Tom Dwan Bio

Back in 2004, a 17 year old boy would register an account on Paradise Poker and fund it with a bankroll of $50. His choice of a nickname was one that he hoped would force players to tilt as he took their money at the table. His choice of nickname had the desired effect and many years later Tom Dwan aka durrrr is among the elite in the poker world.

Dwan would begin his poker career grinding out $5 sit-n-go tournaments online and once he was becoming profitable at those, he moved onto cash games. He would move up to $2.50 – $5 NL Holdem before finally deciding to head over to PokerStars to try his hand at the games there. He would continue moving up in the ranks until he finally found a home at Full Tilt Poker in the high limit games. Dwan can be found regularly playing at $200-$400 PLO and NL Holdem, but regularly plays as high as $500-$1,000. Since his meager beginnings, Dwan has proceeded to win Millions online and according to HighStakesDB.com, durrrr won $5.36 Million in 2008 at Full Tilt Poker.

Dwan’s success is not just based online. He has been one of the few online professionals that have been able to transition into live poker. At 18, he finished 12th in his first tournament at the EPT event in London. Two years later, he would record his largest live professional cash to date when he made the final table of the WPT World Poker Open. He finished 4th for a payday of $324,244.

2008 was Dwan’s first shot at the World Series of Poker and he had two strong showings in his rookie year at the WSOP. He made the final table of the $10,000 Mixed Event, finishing in 7th. Five days later he finished 8th in the NL 2-7 Lowball event, an event eventually won by Mike Matusow “the mouth”.

Dwan has also been featured regularly on Poker After Dark, High Stakes Poker, and the NBC National Heads-Up Championship. In 2008, Dwan defeated Phil Hellmuth at the National Heads-Up Championship in three hands. This year, Dwan would finish 9th. He faced Hellmuth in the third round and Hellmuth would avenge his defeat from 2008.

Overall, Dwan has won nearly $1.1 Million in live tournament play. While he is one of the up and coming players in the live poker world, he is a perpetual superstar online. He will face anyone willing to take a shot at him and in most cases, durrrr walks away the winner.

Dwan is so confident in his skills that he issued an open challenge to any professional to play him online for 50,000 hands. Players must put up $500,000 and must four table with him at either $200-$400 PLO or $200-$400 NL Holdem. If his opponent finishes ahead of Dwan after 50,000 hands, the player gets their $500,000 matched, plus an additional $1 Million. If they are behind, Dwan gets their $500,000. So far, only Patrik Antonius and Phil Ivey have officially taken up Dwan on his challenge. The first match with Antonius is currently underway.

At just 22, Tom Dwan is arguably one of the greatest players of his generation and many players say that he may be the greatest poker player around today. While Phil Ivey and others may argue this point, Dwan has already put up numbers online by the age of 22 that would make historic careers for most players. The scary part of this story is that Dwan is now just beginning to hit his prime as a poker player. Dwan could realistically play strong poker for at least another 30 years and if his mind stays sharp, he could play into retirement. By the time Dwan leaves the game, it is possible that he will amass numbers that none in poker will ever reach again.