Tom Dwan

Professional poker pros Phil Galfond and Tom “durrrr” Dwan tried to calm down millions of US players who lost their poker funds when the US federal government cracked down on three major online poker giants, including Full Tilt Poker. Dwan had attracted attention by promising on Twitter than he would give away $1 million of personal funds if Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars failed to refund US poker players. His promise and his concern for US online poker players had made the US online poker gaming community feel at ease with the situation.

Beginning of Dwan’s Poker Career

Tom Dwan got acquainted with online poker when he was studying in Boston University. He started at the small stakes Sit n Go tables and found that he was quite successful at these games, a fact that encouraged him to play cash games. In the shortest possible time, Dwan climbed his way to the high-stakes tables, making plenty of poker money in the process. Needless to say, Dwan had lost interest in college by this time because he had already become a millionaire. He, therefore, decided to take up poker as full-time career.

Online Poker Success

Tom Dwan was just 17 when he signed up at Paradise Poker with $50. He lost $35 before he decided to try his luck at the Sit n Go tables, and this is where he was able to make a profit.

In 2007, Dwan earned $312,800 at Full Tilt Poker and $5.41 million a year later; however, Dwan is not a player who keeps winning and loses nothing. Just before participating in the World Series of Poker that year, Dwan admitted that he had lost $2 million in just 4 months, but he could recover his losses within one year. He again lost over $3.5 million in 2009, but won it back in six more months.

Tom Dwan is famous for his Million Dollar challenge, in which he has challenged poker players that he would give them $1 million if they won a heads-up tournament of 50,000 hands against him. Daniel Cates and Patrik Antonius were two poker players who quickly accepted this challenge; however, this tournament has still not been completed.

Live Poker Success

When Dwan was 19, he participated in his first live tournament, the second season of the European Poker Tour (EPT), finishing in the twelfth position and winning $12,398. Two years later, in 2007, he participated in the World Poker Tour (WPT), finished fourth and earned $324,244. In 2008, he won AU$103,200 at the Aussie Millions. He also experienced a considerable amount of WSOP success that year.

In WSOP 2011, Dwan won 3 events, making his total live poker winnings cross the $2,100,000 mark.

Tom Dwan plays under the name of “durrrr,” which his fans consider to be an interesting choice of name. This poker pro loves playing all types of games, and although he has not been spotted playing simple games of chance such as bingo, it is a known fact that he enjoys playing blackjack.