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Sherman Oaks, California Thomas Carlyle said the history of the world is but the biography of great men. Every game has its greats. Jordan, Chamberlain; Gretzky, Howe; Ruth, Aaron; Tiger and Jack. Some say these players are bigger than the game itself. Others take solace in the fact that they elevated the game, setting the bar for generations to come. These players made history and broke records. Individually, they pushed the game beyond what anyone thought possible. Any way you deal it, the history of poker is a biography of Doyle Brunson. Most greats never claim to be just that. Humility is what draws us to them. So it should come as no surprise that Brunson excludes himself from this group. "That's like asking who's the best fighter…(You) have to judge players according to the time they played." Brunson cites Crandall Addington, Jack Straus and Johnny Moss, his mentor, as some of poker's best in the early years. Today there are so many great players – Phil Hellmuth, Daniel Negreanu, Chip Reese. Only one player has stood the test of time. Only one player was the best then and amongst the best today.  His back-to-back victories at the World Series of Poker in '76 and '77 came with the same hand – Ten/Deuce off suit – known as the Doyle Brunson. Doyle Brunson wrote the book on how to be a great player. It's commonly referred to as the "bible of poker" – Super/System. In the book, he uses his playing methods and tendencies to illustrate the nuances of the game, essentially revealing the professional's greatest attribute – the ability to keep their opponent off balance. He told people how to beat him and then said come try. Even though Brunson wrote the book back in the seventies, he is still considered one of the best today – an unflappable human machine capable of dissecting the human condition to a tee and calculating his odds at the table in a split second. "Brunson's an icon. He's paved the way for all of us. I have a ton of respect for him and what he's accomplished in the poker world," says Phil Hellmuth (currently tied with Brunson at 10 WSOP bracelets). For Brunson, poker is a game of people and the strategies you use against them – understanding what the guy across from you is going to do; why he's doing it and when he's going to make his move. "When you're able to put your opponent on exactly the hand he's playing, you can select the best strategy possible for that particular poker situation. A man's true feelings come out in a poker game." Poker's a game of psychology. It's human. A living breathing entity with feelings and emotions. You need to have infallible stamina in order to stay alert the entire game (Brunson was once involved in a game that lasted three days straight). You need the patience of a Buddhist monk, the guts of a base jumper and the brains of a chess master. You have to be able to look into your opponent's soul and read him in the moment as well as take in his behavior throughout the entire course of the game. You have to do that with sometimes up to nine players at the table – hundreds of different people during the course of a massive tournament (the 2006 WSOP Championship event had more than 8000 entrants). "A man with money is no match against a man on a mission." Doyle Brunson was born to farmers in Longworth, Texas in 1933 and straight into poverty. He knew the only way to get out of Longworth and break the hold the depression had on his family was through athletics. He loved sports and had a natural affinity for basketball and running. As a teenager, Brunson spent every day at the local gym, the one his father managed, working on his game. In high school, he was all-state in basketball and won the Texas State Championship in the mile run.
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