Doyle Brunson Retires From WSOP

The show piece tournament known as the  $10,000 Main Event is due to get underway on Thursday as the WSOP reaches its final exciting conclusion in Las Vegas.
Every year thousands of amateurs and pros alike enter the prestigious event hoping to take down the most coveted bracelet in poker history, as well as one of the biggest prizes.
However, one player who won’t be taking his place amongst this year’s legion of contenders is the 2-times Main Event winner Doyle Brunson. 
After being eliminated from the $50,000 Poker Player’s Championship, the poker legend took to his twitter account and wrote:
“Busted…Total nightmare…Goodbye WSOP…No main event for me. Maybe the DOJ will stake me.”
Despite his quip about being staked, Doyle Brunson was not serious about his money comment but was most likely taking a sideways swipe at the US Department Of Justice. As Brunson later wrote:
“Tx for all the tweets about my skipping the main event. It’s not about money, I’ve lost a lot of passion for the game since Black Friday.”
Over the past few years Doyle Brunson had been investing quite a bit of his time promoting ‘Doyles Room’ and putting together a team of top, young pros called the Brunson 10. However, Brunson saw all his efforts go to waste after it was seized as part of the US anti-online poker crusade on May 26th, 2011.
As well as the US online poker situation, Brunson, 77, has also suffered from poor health of late and the sheer punishing schedule of the WSOP is sure to have played a part in his dramatic decision.
Many WSOP events demand 12 hours or more of play over at least three days, but that could extend to around eight days for the Main Event, which can be exhausting for even the young players, let alone a man almost in his eighties.
In addition, Doyle Brunson has seen his results at WSOP events slide over the past couple of years, promoting the 10-times bracelet winner to announce at WSOP 2010 that he was playing the worst poker of his career.
Doyle Brunson has earned $2,945,053 from 34 cashes at the WSOP over the years. Between 1976 and 1998 Doyle cashed 21 times for $1,776,278, and since the 2000’s
has cashed a further 13 times for $1,168,775. Brunson hasn’t won a WSOP bracelet since 2005 and his most recent WSOP results are as follows:
2009: $115,789
2008: $140,563
2007: $132,991
2006: $277,932
2005: $367,800
2004: $45,000
2003: $88,700
Tournament fatigue, a couple of years without cashing and the US anti-online poker crusade would seem to have taken their toll on “Texas Dolly,” who has hung up his gloves for this year’s WSOP at least.
The good news is that Doyle will still be playing in cash games, and as he explains:
“Didn’t say I was quitting live poker…geeeez.”