After the setback in Vegas, Doyle, Slim and Saylor didn't give up and gradually traveled all over Texas, playing what they could. Many nights between games were spent in motels, where they spent the nights discussing the hands and situations they had experienced. "There were no programs or spreadsheets back then, everything that involved taking apart hands we had to do by hand on paper. But we were so into it that it didn't bother us at all, on the contrary - we were constantly improving. We understood the game more than the vast majority of the others, and to take advantage of this advantage we had to play as much as possible."
So after successes all over Texas, it was time to return to Vegas. This time, the adventurous trio arrived in the cradle of gambling armed with a $100,000 bankroll, but this trip had the same ending. "We lost almost everything. We didn't play badly at all, we were aware of our mistakes, but we were terribly unlucky. I guess it was fate that we had to go back to Texas again, where I met Louise."
The love of a lifetime and a fatal diagnosis
One day, after a night of foreboding, Doyle stopped at a drugstore to buy something to cheer himself up. Who knows if he suspected that the girl behind the till, the one he fell in love with at first sight, would be his lifelong partner. Word was given and by 1962 the couple had arranged a wedding, shortly after which Louise became pregnant. But as was usual in Doyle's life, when everything looked rosy and fairy-tale-like, something was bound to go wrong: "One morning I found a small growth on my neck. It wasn't big, many people would have ignored it, but so had my brother Lloyd, who died of cancer four years later. The doctor told me it was the remnants of a mole that had been operated on the year before, but that they'd better take it out then. It would take 30 minutes at the most they said."
But the reality was diametrically opposed - after the surgery began, they discovered a huge melanoma under the skin that had spread from his neck to his brain and chest. Numerous specialists were called in for the 12-hour operation, but all agreed that the cancer was so widespread that there was no help for Doyle. The orthodontist was relentless - Doyle had 3-4 months to live at most. After the cancer reaches his brain, Doyle falls into a coma and lives out the rest of his life in a vegetative state.
"When they let me go home with this information, I broke down. Will I never see my baby? My friends came to my house to say goodbye to me, everyone was crying, even Johnny Moss, who didn't show his emotions. I knew I was all-in on this game, but I wasn't going to lose it, even though the odds were against me."
Two weeks later, Doyle and Louise went to Houston to a specialist cancer ward where Doyle was to undergo surgery. Her goal was to at least curtail the hopeless prospect and, with any luck, extend his life by a few months. Doyle spent 15 hours on the operating table, after which the cancer appeared to have disappeared. "Nobody understood; the doctor himself said he had never seen anything like it. He called it a spontaneous remission, for which no one had any further explanation." Doyle was rushed home, and after 3 weeks of convalescence, he was back in shape, as if none of the bad dream had happened. Four months later, the family had a daughter, whom they named Doyle.
The financial drought and the birth of the WSOP
The next few years were no walk in the park for the family. Louise was on maternity leave looking after little Doyle, Doyle was still not in the shape he was before his surgery, Doyle's mother-in-law was staying with them and Doyle was being treated for cancer, and financially they were in a very bad way. Doyle was running all kinds of shady businesses just so he could play and win something. A year later, little Pam was born, and 5 years later, son Todd joined the family. More kids = more money needed, which obviously didn't help the family's well-being.
"Louise's mother succumbed to cancer and we inherited some money from her. We hired a nanny, Louise went back to work, and well, I was still making the Texas circuit. But I still felt like we were going in circles and not moving anywhere. So I decided to try my luck in Vegas for the third and final time. I took the last of my savings, bought a plane ticket, and in the city of sin I met the legendary gangster and casino owner Benny Binion. We met at "Texas Gamblers Reunion." a cash game session organized by Tom Moore. For 5 days we played cash games of various formats and limits, we had a lot of fun and many of us enjoyed the event very much. Benny and his son Jack used the idea as a springboard, and since Moore didn't want to continue the event (he preferred players to play blackjack, roulette, and other games instead of poker), he willingly moved the idea along. A year later, the Binions named the event the World Series of Poker and tried it as a promotion for their Horseshoe Casino. No one knew at the time what a seed they had planted and what it would eventually grow into..."
Source - Wikipedia, The Godfather of Poker autobiography, PokerListing, Poker.Academy
