On Having A “Doyle Brunson”
Monday, February 2, 2009 - John Greene
You ever have one of those friends who loves to make sure that you know they’ve read more than their share when it comes to poker books, poker websites, poker news, etc? Not that I’m not guilty of it myself, but I generally assume that my associates know that I am a hyperintelligent poker oracle and I don’t really need to show it off by spouting off knowledge when we could be talking about something else, like how I shouldn’t be buying any more rounds because I paid for the first two or three. (This strategy, by the way, is one of my favorites. When your first few friends arrive at the pub, cover them. By the time the group reaches critical mass, you’re out of the rounds loop because you covered the first few.)
Anyway. This hanger-on in my circle of pals is Jimmy. Jimmy is one of those guys. He’s always using the slang, to the point where a conversation with him requires a translator. Someone wanted to know how the tables were treating me and I told them fine and we all moved on, until Jimmy suddenly pipes up with “Hey, John! I was in a game at the Wynn a couple of weeks ago and punched out at the best time. When I was up by $3,000, I got a Doyle Brunson and saw it was a sign.”
This grinds the entire rest of the conversation (which I think was about Blu-Ray players and how I’m not going to buy one) to a halt. I ask Jimmy which Doyle Brunson and he lets me know it was Ace/Queen, a hand that “the man never plays.”
At this, I rolled my eyes. “Brunson plays that hand all the time. He even changed the wording in his SuperSystem book a while back to say he tries not to play it.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Jimmy responds.
Don’t you love it when you can wipe a smile off a schmuck’s face when they’re being extra schmucky?
“I know I’ve seen him play it on at least two of those poker shows, plus he got bumped from the WSOP main event in 07 while holding it.”
Jimmy still didn’t believe. He was willing to wager some single-malt on his sureness. Well, then it got interesting for me. I pulled out my Blackberry, fired up Google, and had him at the bar within 60 seconds. While I do think there’s a lot of pocket cards you shouldn’t play, or hands that look stronger than they really are, there’s very few hands that you’ll never play.
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Tags: ace queen, doyle brunson, Poker Strategy
