director for the largest retirement center in California?

-DB

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My blog goes to twelve different publications. I get a kick out of reading the comments that are posted, not only to my blog, but to the others as well. So I deliberately set a trap for the guys that regularly post comments and they fell right into it. These guys shouldn’t play any serious poker. I admire the negative posters that sign their real names and I appreciate the positive ones. But the anonymous posters that want to be insulting and name calling really piss me off.

A typical regular negative poster chooses to use the name LeeTheStrikerChagra. Lee Chagra was a brilliant criminal lawyer who never lost a case. He also was the head of the biggest drug cartel in Texas history. So here is my read on this pathetic poster who doesn’t have the balls to let anyone know who he is. He fancies himself in Lee Chagra’s shoes and I almost guarantee he is an atheist. He is a middle-aged wannabe who is a coward but wants to vent his frustrations by insulting people. He has a hatred of everything and anger is eating him up.

LeeTheStrikerChagra probably struggles to pay his rent and obviously knows nothing about poker because he continuously insults Daniel Negreanu and other poker players. He called me, “just another stetson wearing obese hick from Texas.” Hmm…well, nothing wrong with that but when he insults my family and predicts me and my son will die within a year, he has crossed the line. I’d like to meet him in a dark alley sometime. I shouldn’t have given him these five minutes in the sun but I’m afraid Cardplayer is going to kick him off.

If you want my real political views, they are simple. Democrat, Republican, Liberal or Conservative, if it’s good for America I’m for it. If that means alienating other countries, so be it. We have to have American products be competitive with all these imports. When we get into position to help the entire world, let’s do it. But until then, let’s try to save ourselves. We are on the brink of disaster and we need to address our problems the best we can.

Here is a honest opinion the “howler monkeys” can take off on. When it comes to national security or saving one American life, I’m all for this. If a terrorist has information we need and he has his testicles tied to a cattle prod and a battery, there are three steps we should follow:

(1) Black is negative

(2) Red is positive

(3) Be sure his balls are wet.

-DB

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After all my complaining about feeling bad, I went to my doctor and got a complete physical. I thought that perhaps I was anemic or low blood sugar was the cause of my lack of energy. But no, the doctor’s word he used as he reviewed my test results was superb. My cholesterol was 170 and all the blood work was perfect. I had an EKG, Cat scans, X-rays and other tests and all had good results for me. Finally, I got a colonoscopy and if I lived in Arkansas, the doc and I would be legally married. I also asked him to tell my son Todd that he didn’t find my head up there.

The best news of all was that I had very little plaque in my arteries and the heart doctor said, barring some unforeseen complication or disease, I should live into my 90’s so no more excuses, I’m going to have a big year in poker for 2010.

DoylesRoom had the Brunson Beer Pong Tournament at Hogs & Heifers biker bar in downtown Las Vegas. The place was completely packed and we had a ball. Zach Clark, one of the Brunson 10, was my partner and we got to the Elite Eight before losing by one cup. Ty Stewart from Harrahs and Brian Bosworth came in second, confirming our belief the Eastern guys spend all their time in bars. Tony Dunst and Leo Murphy were the winners. Ex football star from Oklahoma, Brian (The Boz) Bosworth was there along with lots of poker playing friends.

I got my special edition copies of my autobiography back from a specialist book shop in CA. They are handwoven with gold binding, special engravings and gold leaf paper. I only got 15 for special friends and family with their name engraved in gold on the front. They are beautiful and cost $800 each. I’m trying to get them reproduced at a lower price for other friends.

At least I’m no longer a bachelor. Louise got back from a 2 month stay in Hawaii because of her allergies here. It’s hard to live alone after 48 years of marriage. My dogs Casper and Cutie were almost as glad to see her as I was.

I’ll say one thing, Daniel Negreanu is very vocal about his dislike of UB and the Cereus poker network. I think that he is right about everything that happened, but I’m not sure we should completely throw them under the bus. It seems they are trying to do the right thing now and keep things under control, but how on earth could they allow something like this breach of security? I know some of the former owners are still in the office at UB so they have to go the extra mile with their security. It is a mystery to me how poker players keep going there and that brings me to my next subject.

I hope Nevada watched the Mike Huckabee TV show with his guest being the Las Vegas mayor, Oscar Goodman. I remember everyone was on my case for voting for McCain when Obama was supposedly pro-poker. I knew the election was over when I voted and I was just being a loyal Republican. If I thought my vote would have mattered, I probably would have voted for Obama. But forget about pro-poker, bailouts, immigration, apologizing to other countries for America, budget deficit and all the other problems of this administration. Oscar had the statistics of what happened after Obama’s 2 remarks about “not going to Vegas.” According to Goodman, a gigantic dip in canceled conventions after our President’s first comment and a sharp decline in visitors immediately after his 2nd “stay away from Vegas.” Our mayor said Obama was directly responsible for Vegas being the hardest hit city from the recession. I don’t see how any resident in Nevada could ever vote for Obama after this.

Vegas may never recover.

Besides that, how do you like this quote from Obama’s book, “Audacity of Hope”? “I will stand with the Muslims should the political winds shift in a ugly direction.” If that doesn’t scare Americans, what will?

The WSOP has started and my 1st event, the $50k mixed games, was the ultimate nightmare. I went deep, 30 players were left when I busted, 14 away from cashing. Two 12-hour days back to back and then 10 hours the 3rd day. I played well and my endurance was good so I’m not discouraged. I had to make the opening speech and the “shuffle up and deal.” We were honoring my old pal Chip Reese and it made me realize how much I still miss him.

I’m going to rest until the 7 Card Stud tournament on the 4th. I’ve got to get more focused than I have been. My 1st tip that I needed to concentrate more was when I started brushing my teeth with Preparation H this morning

-DB

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After my fifteen game winning streak on TV cash games was broken on Friday the 13th (shudder), I’ve been getting lots of calls and e-mails about it. I don’t watch that stuff much. Why? Do cab drivers go for rides on their day off? Anyway, I was very surprised there was that much interest in my winning streak. I’ve been criticized over and over in the forums for playing too conservatively but in today’s environment, that is the correct way.

In my last blog I referred to an animal called a Kit Fox. This Kit Fox is catching and eating our neighborhood feral cats. I wasn’t sure what it was so I googled it and sure enough, it is a desert nocturnal animal that eats smaller animals. Some of these feral male cats are really big so the fox probably preys on the young cats. If it wasn’t against the law, (not that it bothers me much) I’d hide in the brush with my shotgun and kill the Kit Fox because I get attached to the cats, even to the point of putting food out for them.

DoylesRoom is sponsoring a beer pong contest at Hogs and Heifers downtown. Lara Miller, our publicist, arranged it and it should be a blast. It is the 26th of this month at 2:00 and will have a true bar-b-que. ESPN is coming to film it in conjunction with the WSOP. We had it last year and my son Todd won it with his partner. Hoyt Corkins and myself were runner-ups. It’s open to everyone so come down and join us.

In response to the comments about me talking about the bad poker shows, I didn’t mean the cash games. I’ve never seen a really bad cash game TV show and I believe the viewing public wants to see real players playing for real cash. And yes, almost all of the guys are playing their own money. DoylesRoom is toying with having a huge cash game with a few different twists. It will be on network TV and will be an interesting show. I was asked to be on the Golf Channel featuring “old time gamblers”, Jack Binion, Bobby Baldwin, Dewey Tomko, Billy Walters, Mike Sexton and myself will be at a luncheon/golf tournament next week. The trouble is I haven’t touched a club in two years and I couldn’t play worth a flip then because of my bad leg. I don’t think I want to perform in front of 180 million viewers with my swing. However, I’ll be happy to do interviews about the old days and talk about today’s economy in Vegas.

I was also invited to be a “celebrity chef” on a food program that airs on Fox this summer. It sounds like fun and I’ll probably do it. I’ve cooked on a grill a lot and my lamb chops are out of sight. Lemon, pepper and liquid smoke are the secret. I’ll fix my (and Paula Dean’s) squash casserole to go with it. I’m getting hungry just thinking about it.

Damn! Just when I was feeling good and had decided to make a full blown run trying to win a bracelet at the WSOP, all of a sudden I feel lethargic with no energy whatsoever. Hopefully it’s what I call the “Brunson Blues”. When I don’t have something to gamble on, I start feeling bad. It’s hard to call yourself a degenerate gambler but I guess that’s what I am. I’ve had 57 years of almost non stop gambling and I need that adrenaline rush. Eli Elezra has been in Israel and he is the only one that will help me start real poker games. Playing on the internet isn’t the same and the NBA playoffs are winding down. Oh well, maybe the WSOP will pick me up when it starts at the end of this month.

-DB

1 Comment

Well, I did it. After reading some of the other poker player’s blogs, I noticed the ones that got the most response and comments were about politics. So I decided to give my opinion on a couple of controversial political topics and sure enough, there were tons of answers and criticism from the various places my blog appears. I noticed Lee Watkinson wrote about it and had 65 comments under his blog. I actually think readers don’t want to read about poker hands unless they are very unusual or happen in a big tournament at a crucial time. But if someone writes about getting two queens beat by A-K or someone making a flush to beat trips, does anyone really care?

For the record, I do have some concerns about today’s government. Do Americans really understand the healthcare bill? It’s downright scary. I’m really worried about the mounting debt we have, the unemployment, the illegal immigrants, the oil spills, terrorists, N. Korea, Iran and on and on. What the heck do people think is going to happen if Iran gets nuclear weapons and starts thinking about Israel? Talk about World War III. Israel will never wait to be attacked, they will strike first. I know if we can’t produce products in America that compete pricewise with imports, we are in for a long recession. If we don’t get to the polls and vote, we have nobody to blame but ourselves.

I got back from Costa Rica just in time to play in Star’s Big Game, a cash poker game to be aired on Fox sometime in June. I can’t give away any results before it airs, but I believe it will be a very good show, rivaling High Stakes as the most popular poker show. The set was spectacular and is the best I’ve seen.
Speaking of Costa Rica, that 3rd world country is really shaping up. I’ve been going there a couple of times a year to visit Doylesroom’s home office. It has changed immensely in that time with new modern buildings being built everywhere. The streets are cleaner and wider than they were and China is building a huge 130 million dollar sports stadium for Costa Rica. Something to do with a political favor. With the addition of DirecTV on Continental Airlines, the flight is much more enjoyable.

On my flight, when we stopped in Houston, the lady sitting next to me started asking me questions about Texas and Texans. She was a schoolteacher from Ohio and when she found out Texas was my home state she wanted to know why Texans loved their state so much. I gave her a brief summary of Texas History, complete with the story of the Alamo and our fight with Mexico that we won to become a Republic. We do have certain bragging rights because when we joined the U.S. as the 29th state, we were given the honor of being able to fly our flag at the same height as Old Glory. We can’t help it if we talk about our heritage as Texans.
I don’t like the response poker is getting about wearing sunshades at the poker table. I’ve been campaigning against allowing them for 20 years. I didn’t know it for years but is a fact that any marks on cards can be seen better with dark glasses. I agree that 99% of the time the person wearing them is innocent of any wrongdoing, but the tournament directors should take control of the danger. Even though lots of the players don’t like it, the human element of seeing your opponent should be a part of poker.

If you remember my referring to my neighborhood as Kittyville, a terrible thing has happened. Despite our calls to Animal Control, they wouldn’t come get the 3 dozen feral cats running loose around here. I noticed there were fewer and fewer animals so I asked one of our security guards if he knew what had happened to them. He reported seeing a Kit Fox (whatever that is) coming across Spanish Hills with a cat in its mouth. Also, there are coyotes roaming around looking for cats and small dogs. My dogs don’t get outside unless someone is with them.

I really felt old this week at the poker table when I said my hometown of Sweetwater, Texas has an unusual record. In the 1st draft into the NFL Hall of Fame, Sweetwater, a town of 10,000 people, had two inductees. They were Sammy Baugh and Bulldog Turner and no one at the table had ever heard of them. It reminded me of a poker interview when the reporter asked me who was the greatest poker player I had played with. I told him, “Chip Reese” and he didn’t know who he was. I guess this quote I have on a plaque in my office is true. “No one remembers the headliners of yesterday. Awards tarnish, achievements are forgotten and accolades and certificates are buried with their owners.”

Perhaps that is as it should be.
-DB

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