Tom "Durrrr" Dwan

Tom Dwan Biography

Tom Dwan is an American poker pro, commonly known online by his username ‘durrrr’. While Dwan initially grew his bankroll playing online, he rose to prominence after great success and exciting play in televised no limit hold em games.

Dwan began playing online at just 17 with $50 on Paradise Poker, choosing his now famous username ‘durrrr’, believing it would put players on tilt if they lost to him. After initially focusing his attention on SnG's Dwan turned his attention towards low stakes cash games, and eventually built up his bankroll until he reached the largest games online. These large games refer to some of the biggest pots in online poker history with the likes of Patrik Antonius and Phil Ivey on Full Tilt. It was reported that Dwan earned close to $6m around 2007 and 2008 online. Several reports later claimed that Dwan was having massive downswings around this time too, multi-tabling with the usual suspects Phil Ivey, Ilari Sahamies, and Viktor Blom. Dwan’s reputation has grown as he has shown to be successful in televised poker shows such as Poker After Dark and High Stakes Poker. Despite often competing against other world class pros in these games, Dwan retained his ultra-aggressive style and produced some of the most audacious and entertaining poker on TV.

Career Highlights Dwan's Million Dollar Challenge came about early 2009 when he issued a $1m challenge to anyone brave enough to play him online HU 4-tabling NLH or PLO at stakes of $200/$400 or above. In the statement, he also claimed it could be anyone but Phil Galfond. The catch was that if his opponent was ahead after 50k hands then he would give them another $1.5m on top of that, or if Dwan was ahead he was to recieve $500k. The likes of Daniel Cates and Patrik Antonius took up the challenge but are yet to hit the 50k hand mark.

In late 2009, Dwan was one of the players involved in high stakes No Limit Holdem Heads Up play with the user ‘Isildur1’, who has now been revealed as Viktor Blom. These games on Full Tilt were railed by many fans enjoying the loose play between the two, with huge amounts of money at stake. At times, there were six tables open with the pair playing for over $1m overall. After a week of online play between the two, it was reported that Blom had taken around $5m off Dwan. On the back of this monster marathon, Dwan then called Isildur1 out to play at the Full Tilt Poker Durrrr Million Dollar Challenge. This was a 500 hand challenge playing HU with Dwan between November 17th-19th. Each player had to pay $250k with blinds at $500/$1000, playing either NLH or PLO, and nobody could opt out until the 500 hands were complete or one player busted.

Perhaps one of Dwan's most notable achievements is that of winning the biggest live recorded pot in poker history. This pot occurred whilst Dwan was playing in Full Tilt Poker's Million Dollar Cash Game - Season 4. Funnily enough the previous record for the biggest pot ever recorded was also held by Dwan.