Todd Alijondro Brunson (born August 7, 1969) is an American professional pokerplayer and the son of poker player Doyle Brunson.
Although Brunson's father Doyle was a poker player, Brunson did not learn the game when he was young. It was not until he was studying law at Texas Tech University that he learned on his own how to play. Before his senior year, he discontinued his studies to pursue poker full time.
Most of his years as a poker player have been spent playing cash games. He's a familiar face along with his father at the Bellagio in some of their biggest cash games. In the past few years he's gotten into more tournament play.
Todd won a bracelet in Omaha High Low at the 2005 World Series of Poker, making the Brunsons the first father-son combination to each win bracelets at the World Series.Todd has cashed 22 times in the WSOP to date.
Todd Brunson 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.
He competed in the Poker Superstars 2 Grand Final finishing runner up to Johnny Chan.
In 2006, he competed in the Poker Superstars 3 Grand Final against Antonio Esfandiari and defeated him by winning the first three matches in a best three out of five heads-up format. In the third round he was down to 170,000 chips against 3,830,000 chips owned by Esfandiari and eventually won by getting more than five double ups. Brunson took home the $400,000 first prize
In 2006, he competed in the Poker Superstars 2 quarter-finalists freeroll and took home the $500,000 winner take all first prize after defeating Ted Forrest in the final heads-up confrontation.
He 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.
Todd has also competed in the Ultimate Poker Challenge series. He is currently appearing in the GSN series High Stakes Poker.
As of 2008, his total live tournament winnings exceed $3,200,000.