The Brunson

I never knew Doyle Brunson had a hand named after him, until i watched him play it, this morning. He paired the deuce on the flop, shoved, and folded the table.
I fold the hand about 100% of the time, but when i got it a little later, i threw some chips at it. Flopped 2 pr and made some much needed chips, toward a 2nd place finish.
Thanks, Doyle. (it did come up again, but got an insta-fold) :slight_smile:

It’s not a great hand to play, but he won one of his WOSP bracelets (or maybe both of them, I can’t remember) with this hand figuring prominently at the final table. It’s a famous story, worth going back to read, which I should do because I don’t remember it too good right now.

Brunson will play the hand out of sentimentality on occasion, from what I understand, and he knows better how to play it than just about anyone, but that doesn’t mean you should play it. It’s a crummy hand. Any two cards can be good, with the right board, or against the right two worse cards.

this was more of a timing thing. i was coming from the SB, which has a range like the rocky’s, and thought ‘whatdahell’ and just happen to get lucky. If i had not seen the guys on the youtube clip talking about it, i probably would have just folded, as usual. I’ve decided against the 52 card range for unraised hands in the SB.

or have i?

Doyle won back-to-back bracelets with ten/duece (1976 & 1977) hitting a boat in each case. He always claimed to have lost far more with the “Brunson” than he ever won with it. Incidentally, he also has another hand named after him. The “Doyle Drunson” is Ace/Queen off suit and is the hand he hated and very rarely played. He even made a comment on this in Super Systems.
One of the greatest players ever and one of the people responsible for making the game as universally enjoyed as it is today.

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10-2 is a pretty shitty hand, and in general I do not want to play any hand with a 2 in it, because if you pair the 2, all you can have is bottom pair, regardless of how many cards are on the board. However, occasionally in special situations, you may get the odds to play it, for example you are large stack and small stack shoves to avoid blinding out, or sometimes when 1:1:

Ace 2 suited can be playable in certain situations, if you have good preflop odds, as you will be looking for the nut flush draw, or the low straight, however if the flop comes 3 4 5, you will be at the mercy of anyone holding 6 7. You might win on an Ace high flop, but it is risky with no kicker.

If playing 1:1 then Ace 2 and King 2 are likely to start ahead of whatever your opponent has.

From last night, I was dealt 10 4o and this turned out to be the last hand of the tournament that started with 26 players. I think I had to call the flop.

I suspect Brunson has won more pots representing 10-2 than actually playing it. He usually fires a bet at any TTx, 22x, or T2x flop, and usually takes it down. Sometimes having a favorite hand “image” pays better than actually having a favorite hand.

i kinda look at paired deuces as a really good kicker

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