A deep run in the WSOP Main Event isn’t in the cards this year for Doyle Brunson.
Citing the advice of his doctor, Brunson announced on Twitter Thursday that he’ll be sitting out of all WSOP tournaments this year, including the 2022 Main Event.
I'm passing all of the WSOP on the advice of my doctor.
— Doyle Brunson (@TexDolly) June 30, 2022
Brunson, 88, said earlier in June that he would be skipping most of the WSOP because two people in his house weren’t vaccinated.
But a few days later, he was “chomping at the bit” to play, and by last Tuesday, declared he was ready to give the 2022 Main Event a go, COVID be damned.
I probably am going to play the main event, hoping the covid has died down a little.
— Doyle Brunson (@TexDolly) June 21, 2022
He claims his doctor thought differently, however. Brunson, a 10-time WSOP bracelet winner who won the Main Event in 1976 and 1977, will be missing the entirety of the 2022 WSOP — the first time the annual festival is being held on the Las Vegas Strip.
Doyle Brunson’s WSOP Main Event Cashes
| Year | Place | Payout |
| 2013 | 409th | $28,063 |
| 2009 (WSOP Europe) | 17th | £32,198 |
| 2004 | 53rd | $45,000 |
| 1997 | 16th | $25,440 |
| 1983 | 3rd | $108,000 |
| 1982 | 4th | $52,000 |
| 1980 | 2nd | $146,000 |
| 1977 | 1st | $340,000 |
| 1976 | 1st | $220,000 |
Brunson has flirted with retirement from poker through much of his 80s, but the call of the WSOP always seems to draw him back. After a 409th-place finish in 2013, Brunson sat out of the Main Event in 2014, claiming the two-week tournament was physically too grueling.
In 2018, he officially “retired” from poker only to return in 2021 to play in the $1,000 Super Seniors and the $10K Main Event, in neither of which did he cash.
