DOYLISM OF THE DAY: "Poker is War. People pretend it is a game".

DOYLISM OF THE DAY: "Poker is War. People pretend it is a game".

This has been a busy week. Two years ago, Mike Cochran and I spent three months writing my autobiography. Mike was an award-winning writer for the Associated Press for over forty years. He was also a college classmate fifty-four years ago and has written five books, two of which have been made into TV movies. Mike had an interesting career with the AP covering all the major crimes that were committed in Texas. He was in The Space Center in Houston when Neil Armstrong landed on the moon. He was a pall bearer at Lee Harvey Oswald's funeral. He had written several articles on poker and on me for the AP. He was also a close friend, so he was an easy choice to be my writer. I decided after we finished the book it was going to be a lot of trouble for me to promote it the way the publisher wanted me to. I don't have time for the things I want to do now but everybody has convinced me I should update it and get Mike back out. So Mike spent the week and while we didn't finish the job he has plenty of material to work on until I get back from the Irish Open later this month. I still have reservations about releasing this book but it is too late now.

The NBC Heads Up Tournament started yesterday with the pairing drawings party. It is always a fun event even though I passed playing in it last year because my disgust of the passing of the UIGEA bill by the Senate. I had a long interview with NBC before my first match and I really sounded off about the underhanded way the UIGEA was passed. I also told them how I had predicted that this passage would sink the Republicans in the upcoming elections. I was right. The Democrats won the Senate and believe me we will have a Democratic President.

I felt like a walking billboard for DoylesRoom with a band on my hat and a patch on my shirt. I think the internet poker sites have overdone it with all the logos. But, we have to compete. We have eight members of Team Brunson: Me, Todd Brunson, Chad Brown, Gabe Kaplan, T.J. Cloutier, Sam Grizzle, Eli Elezra, and Shannon Elizabeth. Shannon, by the way, is a stunningly beautiful woman.

I drew Sammy Farha for my first match at the NBC Tournament. I didn't like my draw because Sammy is going to make anyone gamble very quickly. I know all the 'small ball' players won't agree with me but I refuse to let anyone chop me out in a tournament. In a cash game you can wait for a hand to punish a guy with but in a tournament where you can't get more chips, it is a different story. Sammy makes oversized raises before the flop and then keeps betting, forcing his opponent to hold a hand he can call or raise with. If you miss the flop three or four times in a row, a third of your chips are gone and you are at a huge disadvantage when the blinds go up. So I decided to reverse things and come over the top every opportunity. I could tell Sammy was surprised when I re-raised him the first five times he raised. My strategy worked because when he finally called my all-in raise, he had lost one-half of his $20,000 buy in. I was in a hand with a K-Q against his A-Q but I caught a King and won a very fast match. Eric Lindgren beat Eli and I play him tomorrow. I expect a very different game with Eric - DB