Tom Dwan (USA)

@TomDwan

Lifetime Tournament Earnings

$2.9 million

Career Highlights

• Under the Full Tilt screen name ‘Durrrr’ he was one of the most successful online cash game players of the early 2000’s, allegedly running up a bankroll into the millions after depositing just $50  on the site.
• Famously lost $3 million to Viktor Blom (better known as ‘Isildur1) in just 4 days.
• Issued the ‘Durrrr Challenge’ in 2009 in which he’d play anyone in the world except Phil Galfond at heads-up NLH or PLO.  The challenge stipulated that they must play 50,000 hands at $200/$400 blinds and whoever was ahead after that would win a side bet.  Dwan would pay out $1.5 million if his opponent was ahead after 50,000 hands whereas any challenger would only have to pay $500k if they Dwan was ahead after 50,000 hands.  Two players accepted the challenge, Patrik Antonius and Dan ‘Jungleman’ Cates.  However, after online poker was effectively shut down in the USA in April of 2011, Dwan withdrew from the spotlight in the middle of both challenges and has yet to complete them.  This has caused huge controversy in the poker world, as Cates had a $1.2 million lead on Durr after only 20k hands played.  Dwan was handily winning the match against Antonius, and the two have allegedly worked out a deal to close out the bet.  However, Dwan’s refusal to continue the match against Cates has caused some in the poker world to call it the largest scam in poker history.
• Won the biggest single pot in poker history (over $1 million) against Phil Ivey.  Check it out in the video section below.

Bio

Dwan will always be remembered as the original poker wunderkind of the post-boom era.  He brought a youthful and aggressive approach to the game in a time when the old guard of poker was still clinging to outdated styles of play.  He’s the poster boy for a whole generation of 18 year old whiz kids who helped to advance and transform poker into what it is today.  Full bio here.

Most Iconic Video- Editor’s Pick

Photo Source: https://www.pokervip.com/strategy-articles/poker-mental-game-and-planning/tom-dwan-poker-strategy