Is Tom Dwan a Texas Hold'em God?

The return of Tom ‘durrrr’ Dwan from his far-eastern sojourn to the big-time Vegas cash game on Poker after Dark last week had everybody in the poker community on the edge of their seats – how would he play? How would he look? How would he act? The answers? Fantastically well, absolutely fine and like the Dwan of old!

Up $1million in the blink of an eye, it was as though he’d never been away from the televised high-stakes world which brought him countless fans, fame and fortune. And for Chicago Joey Ingram at least, the question had to be: ‘Is Tom Dwan truly a Texas Hold'em Poker God who runs better than anyone else in the history of televised poker!??!?!?!?’

If ‘durrrr’ and his Macau problems and life have been mostly rumours and speculation rather than hard facts, his amazing ability to win the biggest pots ever seen on TV are certainly not hidden from the public eye, and it’s an enthusiastic ‘fanboy’ Ingram who takes us through the very best of them in his 10-minute ‘investigation’.

The classic hands are all shown, but Ingram starts with last week’s $697,100 cooler hand which saw Dwan’s pockets aces come up against the Kings of Esfandiari and Negreanu’s queens! Negreanu managed to escape relatively unscathed, but ‘the Magician’ looked sick to his stomach at Dwan’s expensive return.

As Chicago Joey takes us through a litany of sick bluffs and calls and flops, turns and rovers which never seem to miss Dwan’s often meagre holdings, it’s hard to believe ‘durrrr’ could possibly have lost millions upon millions in Macau as so often claimed – he never misses when it’s on TV at least!

Seven-deuce offsuit? No problem, I’ll just bluff my opponent off his flopped aces and sixes on the river.

Five-trey off? Also a walk in the park – I’ll either turn the nut straight against Ivey’s turned wheel, or do the same against Kagawa’s flopped trips!

All-in for a $919k pot with top pair and flush draw against Greenstein’s pocket rockets? Not to worry, the turn will bring me a queen – you just gotta have faith!

And the rivered full house with ten-jack against Meltzer’s kings? That’s just to show you who is boss of the big boys’ game!

When put together the way Ingram does it, it’s an amazing run of massive pots, massive suck-outs, massive bluffs and frankly speaking, massive balls! But as the legendary golfer Gary Player was famed for saying:

“The harder I practice, the luckier I get!”

Poker might not have the exact same ability to confound the odds of luck/variance, but when it comes to Dwan and the cameras, the man can do little wrong. As Ingram states at the end of a thoroughly enjoyable selection of hands:

“I think I’ve come to the conclusion that I think many out there have come to after watching Tom Dwan over many, many years… Tom Dwan… is indisputably… UNDISPUTABLY… a Texas Hold’em Poker God… and true legend of the game.”

Well, Ingram isn’t one to let an opportunity pass him by, and he headed off down to see the man in action, desperate to ‘sign him up’ for what would be his biggest podcast ever…