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Arguably the greatest and most famous poker player of all-time, Doyle Brunson, passed away over the weekend at the age of 89.
The entire poker world mourned the loss of ‘Texas Dolly’ by sharing incredible tributes to the man that literally helped shape the game of poker as it is known today.
I won’t dive too much into how Doyle Brunson impacted the game because that could fill the pages of an entire book series, but he had his own hand named after him. 10-2 is known as the Doyle Brunson Hand, named after the Godfather of Poker, and it’s the hand he won the 1976 World Series of Poker Main Event with. Having a hand named after you is about as iconic as it gets in poker.
On Monday, at the grand opening of the Champions Club Texas, fellow Poker Hall of Famers Phil Hellmuth and Dewey Tomko paid tribute to Doyle Brunson by telling stories about their late friend. Few people knew Doyle better than Dewey Tomko, who tells a story about how Doyle Brunson made more playing golf than Tiger Woods.
Stick around to watch the other stories from Dewey as well:
How Much Money Doyle Brunson Made Playing Golf
Phil Hellmuth asked Dewey Tomko about the mention of Tiger Woods. Dewey, a 3-time WSOP bracelet winner and 2008 Poker Hall of Fame inductee, dives into a story about how much money Doyle Brunson won playing golf.
Dewey Tomko said “people don’t realize what a great golfer Doyle (Brunson) was and how much money he made.” Adding “they know how much money he made playing poker, but, if I had a doubt, they could ask me if they don’t believe it… Doyle made more money on the golf course than Tiger Woods ever did.”
That is a bold, bold claim. Tiger Woods is a billionaire, but most of that money has come through endorsements and business interests. Tiger Woods has won over $121 million in golf tournaments and $157 million from competitive golf.
Dewey Tomko added that Doyle Brunson won “probably a lot more” than Tiger Woods, playing golf. He said that Doyle was very competitive for over 50 years playing golf and they playing “a lot of golf” for “a million dollars a day.”
Dewey Tomko went on to say that if Doyle was making $5 to $10 million a year, playing $1 million/round golf, over the span of 50 years that poker legend Doyle Brunson would have easily made more money than Tiger Woods did in tournaments.
Phil Hellmuth was left stunned. He says he had no idea “the golf action was that big” between Doyle Brunson, Dewey Tomko, and others.
Dewey then went on to talk about how Doyle Brunson made over $10 million in a single week betting on the golf course leading up to a $1M poker tournament they played in. Tomko was gracious in not naming the people Doyle took all the money from on the course, but says that Doyle basically cleaned house at High Stakes Golf.
There really aren’t many people in the world where you could hear these stories and believe them. But this is Doyle Brunson we’re talking about, a man who dominated poker at the highest stakes for over 50 years and well into his 80s.
As is the case with all poker players, it’s hard to estimate just how much money Doyle Brunson won and lost throughout his lifetime. Some media outlets write his fortune was $75 million, others pin it near $25-30M. I won’t even begin to speculate but every figure I’ve seen seems low.
Should you ever want to learn more about the legendary poker style of Doyle Brunson, check out his books Super System and Super System 2. They are both require reading, in my opinion, for anyone serious about the game of poker.