(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, 'POKER SUPERSTARS')ĭOYLE BRUNSON: People that you thought were your friends actually looked down on you because they thought you were some kind of a gangster or something because you were a poker player. It was a reputational risk at the time, as he said on the show, 'Poker Superstars.' Then, he broke his leg, and that injury set him on a different path.ĬHANG: He started out small, playing weekend poker games around Texas. He played college basketball and was on track to join the Minneapolis Lakers in the 1950s. Doyle Brunson's career in many ways parallels the trajectory of the game he played - from an illicit backroom card game to a widely televised sport.īrunson didn't start out as a card player. The man known to some as the godfather of poker has died.
