Top 3 Durrrr Bluffs

Even after all these years spent away from the eyes of the public, Tom "Durrrr" Dwan is still one of the hottest names in poker. Nowadays most of the aforementioned heat comes from, memes about his hermitage created by the likes of Doug Polk and the always hilarious Manz, or worse yet, the scam accusations and controversy surrounding the unfinished "Durrrr Challenge".

Just like we don't want to remember Mel Gibson for that one voicemail that almost ruined his career and we'd rather appreciate him for "Brave Heart", "Mad Max" or "Lethal Weapon", when we hear the name of Tom "Durrrr" Dwan the first thing that comes to mind is not controversy, but his brilliant aggressive playstyle resulting in many iconic bluffs. 

Family Dynamic

If you're a fan of Tom Dwan you probably remember this iconic family pot from the fifth season of High Stakes Poker, when "durrrr" showed the poker world how great he actually is at reading ranges, utilizing table dynamics and putting the pedal to the metal.

Dwan correctly recognized that even in the context of deep stack televised cash game 2X type hands were somewhat unlikely in most of the player's ranges excluding the last couple of callers who were presented with great odds to call preflop. Tom also knew that Barry Greenstein - who was the initial raiser from the UTG position - had no 2x type hands in his range, and the only hand that he could beat him with, was one combo of pocket tens. Lastly, Peter Eastgate was out of position had to account for the fact that he wasn't the last to act on any street.

The compilation of those factors coupled with Tom's brilliance and bravery resulted in the iconic high stakes poker bluff. What made it even more memorable is the fact that Tom confirmed he knew exactly where he stood by calling out the fact that Eastgate folded the best hand.

Adding Insult to Injury

The aggression shown in the pot against Greenstein and Eastgate described above was surgical, the aggression presented by Dwan during The Million Dollar Challenge HU match against Sammy "Any Two" George was relentless and downright cruel.

The hand started with durrrr setting up the pot for a big bluff with an oversized open and announcing his exact two cards to the opponent, even though both players had the popular 72 bet going. Just like with the previous bluff the board texture was crucial, allowing Tom to make this outrageous bluff. Sammy should be 3betting hands like AA, JJ and AJ preflop and Ah blocked a bunch of popular flush combos which made his range somewhat capped.

Because of that and the added pressure caused by the match history (Sammy was down more than a quarter of a million dollars when the hand took place) Dwan's bet/call, bet, 2x overbet line was so damn effective. This hand was an equivalent of a football player showing the goalkeeper the corner he's going to put the ball in before kicking it so hard that the goalie can't do anything about it. 

Battle of the Juggernauts

With all due respect to "Any Two", it's one thing to attempt a crazy bluff against Sammy George, but trying to fool almost a mythical figure like Phil Ivey is something else entirely. It's hard to guess the strategic considerations both players had in their minds at the time of playing the hand.

We could argue that the fact Ivey only called the initial preflop raise made his range somewhat capped and removed some of the premium pockets that would've smashed the flop from it, we could discuss the way deep stacks affected the merits of that huge bluff by durrrr. Instead, we should just marvel at the skills of a player who made arguably one of the best bluffs of all time and the talent of a player who almost made the best hero call of all time in the spot where the vast majority of players wouldn't dream of attempting either.