"Durrrr" or Tom Dwan is one of the world's most famous poker players. Born in Edison, New Jersey, Dwan starting playing online at the age of 18. His father gave him a fifty dollar gift card for his birthday, and he deposited into Paradise Poker, an online card room. He quickly realized he had a knack for poker. He ran up his deposit playing Sit N’ Go tournaments and has not looked back.
Dwan had the poker bug as he went off to Boston University to study English, and while he originally focused on his studies, his focus soon shifted to poker shortly after enrolling. He began making large amounts of money and soon his online bankroll had eclipsed $100k. After just one year, he dropped out of college and decided to play poker full time.
While he began playing Sit & Go tournaments, Dwan quickly moved to cash play. Over the next several years, he would become one of the world’s best cash game players. Known for his fearless bluffs at super high stakes games, Dwan has become an internet poker legend. In his early days, he would often move to the highest levels of the online action only to lose and drop back down.
This was perhaps the reason why he has been so successful. Still understanding basic bankroll requirements, he had no issues with pride or ego. He could crush middle to high stakes games and would always be able to rebuild his roll there – he understood this. So, when he had an unlucky run at bigger games, he simply dropped down and grinded his way back.
He soon found himself in the largest cash games online and live, and playing against the world's best players. Often playing Phil Ivey and Patrick Antonius heads up, his swings were enormous. He could easily win or lose $200-$300k per day and have large multi-million dollar swings over several months.
His ability to read other players, his fearless play, along with his massive wins and losses at high stakes quickly got him into poker limelight. Soon, he was a regular on High Stakes Poker on GSN, Poker After Dark and was a regular in The Big Game at the Bellagio. He quickly became regarded as one of the best poker players in the world. He was especially a force to be reckoned heads-up.
At 21, he was a poker icon and a legend of online poker. In late 2012, Dwan became a founding member of the new Team Full Tilt. In addition to his online winnings, Tom has cashed in many WPT and WSOP events and has over $2.2 million in live tournament winnings.
At just 26, the sky is the limit for Tom Dwan. The best part? He is easy to root for. He's modest, polite and genuinely loves playing poker. We cannot imagine what he will achieve in a lifetime of professional poker.
