He may look like he'd get ID-ed for cigarettes, but over the last couple of years, Tom Dwan has become one of the most renowned, and feared, online players around. More commonly known as 'durrrr'', Dwan is an online pro from Las Vegas, US who partakes in some of the biggest no limit Hold'Em and pot limit Omaha cash games the virtual world has to offer. We have seen him win and lose millions in the space of a few days, yet he's always a prominent name on the high stakes tables and continues to lock horns with the likes of Gus Hansen, David Benyamine and co.
This week has been no different. Yesterday evening, Saturday 25th October, durrrr was involved in three of the biggest pots to date. The first emerged in a three-handed affair of no limit Hold'em with fellow high stakes players LarsLuzak and Ilari 'Ziigmund' Sahamies. With the blinds at a monstrous $500/1,000, durrrr limped from the button, LarsLuzak made it a total of $3,000 from the small blind, Ziigmund folded and durrrr called.
On the 9c-5d-2s flop, durrrr check-raised a bet of $4,000 to $12,700 and LarsLuzak made the call. LarsLuzak then raised durrrr's bet of $24,700 on the Ac turn before coming over the top of a $68,700 bet on the 7h river for $270,832. durrrr, who boasted a similar stack to his foe, made the call, thus creating an astromical pot of $617,968. As the cards were flipped, it was revealed that LarsLuzak was on a complete bluff with 6d-4s. durrrr, meanwhile, took down the pot with Ad-9d for top two pair.
LarsLuzak, who has been revealed as Sami Kelopuro is an online pro from Finland. Kelopuro is more accustomed to the tables at Betfair, but has since taken his game to Full Tilt where he can often be seen taking on the regular high stakes pros. Kelopuro also has a blog which can be found by clicking here.
Although durrrr took down what is perhaps the biggest pot he has ever won online, his fortune wasn't to last as he came unstuck against recent WSOPE victor John Juanda. With Dwan getting his stack in preflop, Juanda typed "SO SICK" into the chat box before making the call with pocket kings and creating yet another humongous pot of $678,069. Dwan tabled pocket aces, but a testicle-crunching king on the river dealt out one of the online world's sickest beats.
The very next hand, an equally mammoth pot of $678,021 came to the forefront with poker superstar Phil Ivey emerging victorious. With Tom Dwan all in for the shrapnel that remained from the previous encounter, Ivey and Juanda found all the chips going in on an Ac-5s-Ts flop, Ivey's near-nutty, but ultimately vulnerable Td-Th looking to avoid a spade against Juanda's drawing Ks-8s. Dwan had Qc-7c. The 3c turn and 9h river were both blanks, and it was Ivey's turn to scoop an epic pot.
There have been a number of pots of this magnitute (some may recall the Lodden/Fast Freddie encounter), but this was one of the most action-packed nights of recent memory. Millions floated around the table, and the action is sure to be echoed in future sessions as these titans of online poker continue to cross swords. One sure bet is that durrrr will be involved in one form or another, although rumour has it that a young online upstart called 'Snoopy1239' has been tearing up the scene of late and even challenged durrr to a heads up for rolls contests durrrr has yet to reply and some of fearing that the young superstar has finally met his match.