The Biggest Game in Town by A. Alvarez

Author:A. Alvarez [Alvarez, A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Card Games, Gambling, Games & Activities, Non-Fiction, Poker
ISBN: 9781408806630
Google: j_NCoEp3fN0C
Amazon: 0811834344
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Published: 2002-02-02T00:00:00+00:00

'The most valuable thing I've got is my time,' he answered. 'It's more valuable to me than money or anything else.'

It was the only sign he ever gave of being a man who feels he is living on borrowed time.

We had arranged to meet at such an ungodly - and un­Vegas - hour because for five days, beginning May 4, the Doyle Brunson Invitational Golf Tournament was being held at the tight little course behind the Dunes Hotel, and Brunson took me along to watch. The tournament does not have the approval of the Professional Golfers Association, since their rules specify that the players do not involve themselves in gambling. Brunson grumbled about this all the way out to the course. He was riled by the hypocrisy. 'All golfers gamble, even if it's only for a buck or two,' he said. 'What difference does the scale make?' But he was also riled because a Baptist upbringing dies hard, and he is touchy about the shady public image of his chosen profession. The year before - '1980 was my year of reunions' - he had gone home to Longworth and met his ancient first-grade teacher. She fixed him reproachfully with her pale blue eyes and asked him what he did. He told me, 'I said, "Play poker," and she just looked at me and shook her head and said, "My goodness, can't you find something better to do?'" He, too, shook his head, mournfully. 'That's the attitude of the whole community,' he went on. 'They're country people, good people, but they don't understand that there are ways of life different from the ones they are used to, and they won't accept them.' To be very rich as well as respected and famous in certain circles yet still to be looked down on by what gamblers call 'the straight world' is an irony that Brunson is unable to appreciate.

Despite the PGA, several dozen young golf professionals had entered the tournament, and about the same number of gamblers had gathered for the action. They milled around in the clubhouse while Brunson lumbered out to the first tee and back, to work out the odds. 'I watch 'em hit one ball, then I make a lineup,' he said. He took notes of the bets on the back of an envelope and paid the winners in cash as soon as the game was over.

Brunson spent a great deal of time that day in consultation with a little man called Billy. Billy had a full head of gray hair, an assertive backside, and a sly satyr's face - eyes sharp and slitted, the corners of his mouth upturned at some permanent secret joke. I heard him say, 'I bet ten thousand on each man.'

'You like that two-to-one bet, you got it,' Brunson answered.

Later, Brunson told me that Billy was 'the biggest sports bettor in the world.' He sounded respectful, and I wondered how big is big, since Brunson himself once lost $180,000 on a single hole of golf, and often plays for $200,000 or $300,000 a round.

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