Dwan Wins Millions on Full Tilt
A lot of people download Full Tilt Poker thinking that with enough studying, they will eventually have the bankroll to play versus Tom Dwan, whose Internet screen name is “durrr”. The 23 year old has become one of the most well known poker players in the world. He started as an online player, and the result is that most of his winnings have come online. He’s starting to turn heads in the brick-and-mortars recently, however. He has participated in several live tournaments since becoming legal in the U.S., and he has been on a number of high stakes poker TV shows.
When Dwan first learned to play poker, he started on Paradise, one of the leading gambling sites around that time. Once he was able to beat the sit-n-go’s there, he moved to cash games on Full Tilt. Dwan has played countless hours online. Mastering the art of multi-tabling allowed him to download Full Tilt Poker and see a huge number of hands. Because of this, his bankroll rose impressively as he climbed to higher buy-ins.
Being one of the best players in the world does not mean you get to avoid downswings. Dwan has gone through some impressive swings during his online career, which isn’t surprising considering his main game is heads-up No Limit Hold’em or Pot Limit Omaha. He has both won and lost millions in a single session. The most well known downswing of his career so far was thanks to a player from Sweden called “Isildur1”, who sat with him on multiple heads-up tables. When the week was over, Dwan’s bankroll was around $5 million poorer. Losing that much money would cause me to give up poker and just start playing Craps online, but Dwan obviously has enough mental toughness to fight through the variance.
In January 2009, Dwan announced his $1 million challenge. He is willing to play any player (except Phil Galfond) heads-up for 50k hands while playing 4 tables. 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. If you would like to take this challenge, simply use a Full Tilt referral code and make a screen name.
So far Dwan’s cashes in live tournaments amount to almost $1.5 million. He has cashes in the European Poker Tour, the World Poker Tour, the Aussie Millions, and the World Series of Poker. He made his best ever WSOP finish in 2010, making almost $400k after coming 2nd in a $1.5k NLHE event. Many players breathed a sigh of relief when Dwan did not win a because apparently a lot of people were betting on whether or not he would win one last year. I would rather earn a Roulette bonus than make crazy WSOP props like these!
The online players have always known that Dwan is a fierce opponent, but playing several live events and appearing on TV shows such as Poker After Dark and High Stakes Poker has earned him respect from the live pros, 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. If you aspire to be as great as Dwan one day, you need to get rid of the Blackjack download and spend your time playing poker instead.