The class of Doyle Brunson (non-grumpy content)

I'll confess to having pirated, downloaded copies of every episode of GSN's "High Stakes Poker" on my hard drive. I love that show. It's simply the best poker ever broadcast.

Anyway, today I was watching again an episode from the first season, and it reminded me of the conclusion of the incident, which didn't occur until the second season.

Doyle Brunson and Ted Forrest were in a hand together. Doyle missed his hand, but made a big bluff bet on the river. Ted called. Doyle knew he was beat without even seeing Ted's cards (because Doyle didn't even have a pair), and resignedly said, "Good call." But he then muttered "I know better than to bluff an idiot." He had just a hint of a smile when he said it, but you have to look closely. Doyle does not really think Ted is an idiot--far from it, he put his big money on Ted to take on Andy Beal in their famous series of heads-up matches, which isn't the sort of thing you'd do if you genuinely thought somebody was an idiot at the game. So nobody who knows their history would take it as anything more than a little needle between friends. But, of course, if you don't know them, it looked really nasty.

Nothing more is said about this until season 2, episode 13. Doyle is there, and when Gus Hansen leaves, Ted arrives to take the seat. Before he even sits down, Doyle speaks up: "Ted, I want to apologize to you." Ted is truly puzzled--he has no idea what it's about. He asks, "For what, Doyle?" Doyle says, "I called you an idiot on national television." The whole table breaks into laughter. Ted smiles and says, "Yeah, I saw that." Doyle continues, "I didn't mean to do it." Ted replies, "It's OK, I've got thick skin."

I'm sure that those two had lots of face time together between the airing of the first show and the taping of the second one, but this was the first time that Doyle had approximately the same audience, so that he could make his apology as public as the insult had been.

Lots of people have long memories for when somebody has offended them, but not many tend to remember as long and as well when they have been the offender. It's pretty classy to come back on the show a year later and use the first opportunity to make amends.

I do try hard not to insult other people at the poker table, no matter how provoked. But if I ever slip, I hope I live up to Doyle's example of setting it right again the first chance I have.

Addendum, October 22, 2007

As another example of Doyle's classiness, he writes this in his new book, My 50 Most Memorable Hands:

I've always been a stickler for rules and try to observe them. If a situation comes up when I'm playing poker--even if the floorman rules in my favor--I make it a point to ask: "If my name was John Smith would you make the same ruling?" I don't expect, nor do I want, any favoritism just because I've been around for a long time. I think most rules are made for a purpose and have to be strictly enforced to be effective.