Tom Dwan

Tom Dwan was born on the 30th July, 1986 in Edison, New Jersey. He began playing online poker donning the screen name “durrrr” in March, 2004 at the age of 17, using a $50 birthday present from his father. Of this $50, Dwan lost his first $35 playing $6 sit-and-go tournaments, but then began to focus, and was eventually able to become profitable.

Once these tournaments no longer posed a challenge, he established his bankroll by playing increasingly higher stakes cash games. He attended engineering school at Boston University, eventually dropping out to become a full time professional poker player.

Dwan is reported to have won $312,800 in 2007 on Full Tilt Poker, which quickly blossomed into $5,400,000 in 2008. Like many other professional poker players, Dwan’s bankroll has swung wildly from one side of the pendulum to the other. In 2007, he lost $2,000,000 of his $3,000,000 bankroll over the course of four months, which he was reportedly able to recoup in under a year.

He lost in excess of $3,500,000 in January 2009, and earned it back after six months. His largest series of losses occurred in December 2009, seeing around $2,000,000 disappear in that month alone. By the end of 2009, Dwan was reported to have lost a total of $4,350,000 at Full Tilt Poker, bringing his collective online winnings to $1,400,000. After several ups and downs in 2010, his total winnings for that year were at $3,300,000.

As far as tournament play, Dwan had his first cash in the second season of the European Poker Tour at age 19, but didn’t manage his second until the age of 21 in 2007 in the World Poker Finals. He finished second at the Aussie Millions in 2008, and another second at the Borgata Winter Open that same year.

He has cashed in two World Series of Poker events, both occurring in 2008, and finished in second place at the 2010 WSOP. Dwan is the current record holder for winning the $1,100,000 live game pot in the fourth season of Full Tilt Poker’s Million Dollar Cash Game.

Dwan also threw out a challenge in January 2009, putting up $1,500,000 for any challenger’s $500,000, in a simultaneous, four table heads-up contest, for 50,000 hands. Patrik Antonius was the first to accept, with Phil Ivey and David Benyamine next in line.

Dwan was the impetus behind Full Tilt Poker’s Durrrr Million Dollar Challenge held at the Les Ambassadeurs Club in London from 17th – 19th November, 2009. He walked away from the challenge with $795,500 in his pocket and won two of the three games.