Sunday, 09 January 2011
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Tom Dwan and Poker Success
A lot of players download Full Tilt Poker hoping that if they practice enough, they’ll eventually have the bankroll to challenge Tom Dwan, whose Internet screen name is “durrr”. Dwan was born in New Jersey almost 24 years ago, and he dropped out of college to pursue poker full time. He usually plays online, so it makes sense that most of his success has come online. However, he is starting to make some noise in the live arena, as well. He has been in big live events in both the U.S. and overseas, and he has appeared on a wide variety of poker television shows.
Dwan’s first real money poker was played on Paradise Poker, one of the best gambling sites around that time. He started playing $6 sit-&-go’s, but eventually he switched to cash games on Full Tilt. There aren’t many people out there that have played as many hours online as Dwan. Mastering the art of multi-tabling afforded him the chance to download Full Tilt Poker and play a huge number of hands. Therefore his bankroll rose impressively as he climbed to higher buy-ins.
Having your name synonymous with high stakes online poker does not mean you get to avoid downswings. Dwan’s favorite game is heads-up NLHE or PLO, so the large swings in his game are pretty much inevitable. He has both won and lost millions in a single session. His most famous downswing was courtesy of a player from Sweden called “Isildur1”, who sat with him on multiple heads-up tables. When the week was over, Dwan’s bankroll was around $5 million poorer. The thought of losing such a staggering amount is enough to cause many players to quit poker and turn to safer games like Craps online, but Dwan obviously has enough mental toughness to fight through the variance.
Dwan announced his $1 million challenge at the start of last year. He will play anyone except Phil Galfond heads-up, and the rules are that they must play 4 tables at once and a total of 50k hands. Dwan will put up $1.5 million for his opponent’s $500k – the winner of the 50k series will receive the extra money. Players wanting to challenge Dwan must first use a Full Tilt referral code and make a poker deposit.
To date Dwan has cashed for around $1.5 million in live tournament poker. He has cashes all over the world, including in the EPT, the Aussie Millions, and of course the WPT and WSOP. He made his best ever WSOP finish in 2010, making almost $400k after coming 2nd in a $1.5k NLHE event. A lot of people were very happy that Dwan did not WIN a WSOP event because it’s reported that there were a lot of bracelet bets for and against him in 2010. Bets like these seem even more risky than a Roulette bonus!
Dwan had respect from his fellow online players from day one, but his live tournament successes as well as his TV appearances have earned him some respect from his live counterparts, as well. He’s achieved so much at such a young age. We can only expect more great things in the years to come, too. If you aspire to be as great as Dwan one day, you need to get rid of the Blackjack download and spend your time playing poker instead.



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