An English poet wrote: Alvarez, who covered the 1981 World Series of Poker for the New Yorker. “The grammar may be fixed in places, punctuation, but the words are different and the message is clear: violence, unending violence.”

Mr. Brunson was inducted into the World Series of Poker Hall of Fame in 1988.

After steady growth, poker took its own form in 1998 with the release of this film “Circular,” in which actor Matt Damon repeats Brunson’s words while using the “Super System.” That same year, poker games became more popular at night and on television, and Mr. Brunson became famous.

A competitor in his later years, Mr. Brunson won the legendary 2004 event on the World Poker Tour with $1.2 million. In 2005, he won his 10th World Series.

A few days earlier, his son Todd, also a professional baseball player, recorded an event, making them the first father and son to win a World Series. Mr. Brunson made it to the fourth day of the 2013 Poker Players Championship, although he admitted that the game was going well.

He said: “Sometimes when I play for a few days, I feel difficult. “My leg, let’s say, starts to hurt a little bit. But I’m not going to change position. I’m going to sit there and let it hurt me, as a reminder to make myself play better.”

Mr. Brunson thought his legacy would be “that I’ve played longer than anybody,” he said in 2003. “I mean, I’ve been playing the most — the biggest. game I’ve ever gotten — since I was 23 years old.”

But he didn’t want to milk his age to feel sorry for him.

“Would I like to win the World Series again for the old guys?” he said in 2002. “Nah, I want to win ol’ Doyle.”