WSOP '04: The Story Behind Doyle Brunson's Elimination

Introduction: My name is BJ Nemeth, and I'm just one member of the top notch PokerNews team assembled to provide the most comprehensive World Series of Poker coverage in history. I'll be using this blog to give our readers some insight into what's happening behind the scenes, dispelling rumors, and telling the stories behind the stories.

The first time I covered the WSOP was 2004, when Greg "Fossilman" Raymer became champion. That was an exciting year -- the first WSOP after the poker boom hit full force, and the last WSOP to be held entirely at Binion's Horseshoe. With three times as many players in the Main Event (from 839 players to 2,576), the WSOP had become bigger than anyone thought possible at the time, forcing two starting days for the first time in history. Unfortunately, some of the best stories fell through the cracks that year, including this one ...

The Story Behind Doyle Brunson's Elimination From the 2004 WSOP Main Event

If you watched ESPN's broadcast of the 2004 WSOP, you saw Doyle Brunson's elimination late in the tournament. He was all in preflop with pocket tens against Bradley Berman's A-7 offsuit, and Berman flopped an ace to bust Doyle. I was sweating Doyle's table at the time, and witnessed the entire hand from start to finish.

What ESPN didn't tell you is this: Neither player wanted to be in that situation.

Nearly 98% of the field had already been eliminated when Doyle picked up 10-10 in late position. Doyle said, "All in," but didn't move any of his chips forward. The dealer repeated the action to confirm it, but Benny's Bullpen was so loud and packed with spectators that not everybody heard it.

Bradley Berman didn't hear it. Berman was sitting in the small blind, and looked down to see A-7 offsuit. Figuring he was only up against the big blind, he said, "Raise." Oops. Once Berman was informed that Doyle was all in, he wanted to take his bet back and fold.

WSOP Tournament Director Matt Savage made the correct ruling -- Berman's verbal declaration was binding, and the players were now all in against each other. Berman didn't have enough chips to risk calling an all in with a weak ace, and Doyle said he had a bad feeling and would rather pick up the blinds than have to sweat an overcard. Doyle was close friends with Bradley's father, Lyle Berman; they played together in the Big Game at Bellagio. Doyle didn't want to cripple Bradley on a mistake any more than he wanted to be eliminated himself. This was a no-win situation.

That's when ESPN showed up with their cameras. Savage announced the action to the room as the board came A-5-5-3-J, and Doyle Brunson was eliminated in 53rd place on a hand that neither player intended. (Berman won that pot by pairing his ace, but he would bust in 31st place the next day.)

As Doyle walked out of the room, all action came to a stop as every player in the room stood up to applaud a deep finish by one of the best players in poker history. Even the newcomers -- and there were many that year -- knew that Doyle deserved their respect. (Fortunately, this standing ovation was captured by ESPN's cameras.) It was such a powerful moment that WSOP announcers have tried to recreate it every year by asking the crowd to applaud when Doyle busts from the Main Event. But none of those prompted ovations ever gave me goosebumps the way that first one did.

It's moments like these that I plan to share with PokerNews readers through this blog. In 2008, our goal is to let none of these stories slip through the cracks.