Todd Brunson

Todd Alijondro Brunson was born on August 7, 1969 in El Paso, Texas and is the son of poker legend Doyle Brunson.

Even though Todd's father was poker great Doyle Brunson, Todd didn't learn poker until he was studying law at Texas Tech University. He eventually dropped out of school to play poker professionally.

Todd has spent most of his time playing cash games and he and his father play some of their biggest cash games at the Bellagio.

The Brunsons are the first father-son combination to each win bracelets at the World Series.
Todd won a bracelet in Omaha High Low at the 2005 World Series of Poker. Todd also contributed to his father's book, Super System 2, the 2005 sequel to Doyle Brunson's poker book Super/System, writing the Seven Card Stud High Low Eight or Better section.

His nickname "Darkhorse" comes from a tournament he played early in his career, where he was reckoned to be a huge underdog, but outlasted the likes of Chip Reese.

Todd competed against Johnny Chan in the Poker Superstars 2 Grand Final and in the Poker Superstars 3 Grand Final in 2006 against Antonio Esfandiari and took home the $400,000 first prize when he defeated him by winning the first three matches in a best of five heads-up format.

In 2006, Todd took home the $500,000 first prize after defeating Ted Forrest in the final heads-up confrontation in the Poker Superstars 2 quarter-finalists freeroll.

Todd is known for having won over $13.5 million in a two day span in a heads-up, $50,000-$100,000 limit hold-em game, as chronicled in 2005 book, The Professor, the Banker, and the Suicide King.

"Poker tournaments have gone through the roof thanks to the Internet and televised tournaments that expose players' hole cards. Cash game players, including myself, have been drawn back into the tournament arena by the huge prize pools and large numbers of novice players looking for instant glory," Brunson has said.


Fun Facts:

• Competed in the Ultimate Poker Challenge series.
• Won first major tournament at age 21 at the Bicycle Casino in L.A.
• Dropped out of college to pursue a career as a professional poker player.
• Appeared in the GSN series High Stakes Poker.