Tom Dwan

Tom Dwan, known as "durrrr" online, is considered one of the best online poker players. He was born July 30, 1986 in Edison, New Jersey and has proven to become one of the biggest cash game players in a short amount of time. At such a young age, he has successfully cemented his presence in online poker having won approximately over $2,000,000.

An inspiration to other college students his age, Tom Dwan is famous throughout internet forums and chat rooms as he leads the way for successful young online poker players.

Tom Dwan first started playing poker when he was 17 and played on play-money tables at Paradise Poker. He then moved on to play low stakes SNGs and decided to pick an alias with the goal of tilting people, hence the name "durrrr". From the very beginning he knew he was a winner and has once said "I never really worried if I was good at it; I just thought everyone else was bad and it seemed like an easy way to make money."

Within two months of his poker career, he moved onto cash tables and by the time he turned 18, he had won around $15,000. Soon afterwards, he started playing $40/$80 limit tables and went on to win about $35k. He then lost $20k and decided to switch over to no-limit tables and eventually earned around $40k. Within three months, he had earned a significant amount of money and has steadily increased his earnings every since.

Chris Vaughn from Bluff magazine ran an article on Tom Dwan and watched him play a quick session. This involved Dwan opening up six tables with the smallest limit being $100/$200 NL Holdem. Within an hour, the young poker phenom had won close to $200,0000, which is approximately $4,500 a minute or $75 a second!

Dwan has since then begun to play more pot-limit omaha because he believes his edge is bigger. His reasoning for this is that because you get more cards in pot-limit omaha, you get more good hands and it's easier to think you're amazing. Because of this, it is a better game to make money off of.

When Tom Dwan turned 21, he decided to join the live tournament circuit and has thus far had some great success. He finished 4th at the WPT Foxwoods event, 2nd at the Aussie Millions Poker Championship and 2nd at the WPT Borgata Winter Open..

Those who watch Tom Dwan often make comparisons to that of Phil Ivey in that his audacity and raw intelligence is exceptional. Fearless in all aspects of gambling, he even made a bet with his house mate David Benefield during the 2007 WSOP where he had to play a series of high stakes chess matches against an international chess master who started without one rook. He unfortunately lost this bet.

When asked what he thinks of being called a natural talent, he is humbly quick to squash that idea and says "I think the natural talent thing is pretty overrated. I think anyone can learn to play poker and do pretty well if they are intelligent and open-minded."