Few players in the history of online poker have captured the public imagination as much as Tom “durrrr” Dwan. Dwan was born on July 20th 1986 and grew up in Edison, New Jersey into a suburban middle class family.
Dwan started playing poker with friends while in high school and his first online exploits took place in 2004 at Empire Poker who at the time were running free sit and go tournaments where players could win a few cents in real money. After deciding he may have something, Dwan deposited $50 on Paradise Poker and began to grind the $6 sit and gos, quickly finding a natural aptitude for the game.
After just four months Tom’s bankroll had hit five-figures and he decided to try his luck at the low-stakes cash game tables, starting at 50c/$1 and $1/$2. In just 18 months he was playing the highest stakes online and was already a poker millionaire playing as “pucylucy” on the Prima network, as “Holdem_NL” at PokerStars, and most famously as “durrrr” at Full Tilt Poker.
Playing as durrrr Tom Dwan achieved a huge level of both success and popularity. His hyper-aggressive and unorthodox style won him a huge army of fans as he dominated play at the highest stakes NLHE and, shortly after, PLO tables of Full Tilt.
Tom Dwan was also one of the only players from an online background (the other being Patrik Antonius) who managed to break-through to become popular with TV audiences, as he joined the likes of Doyle Brunson, Daniel Negreanu, Phil Ivey and others on the popular “Poker After Dark” and “High Stakes Poker” TV shows. Dwan’s fearless style and outrageous plays made for great TV, and he’s still the biggest ever HSP winner.
"Well, I can't win if I fold so..." - Tom Dwan.
durrrr pulls off a huge bluff against Sammy George in the Full Tilt Million Dollar Challenge
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Online he continued to crush right up until he met up with an unknown young Swedish sensation known as “Isildur1”. Over a two week period while playing 6-tables of heads-up $500/$1000 NLHE against Isildur1, Tom “durrrr” Dwan lost over $5m. While he may no longer have been ‘King of the Hill’ at heads-up NL, Dwan quickly won the $5m back online over the next three months at the PLO tables. He also signed as a Full Tilt pro in a rumoured seven-figure a year deal.
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Dwan disappeared from the online scene altogether after black Friday in April 2011 and instead of relocating to continue plying his trade online, he made the decision to chase the highest stakes live cash games he could. Due to his action-heavy game he was regularly invited to the mega-high stakes cash games in Macau, where he played for many millions of dollars.
Durrrr made as brief online comeback when Full Tilt reopened in late 2012, as one of only three sponsored pros alongside Gus Hansen and his former nemesis Viktor “Isildur1” Blom. However, Dwan was rarely seen at the tables and eventually parted ways with the company after a disagreement, the details of which have never come to light.
While he has been absent from the online scene for a few years now, the popularity of Tom Dwan remains undiminished. His recent return to televised poker on the re-vamped “Poker After Dark” was met with a huge amount of excitement, and fans were rewarded with the sight of their hero scooping a $700,000 pot after coolering Antonio Esfandiari when his Aces busted Esfandiari’s pocket Kings.
| Total Live Earnings: | $2,913,934 |
| Best Live Cash: | $447,844 |
