Tom Dwan
Encyclopedia
Thomas Dwan Jr. is an American professional poker
Poker
Poker is a family of card games that share betting rules and usually hand rankings. Poker games differ in how the cards are dealt, how hands may be formed, whether the high or low hand wins the pot in a showdown , limits on bet sizes, and how many rounds of betting are allowed.In most modern poker...

 player who regularly plays online
Online poker
Online poker is the game of poker played over the Internet. It has been partly responsible for a dramatic increase in the number of poker players worldwide...

 in the highest-stakes No-Limit Texas hold 'em
Texas hold 'em
Texas Hold 'em is a variation of the standard card game of poker. The game consists of two cards being dealt face down to each player and then five community cards being placed face-up by the dealer—a series of three then two additional single cards , with...

 and Pot-Limit Omaha
Omaha hold 'em
Omaha hold 'em is a community card poker game similar to Texas hold 'em, where each player is dealt four cards and must make his best hand using exactly two of them, plus exactly three of the five community cards...

 games, primarily on Full Tilt Poker
Full Tilt Poker
Full Tilt Poker is an online poker card room that opened in June 2004 with the involvement of poker professionals Howard Lederer, Phil Ivey, Andy Bloch, Mike Matusow, Jennifer Harman and Chris Ferguson...

, where he plays under the screen name "durrrr". In early November 2009, Dwan became a member of Team Full Tilt.

Dwan has won prize money in live poker tournament
Poker tournament
A poker tournament is a tournament where players compete by playing poker. It can feature as few as two players playing on a single table , and as many as tens of thousands of players playing on thousands of tables...

s and has appeared on NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...

's National Heads-Up Poker Championship
National Heads-Up Poker Championship
-2006:- 2007 :-2008:In additional to the poker professionals, several poker-playing celebrities from other fields were invited: Gabe Kaplan, Don Cheadle, Jennifer Tilly, Shannon Elizabeth, Jason Alexander and Orel Hershiser. Also invited was Alisha Kunze of Greensburg, Indiana, who won her seat...

, the fourth, fifth, sixth & seventh seasons of Poker After Dark
Poker After Dark
Poker After Dark was an hour-long poker television program on NBC. The show made its debut on January 1, 2007, and was cancelled as another victim of the "Black Friday" criminal case due to the show's sponsorship by Full Tilt Poker, one of that case's defendants. on September 23, 2011 For its first...

, the third and fourth seasons of Full Tilt Poker's Million Dollar Cash Game, and the fifth and sixth seasons of GSN's High Stakes Poker
High Stakes Poker
High Stakes Poker is a cash game poker television program broadcast by the cable television network GSN in the United States. The poker variant played on the show is no limit Texas hold 'em. It premiered on January 16, 2006 and ended on December 17, 2007 and it returns back on March 1, 2009 and is...

. He attended Boston University
Boston University
Boston University is a private research university located in Boston, Massachusetts. With more than 4,000 faculty members and more than 31,000 students, Boston University is one of the largest private universities in the United States and one of Boston's largest employers...

 before dropping out to pursue poker full-time.

Online poker

In March 2004 at the age of 17, Dwan began playing online poker at Paradise Poker with $50 his father had given him for his 17th birthday. He believed the alias "durrrr" would put players on tilt if they'd lose to him. Dwan initially focused on $6 sit-and-go tournaments and ended up losing $35. With his last $15, he continued to focus on these sit-and-gos until he was able to turn a profit. After finding he could beat these games, he turned to cash games, where he built his bankroll starting at low stakes and slowly climbing his way up, eventually reaching the largest games found online. After beating multiplayer cash games, Dwan switched his focus to playing heads-up No-Limit hold 'em against other professionals, such as Frederick Halling at the $10/$20 stakes level. He challenged Prahlad Friedman
Prahlad Friedman
Prahlad S. Friedman is an American professional poker player from Los Angeles, California. He has played under the screen names "Spirit Rock" on Full Tilt Poker, "Mahatma" on Ultimate Bet, "Zweig" on Prima Network, and "Prefontaine" on PokerStars...

 at $25/$50 stakes but kept losing to him for several months, forcing him to drop to lower stakes before coming back again and again until he was able to beat Friedman.

According to HighStakesDB.com, a site that tracks high-stakes online poker action, Dwan earned $312,800 in 2007 on the Full Tilt online poker cardroom and $5.41 million in 2008, even though he has gone through several large swings throughout his career. Before the 2007 World Series of Poker
2007 World Series of Poker
The 2007 World Series of Poker began on June 1, 2007. The $10,000 no-limit Texas hold 'em Main Event began on July 6 and was completed on the morning of July 18...

, Dwan claimed to have lost, at the time, $2 million of his $3 million bankroll, over a span of four months. He was able to recover from this loss within a year. In January of 2009, Dwan lost more than $3.5 million, which he managed to recover after six months. However, from late October to late December 2009, Dwan suffered his largest downswing, losing approximately $2 million to Phil Ivey
Phil Ivey
Phillip Dennis "Phil" Ivey Jr. is an American professional poker player who has won eight World Series of Poker bracelets, one World Poker Tour title and appeared at nine World Poker Tour final tables...

 and Ilari "Ziigmund" Sahamies
Ilari Sahamies
Ilari Sahamies , also known as Ziigmund, is a Finnish professional poker player. He specializes in high stakes pot-limit Omaha cash games. Sahamies is known for his trashtalk at the poker table, usually aimed towards his fellow pros, which has led to an online following...

, and $5 million to Viktor Blom

In mid November 2009, a player from Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

 using the online name "Isildur1" challenged Dwan to a series of heads-up No Limit Holdem cash games. Isildur1's foray into online high stakes cash games began in late October, when he initially lost $1.1 million to Patrik Antonius
Patrik Antonius
Patrik Antonius is a Finnish professional poker player, former tennis player and coach, and model from Vantaa, Finland. He currently resides in Monte Carlo...

, Brian Townsend
Brian Townsend
Brian Townsend is an American professional poker player currently residing in Santa Barbara, California.-Biography:Townsend is largely known for his success playing no limit hold 'em and pot-limit omaha at Full Tilt Poker, playing under the nickname 'sbrugby.' He is the former co-owner and lead...

, and other high stakes players. However, by the beginning of November, Isildur1 had recovered his losses and challenged Dwan to a heads-up marathon playing six tables at a time with over a million dollars in play. By the end of the week, Isildur1 had gone on the largest run in the history of online poker, winning approximately $5 million from Dwan, prompting Dwan to issue a live challenge to play Isildur1 at the Full Tilt Poker Durrrr Million Dollar Challenge.

At the end of 2009, HighStakesDB.com reported that Dwan had lost $4.35 million in 2009, putting his cumulative online poker winnings at Full Tilt since January 2007 at approximately $1.4 million. HighStakesDB.com also reported that after stepping down in limits following his massive loss to Isildur1, Dwan won $2.7 million in December 2009. According to the same site, Dwan had more than recouped his 2009 losses in the first few months of 2010; he was reported to have won $1.6 million in the first two weeks of April 2010 alone, and after a session in which he won $1.6 million off Sahamies in a little over 2 hours, was up $7.3 million for the year to date as of April 21. However, in an illustration of the swings of fortune often associated with high-stakes play, Dwan lost about $4 million in the next three weeks, leaving him up about $3.3 million for 2010.

Million dollar challenge

In January 2009 Dwan issued a $1,000,000 challenge to play anyone online, "with the exception of Phil Galfond
Phil Galfond
Phil Galfond is an American professional poker player. Galfond won a World Series of Poker bracelet in the $5,000 buy-in Pot-Limit Omaha with Rebuys event at the 2008 World Series of Poker...

", heads up for 50,000 hands 4-tabling $200/$400 or higher No-Limit Holdem or Pot-Limit Omaha. If his opponent is ahead after 50,000 hands, Dwan agreed to give them $1,500,000 more, while if Dwan is ahead, he will get $500,000.

Patrik Antonius
Patrik Antonius
Patrik Antonius is a Finnish professional poker player, former tennis player and coach, and model from Vantaa, Finland. He currently resides in Monte Carlo...

 and Daniel Cates
Daniel Cates
Daniel Cates as known as jungleman12 or w00ki3z is a professional poker player from the USA who is widely considered the best heads-up No Limit Texas Hold 'em player in the world. His online cash game earnings at Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars are almost $7m...

 are playing Dwan as part of the challenge, but no 50,000-hand challenge is yet complete.

Live tournaments

Dwan was 19 when he cashed in his first live tournament, finishing 12th in the £3,000 no limit
Betting (poker)
In the game of poker, the play largely centers on the act of betting, and as such, a protocol has been developed to speed up play, lessen confusion, and increase security while playing...

 Texas hold 'em Main Event of the European Poker Tour
European Poker Tour
The Pokerstars European Poker Tour is a series of poker tournaments similar to those in the World Poker Tour , created by John Duthie, winner of the inaugural Poker Million tournament. It began in 2004 as part of the worldwide explosion in Texas Hold 'em popularity...

's second season
European Poker Tour season 2 results
- EPT 2 Barcelona :* Casino: Casino Barcelona, Barcelona * Buy-in: €4,000* 2-Day Event: Friday, September 16, 2005 to Saturday, September 17, 2005* Number of buy-ins: 327* Total Prize Pool: €1,300,000...

 held in London, earning £7,000 ($12,398). His next cash wasn't until he was 21 years old at the World Poker Tour
World Poker Tour
The World Poker Tour is a series of international poker tournaments and associated television series broadcasting the final table of each tournament. It was started in the United States by attorney/television producer Steven Lipscomb, who served as CEO of WPT Enterprises , the firm that...

's 2007 World Poker Finals, $9,700 No Limit Hold'em Championship Event, where he finished 4th, earning $324,244. In January 2008, Dwan finished second at the Aussie Millions A$3,000 Pot Limit Omaha with Rebuys event, winning A$103,200 ($90,716) and later finished in 62nd place in the A$10,000 No Limit Hold'em Main Event, good for A$25,000 ($21,976). Dwan finished second to James Michael Sowers at the 2008 WPT Borgata Winter Open in the preliminary $5,000 No Limit Hold'em event, earning $226,100.

Dwan cashed twice in the first year that he was eligible to play in a World Series of Poker
World Series of Poker
The World Series of Poker is a world-renowned series of poker tournaments held annually in Las Vegas and, since 2005, sponsored by Harrah's Entertainment...

 (WSOP) event held in the United States. Dwan reached the final table in the $10,000 World Championship Mixed Event at the 2008 World Series of Poker
2008 World Series of Poker
The 2008 World Series of Poker was the 39th annual World Series of Poker . Held in Las Vegas, Nevada at the Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino, the series began on May 30, 2008, and featured 55 poker championships in several variants. All events but the $10,000 World Championship No Limit Texas hold...

 finishing in 8th place, earning $54,144. He then nearly made another in a seven person final table, but finished again in 8th, this time in the $5,000 No-Limit 2-7 Draw with Rebuys event, earning $45,110.

Dwan participated in the 2008 NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship
National Heads-Up Poker Championship
-2006:- 2007 :-2008:In additional to the poker professionals, several poker-playing celebrities from other fields were invited: Gabe Kaplan, Don Cheadle, Jennifer Tilly, Shannon Elizabeth, Jason Alexander and Orel Hershiser. Also invited was Alisha Kunze of Greensburg, Indiana, who won her seat...

, where in his first match he defeated Phil Hellmuth
Phil Hellmuth
Phil Hellmuth is an American professional poker player. He is best known for holding a record 11 World Series of Poker bracelets, for winning the Main Event of the 1989 World Series of Poker and for his temperamental, "poker brat" personality...

 in the third hand. Dwan was eliminated in the next round by Mike Matusow
Mike Matusow
Michael Matusow is an American professional poker player, residing in Henderson, Nevada. Matusow's nickname of "The Mouth" reflects his reputation for trash-talking at the poker table...

. At the 2008 Five-Star World Poker Classic (the $25,500 WPT Championship), Dwan finished in ninth place, winning $184,670.

At the 2010 WSOP in the $1,500 No Limit Hold'em event, Dwan finished in second place for $381,885.

In 2011, Dwan cashed three times at the 2011 WSOP, including a 5th place finish in the $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. Championship for $134,480.

As of 2011, his total live tournament winnings exceed $2,100,000.

Live cash games

Dwan holds the record for the largest pot won in a recorded live game at over $1.1 million, which occurred during the fourth season of Full Tilt Poker's Million Dollar Cash Game. This record broke the previous record of over $919,000 also won by Dwan in the fifth season of High Stakes Poker.

Full Tilt Poker Durrrr Million Dollar Challenge

Dwan’s Million Dollar Challenge was expanded to a 500 hand live heads up format in the Full Tilt Poker
Full Tilt Poker
Full Tilt Poker is an online poker card room that opened in June 2004 with the involvement of poker professionals Howard Lederer, Phil Ivey, Andy Bloch, Mike Matusow, Jennifer Harman and Chris Ferguson...

 Durrrr Million Dollar Challenge. The event was held November 17 to 19, 2009, at Les Ambassadeurs Club in London and televised by Sky Sports
Sky Sports
Sky Sports is the brand name for a group of sports-oriented television channels operated by the UK and Ireland's main satellite pay-TV company, British Sky Broadcasting. Sky Sports is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland...

.

The rules of the Challenge were that each player paid $250,000 for the privilege of playing, blinds were set at $500/$1,000 with each opponent having the choice of playing either Texas Hold’em or Pot Limit Omaha (PLO). Neither player could leave the match until at least 500 hands had been completed or one of them lost all of his buy-in and decided not to re-buy.

Dwan’s opponents were Marcello "luckexpress" Marigliano, Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies
Ilari Sahamies
Ilari Sahamies , also known as Ziigmund, is a Finnish professional poker player. He specializes in high stakes pot-limit Omaha cash games. Sahamies is known for his trashtalk at the poker table, usually aimed towards his fellow pros, which has led to an online following...

, and Sammy "Any Two" George respectively.

The first match between Dwan and Marigliano consisted mainly of Texas Hold’em, although the players did agree to play PLO near the end of the match. Dwan lost $22,500 which was highlighted by two bluffs by Marigliano.

In the second match between Dwan and Sahamies the players played only PLO. Although the match started surprisingly slow considering the history of online competition between Dwan and Sahamies, the match eventually became aggressive as expected. There were several large pots resulting in large swings in the players’ stacks. After 12 hours, the match concluded with Dwan winning $68,000.

The final round pitted Dwan against George in an exclusively Texas Hold’em match. During the match, the parties agreed to a 7-2 prop bet wherein if a player wins a pot with 7-2 then he earns an additional $10,000. This led to one of the most memorable bluffs in television poker when Dwan bet $479,500 on the river, all in, into a pot of only $162,000. Dwan was bluffing with 7-2 against George’s two pair (aces and sixes). George folded his two pair after much consideration even though Dwan, after making a 6x pre-flop raise, had said he had 7-2 and just wanted the blinds. George went on to lose $750,000.

Dwan made a final profit of $795,500 after winning 2 of the 3 matches.

External links

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