Dwan Grinding Back To Profit

Highstakes online pro is rebuilding his bankroll after a bad year The roller coaster that is Tom Dwan in action on the Full Tilt internet nosebleed tables may be entertaining to watch, but it has proved disastrous this year, with the Internet poker pro down over $4.5 million as 2009 draws to a close. Playing for lower stakes recently to build bankroll, Dwan has managed to claw back almost $1.5 million over 33 000 hands in December to reach his present shortfall, but it appears unlikely he will end the year back in profit overall. Monday night was a typical Dwan session in recent times, with the audacious pro starting an initially modest late night session on Full Tilt's $50/$100 Pot Limit Omaha tables, playing both heads up and short handed against a small number of regulars. That added $43 000 to his bankroll, according to MarketPulse numbers. Dwan then shifted up a gear to the $100/$200 PLO tables, where another 149 hands yielded a further profit of $80 813, at which point Dwan dropped off the screen for a while, prompting some speculation that he had called it a night. However, he was soon back, this time in the more familiar surrounds of the six-max $300/$600 PLO nosebleed tables, where he faced off against the likes of Ilari Sahamies, Richard Ashby, Brian Townsend (whom it appears is only suspended from pro team activities) and a few others. The action there generated at least three pots in excess of $200 000, with 'Urin Danger' Dang the primary beneficiary and Townsend taking a crushing loss of $725 000 by night's end. Dwan left the session a further $53 890 up and concluded his action with a brief 109-hand clash on an additional $500/$1 000 PLO table heads up against Sahamies, from which he emerged $552 669 richer. Dwan's work for the night enabled him to more positively improve his bankroll by $730 274, but he still has a long hill to climb if he wants to break even by the end of 2009.