Posts Tagged ‘Tom Dwan’

Tom Dwan wins $2 Million, then Loses Big

Tuesday, February 12th, 2013

Last month, we wrote a story about how Tom Dwan had been unsuccessful and largely absent from the online poker scene over the past couple of years. However, he’s recently returned to the internet poker scene in a major way and has seen some huge bankroll swings in the process. That said, let’s discuss some of this recent and very notable sessions.

A Triumphent Return

After bleeding out millions of his hard-earned poker winnings over the past two and a half years, Tom Dwan made a huge comeback. He won $1.25 million over a 25-hour session and made most of this money through 2-7 Triple Draw games. Some of the excellent players that he earned money off of during this session included Ben “Sauce1234″ Sulsky, Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond and Hac “trex313″ Dang.

Dwan wasn’t quite done yet though because he continued the winning by collecting another $871k on the tables. Some of the players that he faced off against during this session were Ben “Bttech86″ Tollerene, Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond and “patpatpanda.” Thanks to two huge sessions, Dwan had earned over $2.1 million.

Hitting a Downswing

There’s no doubt that Dwan put himself back on the poker map following a $2.1 million profit. However, he lost some of this money over the past two days after dropping around $900k.

Despite losing nearly $1 million “durrrr” can’t be too angry about the losses. After all, he’s netted $1.1 million in a week and has $2.14 million in career profits at Full Tilt Poker. Sure this is a far cry from the $7.23 million peak that he was at in June of 2009. But Dwan has proved that he’s still capable of winning big in online poker, despite dedicating most of his time to live cash games in recent years.

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What happened to Tom Dwan in Online Poker?

Saturday, January 19th, 2013

When it comes to online poker, Tom “durrrr” Dwan will always be known as one of the most famous players. After all, he was widely considered a top internet grinder from 2008-2010. However, the past few years have seen Dwan’s profits and online reputation take a major hit. To illustrate this point, let’s follow Dwan’s profits during the most significant rises and drops in his career:

- October, 2007, -$330k (rough start)
- December, 2008, $5.73 million (the legend was born)
- February, 2009, $2 million (a sharp drop)
- June, 2009, $7.23 million (Dwan’s peak)
- November, 2009, -$1 million (playing Viktor Blom takes its toll)
- April, 2010, $6.72 million (thank you Guy Laliberte)
- April, 2011, $2.4 million (a steady drop before Black Friday)
- January, 2013, $883k (the fall continues)

As you can see, Dwan has never been a stranger to wild bankroll swings. However, it looks like these swings have been going down far more often than up since April of 2010. Because of this big bankroll drop, some people question whether or not Dwan could even compete with the top online players of today.

There’s no simple answer to this thought because, as his results indicate, durrrr has not been a successful player over the past two and a half years. However, it’s worth mentioning that Dwan doesn’t dedicate the bulk of his time towards beating high stakes games at Full Tilt Poker anymore. Instead, he’s still grinding in the live Macau cash games and making a healthy profit off the Asian businessmen and whales there.

Assuming the Macau games were ever to dry up, it’s likely that Tom Dwan would fully rededicate himself to beating online poker – if there were no other juicy cash games elsewhere. And while it’s debatable on whether he’d definitely beat Blom, Ben Sulsky, Phil Ivey and other high stakes grinders, he could definitely become a profitable player.

After all, Dwan did revolutionize the way many poker players thought about the game during the late 2000′s. So as smart as he is about poker, it’s merely a matter of wanting to be one of the best again.

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Ben Lamb, Tom Dwan 2012 WSOP Absences Explained

Saturday, June 30th, 2012

Every year, the WSOP is a virtual who’s who of poker since the game’s top pros descend on Las Vegas to compete for gold bracelets, glory, and of course major cash. The 2012 WSOP has certainly been no different – save for the fact that a couple of very notable stars have pretty much been MIA.

One of the world’s top cash game players in Tom Dwan and the 2011 WSOP Player of the Year in Ben Lamb have both been noticeably absent in the headlines this year, which had some people scratching their heads about the matter. However, these absences were recently explained after both players showed up to the $1 million buy-in Big One for One Drop tournament.

Why Dwan was missing

Tom Dwan has never been one who hangs his hat on poker tournament accomplishments or WSOP gold bracelets. That said, it’s no surprise that he was in Macau for most of the 2012 WSOP playing in the massive cash games there. While people are tight-lipped about what happens in Macau high stakes poker games, rumor has it that the blinds reached $3,500/$7,000 at one point. Apparently, the only thing that brought Dwan back was the $1 million buy-in tourney that he registered for. And it’s been a decent decision so far since he’s ranked 10th in chips (out of 37 remaining players) after Day 1.

Why Ben Lamb was missing

Of all the players missing at the 2012 WSOP, Ben Lamb is no doubt the most puzzling. Actually though he hasn’t really been missing, but rather just dividing his time between cash games and WSOP tournaments. As for the latter, Lamb has yet to run good and cash in any tourneys yet. However – just like Dwan – he too is fairing pretty well after ending Day 1 of the Big One for One Drop with 5.77 million chips (currently 8th).

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WSOP $1 Million Buy-in to break Records

Friday, April 13th, 2012

What began as a vision several months ago has become reality since the WSOP $1 million buy-in tournament is definitely going to happen from July1st-3rd. Dubbed “The Big One for One Drop,” this tourney already has 30 players confirmed with some of the biggest names in poker having made a commitment.

But before we get into the confirmed players, it’s worth mentioning that this tournament is already guaranteed to set two records. First off, the WSOP $1 million buy-in tournament will feature the biggest buy-in ever; the previously largest tourney was the $250k Aussie Millions High Roller.

As for the second record, the 30 confirmed players and interesting prize pool distribution will see the winner walk away with almost $12.3 million of the prize pool. Assuming this happens as planned, it would easily beat the $12 million that Jamie Gold received for winning the 2006 WSOP Main Event.

With such a massive prize involved, it’s no wonder why the top names in poker will be entering this event. Some of those confirmed include Gus Hansen, Patrik Antonius, Erik Seidel, Daniel Negreanu, Johnny Chan, Tom Dwan, Tony G, Dan Shak, Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier and Jonathan Duhamel.

In addition to this stellar lineup of players, there will also be some prominent businessmen joining the tourney. These guys include Guy Laliberté, Bobby Baldwin (former player too), Phil Ruffin, Andy Beal, Sean O’Donnell, Richard Yong, Paul Phua and Arnaud Mimran.

The Big One for One Drop will see 10% of the buy-ins go towards Laliberté’s One Drop foundation, while a little under $27 million is available for the actual tourney. We still have plenty of time before July 1st, so both the number of participants and prize money could grow before the tournament starts. But even if it stays the same, we’re still in for quite a special event come WSOP time!

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Macau Poker Pot Reportedly hits $13.8 Million

Wednesday, November 30th, 2011

In case you haven’t heard yet, there are some enormous cash games going on in Macau right now. And the word enormous might even be an understatement after reports are coming out that one of the cash game pots was worth a reported $14 million!

APPT owner Tom Hall has been the biggest source of rumors about the $14 million pot, which was won by an unknown player who was reportedly down over $12.6 million; Hall wrote the following about the big play:

Biggest hand I ever saw and arguably the craziest was a guy betting HK$28m (US$3.6) on the river into a HK$51m (US$6.55) pot with a gutshot straight draw against what turned out to be top set. He was down over HK$100m (US$12.8) at the time and hit it.

When you add up all of the money that Hall described, this equals around $13.75 million (or $13.8m just to round off). You can read about all of Tom Hall’s reports on the Macau high stakes poker games in this thread.

The action has been pretty intense all throughout the big games at Macau with Johnny Chan reportedly winning $1.41 million. In addition to this, Tom Dwan lost $2.6 million in one day, but came back to win $1.7m overall, and Andrew Robl was up $2 million – only to drop back down to even.

Apparently the games are pretty exclusive because Patrik Antonius was denied a seat at the big table. 2010 WSOPE Main Event champion James Bord tried to get him into the game, but Canadian billionaire Guy Laliberte refused because he thinks that Antonius is too nitty. Hall wrote about this by typing:

Confirmed that Patrik Antonius was not allowed into the game, James Bord (who was playing) tried to get him in but Guy Laliberte insisted no WAY. Antonius played ~US$640/US$1280 PLO instead with Andrew “good2cu” Robl and a few others.

Apparently, the rich businessmen who play in this game want lots of action, and people who bring their own money – as opposed to being staked.

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Online Poker Cheating Incidents

Tuesday, August 16th, 2011

Unfortunately, we’ve seen a number of online poker cheating incidents lately, and some of the biggest names in the game are involved. So without further delay, here is a look at the major online poker scandals, and a description of what went down in each instance.

Jose Macedo (superuser scandal) - Jose “Girah” Macedo, who was once labeled the Portuguese Prodigy, was caught in an elaborate cheating scam where he referred unsuspecting friends to a supposed fish named “sauron1989.” Little did anybody know that Macedo was actually playing as sauron1989. He then asked his friends if he could view the match via Skype’s shared screen feature (to share poker tips), which they obliged to since it was unknown that he was also sauron1989. This gave Macedo access to his opponents hole cards, and essentially made him a superuser.

Haseeb “Dogishead” Qureshi (chip dumping) - Qureshi, who is Macedo’s poker friend, engaged in chip dumping, which involves intentionally playing hands bad so another player at the table can scoop up the chips. In this instance, Qureshi found chip dumping as the easiest way to deliver Macedo $100k since he backed the Portuguese Prodigy. However, this also enabled Macedo to win a Lock Poker challenge, and the victory was later rescinded after Lock discovered what happened. Qureshi has since quit online poker in light of the most recent Macedo scandal (they had close ties, Qureshi’s name is officially ruined).

Dan “Jungleman12″ Cates (multi-accounting) - Cates was also linked to both Qureshi and Macedo, and he recently admitted to playing on three of Macedo’s online poker accounts. In an interview, Cates lied about not being involved in multi-accounting, but later admitted to playing through Macedo’s accounts in several $25/$50 PLO sessions.

David “Chino” Rheems (not paying money back) - Rheems has no connection to the aforementioned players, but he’s still earned a bad rap by borrowing money from players, and not paying it back afterward. At one point, Rheems was said to owe Will Molson, Tom Dwan, Joseph Cheong and Ben Lamb over $200k collectively. After winning the first Epic Poker League event, Rheems reportedly started paying people back with his $1 million in winnings.

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WSOP Attendance Record in 2011?

Saturday, June 18th, 2011

2011 was supposed to be the year where WSOP attendance fell dramatically from its record in 2010. After all, the events of Black Friday ensured that many Americans wouldn’t be able to compete for WSOP prize packages through sites like PokerStars, UB Poker, Absolute Poker and Full Tilt. However, a total anomaly has happened this year since WSOP attendance is not only doing well, but it’s on pace to set records!

After 29 events, WSOP attendance is 10% higher than it was in 2010, and there are no signs of this growth slowing down. About the only thing that could possibly hinder the attendance from reaching record figures is that less amateurs will have won $10k Main Event prize packages through online sites. However, it’s pure speculation at this point, much like the speculation that attendance figures would be way down.

So just how is the world’s largest poker event even more popular this year? Well one possible reason could be the fact that many US online pros are unable to play at the biggest poker sites, so they’re concentrating their efforts on the 2011 WSOP. This theory is highlighted by a large number of noted online pros, such as Tom Dwan, David Sands and Richard Lyndacker, who are entering as many events as they can this year. In the past, many of these players took a casual approach to the WSOP since they mainly relied on internet games.

Of course, there is also a large international presence at the WSOP, which includes three players from the UK who have won bracelets. Going further with this, Ukraine-born players such as Eugene Katchalov (lives in US) and Oleksii Kovalchuk have also won bracelets.

Whatever the main factor is behind this WSOP attendance surge, it will be fun to see if the record is broken once again in 2011.

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New High Stakes Online Poker Scene

Friday, April 22nd, 2011

With US high stakes online poker players out of commission for a while following the Full Tilt and PokerStars shutdown, it will be interesting to see who will step up in the absence of guys like Phil Ivey, Dan Cates, Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond and Tom “Durrrr” Dwan.

Obviously Gus Hansen doesn’t really have to do any stepping up because he’s already at the top in 2011. Hansen opened up the year with over $2 million in profits by early February, and he doesn’t seem to have lost any of that momentum either since he’s up $4 million as we head into late April. Case in point, Hansen is a shoe-in to carry the torch for the Full Tilt high stakes scene with everybody else out of the picture.

Along with Hansen, Patrik Antonius has still been active at Full Tilt with him and Hansen recently tangling in Omaha Hi/Lo; Antonius ended up winning over $350k during the session. Hopefully we’ll be seeing more of this action simply for the sake of keeping internet high stakes poker alive.

Another guy to keep an eye on is Jens “Ingenious89″ Kyllönen, who won almost $1 million the other day against several studs like Hansen and Andreas “Skjervoy” Torbergsen. Speaking of Torbergsen, he lost quite a bit of money ($1.1 million) on the same day that Kyllönen won a bunch; however, he will still be a force to be reckoned with as we head into the future of online high stakes poker.

One guy that we won’t be seeing for a while – at least in the US – is Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies, who vowed to not deposit at either Full Tilt or PokerStars again. But you should expect Sahamies to keep playing on European sites since the high stakes action is likely to pick up at rooms like Party Poker, the iPoker Network and Ongame Network.

 

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Is Phil Ivey Too Young For The Poker Hall Of Fame? Doyle Brunson Thinks So.

Tuesday, October 19th, 2010

Back in August the nominations for Poker Hall of Fame 2010 opened and the poker world has been on the edge of their seats waiting to find out which poker greats will make the cut this year. One of the prime candidates for admission into the Poker Hall of Fame, in the eyes of many poker fans, is Phil Ivey. However, despite Ivey’s success in the professional poker arena, Doyle Brunson thinks that the 34-year old poker player is too young to make it into the Poker Hall of Fame.

What qualifies Ivey for the Poker Hall of Fame? Well, for starters he won an L.A. Classic title in 2008, he’s got 8 WSOP bracelets under his belt, 9 WPT final tables, he is the top live tournament winner of all time, and that’s just a short list of his accomplishments. However, one of the requirements for players to gain entrance to the Poker Hall of Fame is that they must have “stood the test of time.” In Brunson’s opinion, Ivey is still too young to prove that he has stood the test of time.

Last year, 26-year old Tom “Durr” Dwan was nominated for the Poker Hall of Fame but was denied a spot because of his age. However, Ivey is substantially older than Dwan and has more years of experience in the game. Brunson also thinks that Daniel Negreanu, who is 36, is too young to become a hall of famer.

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Is Tom Dwan’s August Winning Streak Over?

Wednesday, August 11th, 2010

Earlier this week I posted about Tom “durrr” Dwan’s amazing success during the beginning of August – racking in almost $1 million in the first week of the month. While Dwan is still up for the month, he lost a huge chunk of money in an online heads-up game Monday night, proving that even the most successful professional poker players can’t win all the time.

After another $400k win on Sunday, Monday night Dwan walked away with $242,056 less under his belt after a major heads-up loss. Dwan was playing against an unidentified online player known as O Fortuna PLS. It was a three-hour Limit Hold’em game with a $2,000/$4,000 limit. Dwan and the mysterious O Fortuna PLS played 585 hands. It will be interesting to see if Dwan will get his comeuppance against O Fortuna PLS in the future. I wonder who this mysterious player is and how he must feel knowing that he crushed one of the best poker players of all time!

Although $242,056 is a significant amount of money, it’s not such a huge loss for Dwan as he has been on a winning streak this month and still has a lot of winnings under his belt for the month of August. However, for those of us with smaller poker bankrolls, what do we do if our luck takes a turn for the worse? I say, take a break and practice with some free poker and then get back out there and show the poker world what we can do when we’ve got back out winning attitude!

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