Aspiring world poker champions, take heart. Even Doyle Brunson had a "tell."
In 1974, Brunson was debating whether to give up his signature game, no-limit Texas hold 'em -- which would have been like Jimi Hendrix giving up the electric guitar.
Brunson had been losing lately, and he couldn't figure out why. Then a sympathetic colleague took him aside and informed him of his tell -- a mannerism that reveals the strength of a player's hand to his opponents.
"When I was bluffing I'd push my chips in like this," Brunson said the other day, demonstrating by shoving a neat pile of poker chips forward on the table, as if going "all in."
"But when I had a real hand, I'd put them into smaller stacks first, like this, then stack them up and push them in," Brunson said in his craggy Texas drawl. "I didn't do it every time, but enough that it was a tell. I almost gave up poker."
It was a turning point in Brunson's long and splendid career as a gambler.
Once he corrected the flaw, Brunson went on to win consecutive World Series of Poker championships at Binion's Horseshoe in 1976 and 1977. He has since won millions of dollars in poker tournaments and live-money games, and continues to play high-stakes poker in Las Vegas casinos.
In 1978 he published "Super/System," a how-to book so influential that poker players took to calling it the "Bible of Poker."
And this year, with the poker craze in full bloom across the nation, Brunson has released the long-awaited sequel, "Super System 2" (Cardoza Publishing, $34.95).
Fittingly, they're calling it the "New Testament."
"More people have been asking for this book than for any other in the 26 years I've been here," said Howard Schwartz, marketing director at the Gambler's Book Shop on South 11th Street. "At the time of the highest interest in poker in history, it fills a very important niche."
As he did with the original, for "Super System 2" Brunson recruited an all-star roster of gamblers to write chapters on how to clean up in various forms of poker. Among them are Mike "The Mad Genius" Caro, Jennifer Harman, Daniel Negreanu and Mirage Resorts president Bobby Baldwin, a former poker pro.
Brunson himself handles chapters on online poker, tournaments and no-limit hold 'em, which he once famously called the "Cadillac of poker games."
In a recent appearance at the Gambler's Book Shop, Brunson set the record straight on a long-standing misconception. Since the publication of the original "Super/System," a tale has circulated that Brunson had regrets about his decision to publish such powerful poker information because it made the games much tougher to beat.
"I never said that -- it was Amarillo Slim who said that, and some of the other pros," Brunson said. "I never had any reservations about giving (the information) away. We just did the best job we could.
"And I was right, because look at poker today. That book made a lot of good poker players."
With big tournaments carrying multimillion-dollar prize purses, and with those events in seemingly continual play on ESPN and ESPN2 and the Travel Channel, poker players in the past couple of years have taken on an aura of rock stars.
It's a different world from the one Brunson knew as a younger man working the old Texas circuit as a road gambler in the 1950s and '60s.
"I still haven't gotten used to it," Brunson, 71, said. "It still blows me away. These young kids don't realize how good they have it -- just walk in (to a casino) anytime, find a game. We had to drive 500 miles sometimes just to find a game. You have to come from where I came from to appreciate it."
Brunson said he has no use for the antics some of the younger players display in televised tournaments -- leaping around the cardroom after winning a hand, mugging for the camera.
"That stuff's not part of the game for me, anyway," Brunson said. "It's not my personality."
It might work for someone like star player Phil Hellmuth, Brunson said. In his frequent TV appearances, Hellmuth has cult!
Jeff Haney Las Vegas Sun
In 1974, Brunson was debating whether to give up his signature game, no-limit Texas hold 'em -- which would have been like Jimi Hendrix giving up the electric guitar.
Brunson had been losing lately, and he couldn't figure out why. Then a sympathetic colleague took him aside and informed him of his tell -- a mannerism that reveals the strength of a player's hand to his opponents.
"When I was bluffing I'd push my chips in like this," Brunson said the other day, demonstrating by shoving a neat pile of poker chips forward on the table, as if going "all in."
"But when I had a real hand, I'd put them into smaller stacks first, like this, then stack them up and push them in," Brunson said in his craggy Texas drawl. "I didn't do it every time, but enough that it was a tell. I almost gave up poker."
It was a turning point in Brunson's long and splendid career as a gambler.
Once he corrected the flaw, Brunson went on to win consecutive World Series of Poker championships at Binion's Horseshoe in 1976 and 1977. He has since won millions of dollars in poker tournaments and live-money games, and continues to play high-stakes poker in Las Vegas casinos.
In 1978 he published "Super/System," a how-to book so influential that poker players took to calling it the "Bible of Poker."
And this year, with the poker craze in full bloom across the nation, Brunson has released the long-awaited sequel, "Super System 2" (Cardoza Publishing, $34.95).
Fittingly, they're calling it the "New Testament."
"More people have been asking for this book than for any other in the 26 years I've been here," said Howard Schwartz, marketing director at the Gambler's Book Shop on South 11th Street. "At the time of the highest interest in poker in history, it fills a very important niche."
As he did with the original, for "Super System 2" Brunson recruited an all-star roster of gamblers to write chapters on how to clean up in various forms of poker. Among them are Mike "The Mad Genius" Caro, Jennifer Harman, Daniel Negreanu and Mirage Resorts president Bobby Baldwin, a former poker pro.
Brunson himself handles chapters on online poker, tournaments and no-limit hold 'em, which he once famously called the "Cadillac of poker games."
In a recent appearance at the Gambler's Book Shop, Brunson set the record straight on a long-standing misconception. Since the publication of the original "Super/System," a tale has circulated that Brunson had regrets about his decision to publish such powerful poker information because it made the games much tougher to beat.
"I never said that -- it was Amarillo Slim who said that, and some of the other pros," Brunson said. "I never had any reservations about giving (the information) away. We just did the best job we could.
"And I was right, because look at poker today. That book made a lot of good poker players."
With big tournaments carrying multimillion-dollar prize purses, and with those events in seemingly continual play on ESPN and ESPN2 and the Travel Channel, poker players in the past couple of years have taken on an aura of rock stars.
It's a different world from the one Brunson knew as a younger man working the old Texas circuit as a road gambler in the 1950s and '60s.
"I still haven't gotten used to it," Brunson, 71, said. "It still blows me away. These young kids don't realize how good they have it -- just walk in (to a casino) anytime, find a game. We had to drive 500 miles sometimes just to find a game. You have to come from where I came from to appreciate it."
Brunson said he has no use for the antics some of the younger players display in televised tournaments -- leaping around the cardroom after winning a hand, mugging for the camera.
"That stuff's not part of the game for me, anyway," Brunson said. "It's not my personality."
It might work for someone like star player Phil Hellmuth, Brunson said. In his frequent TV appearances, Hellmuth has cult!
Jeff Haney Las Vegas Sun
