Dwyte Pilgrim

Sometimes a poker player becomes better-known for their less-pleasant aspects than they do for their on-felt achievements, and unfortunately Pilgrim is – or has become over the years – one of these characters.

For anyone who was paying attention back at the turn of the noughties, Pilgrim hit the scene with a bang – pulling down WSOP Circuit titles and other big cashes in 2009. March 2009 saw him win the Caesar’s Palace event for $83,955 – his first big one – and only 3 weeks later he struck again in San Diego, walking off with the title and $125,775 in the $5k Championship event.

His larger-than-life braggadocio at the table annoyed some, but there were plenty of people willing to back him up as being a basically really nice guy – and a very good, if slightly unusual, poker player. The 2+2 forum at the time was alive with threads about the newcomer, a guy who could talk his way non-stop through a final table while simultaneously playing great and running even better.

When he won the WPT $3500 championship title in 2010, scooping $733,802, it seemed that poker had found a new star. But behind the big personality lay a more-destructive – and if the many, many stories which have emerged since are to be believed – much darker side to Pilgrim.

The recent tale shared online – with big-names in the poker world to back them up (although, with one of them being Brian Hastings, the poker world has been calling ‘pot/kettle/black on some of the rumors) – that Pilgrim had been borrowing money from other players, or getting staked, and then reneging on his promises to pay them back. The public accusations have even included supposed threats and intimidation by Pilgrim, backed up by text messages sent to those who have gone public.

Pilgrim, for his part, doesn’t deny he owes certain people, but claims that “I got some life-changing news. From there I had some of the toughest times of my life.” 

He added in the PokerNews interview, “If it wasn't for the thing that happened, I would have paid back on time. I'm sorry my mishaps hurt anyone, but it wasn't done with malicious intent. My pride and ego was high when I took myself out of the game. I was one of the strongest players in the world. It was easier to walk away than ask for help, especially when you are the one that everyone expects to be the one helping.”

Whatever the truth behind the well-publicized spats, it certainly hasn’t done Pilgrim’s poker career any good. His rapid ascent, apparently to the top-echelons of the game, was stopped in its tracks – and he has shown no signs of recovery over the past couple of years. The stories won’t make him particularly popular at the tables, but perhaps – if he sticks to the actual skills he has in abundance – he can rebuild his poker life somehow. Time will tell.