Article

Todd Brunson

So what's been happening in my world? The big event recently was the WPT Fathers & Sons tournament. The event was held at Foxwoods in Connecticut. Now, honestly, there's not much to do in Foxwoods, but we were looking forward to this one. We really liked the concept. It was the first time I had ever done anything like that with my dad in my entire career. The whole experience turned out to be pretty fun. Eventually, we got down to a really exciting match between ourselves and Barry Greenstein and Joe Sebok. It was a great heads-up battle. When we went up against Barry and Joe, they started off with a four to one chip lead. In every story I've read since, Barry's been bragging about how they couldn't lose going heads-up against us… Always failing to mention that overwhelming advantage, of course. As the battle progressed, I said to my dad halfway through that they were playing real aggressive, so we were gonna have to take a three out of two race. And that's what we tried to do but, unfortunately, they won the race and the tournament. Despite not pulling off the victory, my dad and I really enjoyed ourselves.

FRIENDS AND RIVALS

Every pro has some players they relish playing against and some they have more of a rivalry with. For instance, in the Fathers & Sons tournament, I enjoyed playing against Joe Sebok but I've never really battled him too much in my career. I've always been more of a big cash game specialist and he's more of a tournament guy. On the other hand, I would say there's something of a friendly rivalry between me and Phil Hellmuth. Phil talks a lot at the table. It's insane. But the rules don't apply to him when he's in a big hand. If you talk during a hand he's in, not only will he tell you to shut up, but he'll actually ask the floor manager to come over to make sure everyone stays quiet. However, when other guys are in a hand, he'll stand up and shout, talk all he wants. He's unbelievable. Then there are certain guys I just like playing with. For instance, Mike Matusow is one of those guys. He's funny and he likes to get people aggravated, which is always good in my book. The same could be said for Shawn Sheikhan, another one of my favorite players. People sometimes ask me who the toughest guys are to face out there. I always say I'll let you know when I find them.

After the Fathers & Sons tournament, I played at the WPT Five Diamond at the Bellagio. That turned out to be a very uneventful experience for me. How uneventful? Well, I went out at seven at night the very first day. Never had any chips, never really had any cards to speak of. I also played at a big cash game at Binion's. It was actually pretty cool. There were three tables. At mine, I had Clonie Gowen and Vanessa Rousso, to mention just a couple. I was also seated with several internet players. I did well, but I must admit it turned out to be a tougher table than I was expecting. Everyone had been saying, "There'll be a bunch of donkeys at the table." That's what everyone had assumed because of the anonymous internet players participating. But trust me when I say these guys were no donkeys. All of the internet guys I battled against were real good players – very strong. After that I participated in a WPT Boot Camp out in the Bahamas. I was there along with professionals like Gavin Smith, TJ Cloutier, Clonie Gowen and Chip Jett. Gavin was typical Gavin while we were there. I think he was up for about two and a half days straight. I spent some time swimming in the ocean, which I always enjoy. Then it was on to the Holidays. I spent Christmas with my family over at my house. And for New Years, I had a party at my house, which was pretty cool.

PLAY TIME

A poker pro's schedule can be a crazy one. I play a lot of big money games and I play tournaments, too. Tournaments are tricky, though. I like them if I can go deep, but if I can't they become real frustrating real fast. Plus, with so many different people playing, there's such a huge amount of luck involved that it can be really aggravating. That's what's been happening this past year. For the last 12 months or so, I haven't been hitting and it's been tough. I finished in the money in one event at the WSOP (49th in the No Limit Hold 'Em Shootout), but aside from that it's been rather dry.

The previous two years, however, it was a completely different matter. In 2005 I had a sensational tournament campaign. For instance, I cashed in four different events at the 2005 WSOP. And it was a nice variety of strong performances, too. One was a No Limit Hold 'Em, another was a Pot Limit Hold 'Em. But the area of my game that was really on fire was Omaha. I finished sixth in the Pot Limit Omaha event and made off with over $77K. However, my crowning achievement at that WSOP had to in the Omaha High/Low Eight or Better $2,500 event. I beat Allen Kessler heads-up and won a coveted WSOP bracelet. Throw in a second place finish at an Ultimate Poker Challenge event, and a third place during the Mirage Poker Showdown Heads-Up competition, and I would definitely say that 2005 was a pretty good year.

THROUGH THE YEARS

2004 might have been even stronger. I had a double-digit amount of cashes that year. I actually made it to the money five times at the WSOP in 2004, including a Seven-card Stud event top 20 finish. I also had a big win at the Festa al Lago II. That one netted me over $158k. And I made the top 15 at a World Poker Tour event (World Poker Challenge in Reno, Nevada). World Poker Tour events haven't been too kind to me for a long time since then. Tournaments are just kind of cyclical and now I'm in kind of a dead spot. When that happens, it can get frustrating. You travel across the country only to get knocked out after 30 minutes and you wind up asking yourself, "Why the hell did I bother even doing this?"

I'm doing another high stakes show on television that's coming up shortly. But to be honest, I'm looking to travel less. I don't really enjoy it and I want to get into a proper exercise routine and start focusing on myself for a change. It's tough when you travel so much and you're out of whack and tired. You wind up not being in shape. So I've been playing tennis a lot, doing quite a bit of paintball and even playing darts. The other night when we played darts, we had a total of 17 people show up. It was pretty confusing and tough to keep score. That's a lot of darts to keep track of.

But even though, as you can probably imagine, poker is a really big part of my life, it's also very important not to forget the things that really matter. Which reminds me, I've gotta get going – I'm on my way to the christening of Jennifer Harman and Marco Traniello's baby. I'm the godfather!