Tom Dwan
Mood:  down
Countless people make a Full Tilt Poker download thinking that with enough studying, they will eventually have enough skill to play versus Tom Dwan, known as “durrr” to the online players. Dwan was born in New Jersey almost 24 years ago, and he dropped out of college to pursue poker full time. Most of his poker hours are spent on his Full Tilt Poker download, so the majority of his success has been in the online arena. However, he is starting to make some noise in the live arena, as well. He has participated in several live tournaments since becoming legal in the U.S., and he can be seen on a wide variety of poker television shows.

When Dwan first learned to play poker, he started on Paradise, one of the top Texas Hold’em sites back then. Once he was able to beat the sit-n-go’s there, he moved 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 see incredible volumes on money poker sites, and he quickly moved up in stakes while building up a massive bankroll.

Being the cream of the crop doesn’t mean your game is variance-free. 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 named “Isildur1”, who sat with him on multiple heads-up tables. By the end of the week, Dwan had lost around $5 million. The thought of losing such a staggering amount is enough to cause many players to quit poker and turn to safer games like Internet slots, but Dwan has obviously proven that he can handle the mental challenge poker provides.

In January 2009, Dwan announced his $1 million challenge. 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. Any player up money after 50k hands would receive an additional $1.5 million from Dwan, but if Dwan came out ahead, that player would have to agree to give Dwan $500k. Patrik Antonius is the first person to take the challenge, and so far Dwan is up by almost $2 million after 40k hands. Players wanting to challenge Dwan must first download free poker from Full Tilt and make a poker deposit.

When it comes to live US poker rooms, Dwan has $1.5 million in cashes. He has done a lot of travelling, and as such he has tournament cashes in Europe and Australia aside from the U.S. His highest WSOP finish happened just this year in a $1,500 No Limit Hold’em event. He finished second place behind Simon Watt for a little under $400,000. Many players breathed a sigh of relief when Dwan did not win a bracelet this year because it’s reported that there were a lot of bracelet bets for and against him in 2010.

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. It’s safe to assume that he will enjoy many more accomplishments throughout his career. Are you inspired now? Drop your bingo codes and play some poker instead.