There are many poker biographies available, and to some students of the game, those who have succeeded in the most recent era are most useful for those aspiring to greatness. However, in this week’s Poker in Print, we focus on an autobiography written by perhaps the most iconic poker player who has ever sat down to play the game we all love.  

The Godfather of Poker is the story of Doyle Brunson, also known as ‘Texas Dolly’, who famously won two World Series of Poker Main Events in back-to-back years with the final hand of 10-2.  

Brunson, who retired from tournament poker in 2018 after 50 years at the felt, covers mostly his early years in this fascinating book which harks back to a long-gone era of cowboy hats, pistols at dusk and playing poker for a living when even taking a seat in some games was to endanger your life.  

Brunson’s autobiography (the book is co-written with Mike Cochran) covers everything you can imagine and plenty more. As Nolan Dalla calls him in the book, “Brunson is the Babe Ruth of poker”, and it’s easy to see the similarities. Brunson may have become the Godfather of poker as it is today, having been born 87 years ago in 1933, a full six years before the second World War, but he was a young man once and this book revisits that era.