Tom 'Durrrr' Dwan

Tom Dwan (born July 30, 1986 in Edison, New Jersey) is an American professional poker player who regularly played online in the biggest No-Limit Hold'em and Pot-Limit Omaha games primarily on Full Tilt Poker with the screen name "durrrr." Dwan has cashed in the money in live tournaments, earning more than $6.5 Million to date and has appeared on NBC's National Heads-Up Poker Championship and the fourth season of Poker After Dark.

Dwan grew up in Edison, New Jersey and as of 2007 resided in Fort Worth, Texas. Rumor has it that he now resides in Macau, but others contend that he simply plays a lot in Macau but does not live there. He attended Boston University as an English major, before dropping out to pursue poker full time.

Poker

Online poker

In March 2004 at the age of 17, Dwan began playing online poker with a $50 bankroll focusing initially on $5 sit-and-go's. After finding he could beat these games, he turned to cash games where he grinded through the low stakes, building up his bankroll before reaching a high level of play, which was often $300/$600 stakes against other notable professional players, such as Phil Ivey, David Oppenheim, David Benyamine, John Juanda, Patrik Antonius and Brian Townsend. Dwan has said that since he started playing online, he has never gone broke.

On 26th October 2008, during a session of $500/1000 No-Limit Hold'em on Full Tilt, Dwan played the biggest pot to date in online poker at that time, $723,938, losing with KK versus Urindanger's AA. There have since been larger internet poker pots.

According to HighStakesDB.com Tom Dwan earned $5,36 million on FullTilt in 2008; however, a significant downswing saw him give most of it back. Over the lifetime of his Full Tilt Poker account, he has won a net total of around $2.2 million.

Since Black Friday, Dwan has transitioned from internet poker to the live scene. He has become a fixture not just in major live tournaments but also in high-stakes, private cash games.

Million dollar challenge

In January of 2009 Dwan issued a $1,000,000 challenge to play anybody heads up for 50,000 hands 4-tabling $200/$400 No-Limit or higher. If his opponent was ahead after 50,000 hands, Dwan agreed to give them $1,500,000. If Dwan was ahead he would keep only their $500,000.

Dwan laid out the rules of the challenge.

1. That a minimum of $200/$400 stakes are played in either No Limit Texas hold 'em or Pot-Limit Omaha.
2. A player can change to another table at anytime if their chip stacks are greater than 250 big blinds.
3. A player must reload when their chip stacks fall below 75 big blinds.
4. Money won during the matches will be kept by that player plus the bonus wager. e.g. (in an example Dwan gives) if he was up by $750,000 by the end of the poker challenge, he would keep that amount plus an additional $500,000 from his opponent - If instead he lost $750,000 his opponent would keep their 750,000 plus $500,000 with an additional bonus of $1,000,000 for a total of $2,250,000.
5. That the same stakes are played throughout the match.
6. The challenge is not open to Phil "OMGClayAiken" Galfond.

There are two individuals who accepted the “durrrr” challenge: Patrik Antonius and Daniel Cates. Antonius and Dwan battled each other for close to 40,000 hands, and Tom was ahead by around $2 million. Antonius then called it quits, leaving Tom the winner.

Dan Cates started off with a $1.2 million win over Dwan across 20,000 hands. However, the remainder of their match was interrupted by Black Friday. Though there were initial hopes that the two would eventually conclude their challenge, this did not come to pass. Dan revealed close to a decade later that Tom had been paying penalties for his failure to resume the challenge.

Live Poker Tournaments

When Dwan was 19 in September 2005, he cashed in his first live tournament, where he finished 12th in the £3,000 no limit Texas hold 'em Main Event of the European Poker Tour's second season held in London, earning £7,000 ($12,398).

Due to age restrictions in the United States his next cash wasn't until he was 21 years old at the World Poker Tour's 2007 World Poker Finals, $9,700 No Limit Hold'em Championship Event, where he finished 4th earning $324,244.

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 participated in the 2008 NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship where in his first match he defeated Phil Hellmuth in the third hand of play when Dwan's pocket tens cracked Hellmuth's Pocket Aces when Dwan made a set on the turn. Dwan was eliminated in next round when he was defeated by Mike Matusow.

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

In an April 2011 edition of “Poker After Dark,” Tom prevailed in a $50,000 SNG, winning $300,000: his last major live poker win before Black Friday hit.

At around this same time, it seemed that Tom Dwan decided to begin focusing more on high roller events with astronomical buyins, like the Triton Poker Series. Among the high-stakes tournaments in which Tom has participated was the £100,000 Short Deck Hold'em Triton Poker Series event held in London on Aug. 9, 2019 where he took fifth place for a prize of £514,000. The next day, he competed in a similar event, but one with a £250,000 price tag, and he finished 8th for £656,500.

Prior to this, Dwan had played in the February 2014 Aussie Millions Poker Championship $250,000 Challenge. He took 6th place honors, good for AU$500,000.

World Series of Poker

Dwan cashed twice in the first year that he was eligible to play in a World Series of Poker (WSOP) event held in the United States, in his first cash, Dwan made the final table in the $10,000 World Championship Mixed Event at the 2008 World Series of Poker, finishing in 7th place and earning $67,680. Then, he nearly made another in a seven person final table when he finished again 8th place, this time in the $5,000 No-Limit 2-7 Draw with Rebuys event, earning $45,111.

Over the next few years, Dwan would cash in eight more WSOP events; however, he has not won a bracelet, and it seems that he stopped entering Series events after 2011. His best result came in 2010 in Event #11: $1,500 NL Hold'em. He was the runner-up and took home a prize of $381,885.

As of 2008, his total live tournament winnings exceed $6.5 million.

External links

• Poker.org - Player Profile
• Casinomeister Blog - What Happened to Tom Dwan?