Thursday, April 30, 1998 | 10:22 a.m.
World Series of Poker Director Jim Albrecht said he was "crushed" when he learned that his longtime friend, gambler Doyle Brunson, had been robbed at his home following a tournament event at Binion's Horseshoe hotel-casino.
"I was not feeling right the whole day (Sunday) after learning that someone had done this to Doyle," Albrecht said.
"But he played the situation right (by giving the gunmen the money he had on him and faking a heart attack to scare them off). Doyle is sharp. And he definitely is a survivor."
Indeed, Brunson can well be described as a survivor.
He grew up in a family of poor farmers in the dusty west Texas town of Longworth, where he was born in 1933.
A star basketball player in high school, the 6-foot-3 Brunson earned a scholarship to Hardin-Simmons Baptist College, but lost it when he blew out a knee working a summer job in a gypsum plant.
Undaunted by that major setback -- he had been seriously scouted by the National Basketball Association's Minneapolis Lakers -- Brunson took up poker and put himself through college with his winnings. He earned a bachelor's degree in 1954 and a master's in administrative education a year later.
He became a salesman who honed his poker skills while on the road for various companies. He played in places that were so dangerous that guards with machine guns stood at the door to scare away potential robbers.
In 1962, the year he married Louise Harmon, a Texas pharmacist, Brunson was diagnosed with cancer, which had spread from his neck throughout his body.
He'd later write in his highly acclaimed book on poker "Super System": "I was a big (under)dog to live longer than four months."
He underwent an eight-hour operation at Houston's M.D. Anderson Hospital Cancer Center and the cancer later went into remission.
"My brush with death had apparently triggered innate abilities that had never surfaced before," Brunson wrote in his book. "After the surgery, I was aware of things I'd never been aware of before -- colors were so vivid."
In addition to winning world championships in the $10,000 buy-in no-limit Texas hold 'em events in 1976 and '77, Brunson placed second in the 1980 world title game.
Brunson, a Las Vegas resident since 1973, was the first player to win $1 million in World Series tournament events. In 1987, Brunson was elected to the poker hall of fame at Binion's Horseshoe.
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