Thomas Dwan Jr. (born July 30, 1986) is an American professional poker player who played online in the highest-stakes No-Limit Texas hold 'em and Pot-Limit Omaha games, primarily on Full Tilt Poker under the screen name "durrrr".
Dwan has won prize money in live poker tournaments and has appeared on NBC's National Heads-Up Poker Championship, the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh seasons of Poker After Dark, the third, fourth, and fifth seasons of Full Tilt Poker's Million Dollar Cash Game, and the fifth, sixth, eighth and ninth seasons of GSN's High Stakes Poker.
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Early life
Tom Dwan was born on July 30, 1986, in Edison, New Jersey. In season 5, week 7 of NBC's Poker After Dark, Dwan revealed that he worked for McDonald's prior to playing poker full-time.
He attended Boston University before dropping out after the first year to pursue playing poker full-time.
Poker career
Online poker
Dwan began playing online poker with a $50 bankroll. He initially focused on sit-and-go tournaments, later switching to multiplayer cash games then to heads-up cash games.
According to HighStakesDB.com, a site that tracks high-stakes online poker, Dwan earned $312,800 in 2007 on Full Tilt Poker and $5.41 million in 2008. Before the 2007 World Series of Poker, Dwan claimed to have lost, at the time, $2 million of his $3 million bankroll, over a four-month period.
He recovered from this loss within a year. In January 2009, Dwan lost more than $3.5 million, which he recovered after six months.
From late October to late December 2009, Dwan suffered his then-largest downswing, losing approximately $2 million to Phil Ivey and Ilari "Ziigmund" Sahamies.
In late 2009, the online poker player known as "Isildur1" faced Tom Dwan in a series of high-stakes heads-up games, simultaneously playing on six tables with over a million dollars in play. Over the course of the sessions, Isildur1 won several million dollars from Dwan during one of the most notable periods of high-stakes online poker action. The player was later revealed to be the then-19-year-old Swedish professional Viktor Blom.
Dwan became involved in bringing this mysterious online-only player into public view, via Dwan's issuing an invitation to Blom to participate in the Full Tilt Poker Durrrr Million Dollar Challenge, live in London, on November 17–19, 2009; Finnish Ilari "Ziigmund" Sahamies, British Sammy "any two" George, and Italian Marcello "Luckexpress" Marigiano were already confirmed for the event.
At the end of 2009, HighStakesDB.com reported that Dwan had lost $4.35 million in 2009, which lowered his cumulative online poker winnings at Full Tilt since January 2007 at approximately $1.4 million.
HighStakesDB.com also reported that after stepping down in limits following his loss to Blom/Isildur1, Dwan won $2.7 million in December 2009.
Live tournaments
At the age of 19, Dwan cashed in at his first live tournament, finishing 12th in the £3,000 no limit Texas Hold 'em Main Event of the European Poker Tour's second season held in London, earning £7,000 ($12,398).
His next cash was not until he was 21 years old, at the World Poker Tour's 2007 World Poker Finals $9,700 No Limit Hold 'em Championship Event, where he finished 4th earning $324,244.
In January 2008, Dwan finished second at the Aussie Millions A$3,000 Pot Limit Omaha with Rebuys event, winning A$103,200 ($90,716), and later finished in 62nd place in the A$10,000 No Limit Hold 'em Main Event, good for A$25,000 ($21,976). Dwan finished second to James Michael Sowers at the 2008 WPT Borgata Winter Open in the preliminary $5,000 No Limit Hold 'em event, earning $226,100.
Dwan cashed twice in the first year that he could to play in a World Series of Poker (WSOP) event held in the United States. He reached the final table in the $10,000 World Championship Mixed Event at the 2008 World Series of Poker finishing in 8th place, earning $54,144. He nearly made another in a seven-person final table, but finished again in 8th, this time in the $5,000 No Limit 2–7 Draw with Rebuys event, earning $45,110.
Dwan participated in the 2008 NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship held at Caesars Palace Las Vegas, where in his first match he defeated Phil Hellmuth in the third hand. Dwan was eliminated in the next round by Mike Matusow.
At the 2008 Five-Star World Poker Classic (the $25,500 WPT Championship), Dwan finished in ninth place, winning $184,670.
At the 2010 World Series of Poker in the $1,500 No Limit Hold 'em event, Dwan finished in second place for $381,885.
In 2011, Dwan cashed three times at the 2011 World Series of Poker, including a 5th-place finish in the $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. Championship for $134,480.
Live cash-games
Dwan previously held the record for the largest pot won in a televised live game at over $1.1 million, which occurred during the fourth season of Full Tilt Poker's Million Dollar Cash Game. This record broke the previous record of over $919,000 also won by Dwan in the fifth season of High Stakes Poker.
He regained the record when he won a pot of $3.1 million during the Hustler Casino Live Million Dollar Game at the end of May 2023, with his pair of Queens beating Wesley Fei's Ace High.
As of 2016, Dwan has spent much of his time playing high stakes cash games in Macau and Manila.
More recently, he has mostly (though not completely) abandoned standard Texas hold 'em in favor of short-deck hold 'em. In a 2018 interview with Poker News, he said that he viewed poker as more of a game than a sport, and also tired of what he saw as the constant staredowns many players employed. While he admitted to having popularized staredowns, he objected to players doing so even when they were not in a crucial situation.
Dwan's Million Dollar Challenge was expanded to a 500-hand live heads-up format in the Full Tilt Poker Durrrr Million Dollar Challenge. The event was held November 17 to 19, 2009, at Les Ambassadeurs Club in London and televised by Sky Sports.
The rules of the Challenge were that each player paid $250,000 for the privilege of playing, blinds were set at $500/$1,000 with each opponent having the choice of playing either Texas hold 'em or Pot Limit Omaha (PLO). Neither player could leave the match until at least 500 hands had been completed or one of them lost all of his buy-in and decided not to re-buy. Dwan's opponents were Marcello "luckexpress" Marigliano, Ilari "Ziigmund" Sahamies, and Sammy "Any Two" George, respectively.
The first match between Dwan and Marigliano consisted mainly of Texas hold 'em, although the players did agree to play Pot Limit Omaha near the end of the match. Dwan lost $22,500 which was highlighted by two bluffs by Marigliano.
Team Full Tilt
In November 2009, Dwan became a member of Team Full Tilt and re-signed as a brand ambassador for the site on October 15, 2012.
In December 2013, Full Tilt Poker confirmed that they and Dwan "agreed to part ways following the recent expiration of Dwan's contract".
Team ACR
In March 2024, Dwan signed as a brand ambassador for ACR Poker, joining Team ACR and playing on the site under the screen name "Durrr". This was his first major online sponsorship since Team Full Tilt disbanded following Full Tilt Poker's 2013 shutdown.
As part of the deal, Dwan hosts a recurring streamed cash game titled Durrrr's Game, featuring high-profile guests.
Dwan has also served as an ambassador for the Triton Poker Super High Roller Series since April 2019, and joined the poker training platform GTO Wizard as a Team Pro in 2025.
High Stakes Duel III
Tom Dwan challenged the undefeated Phil Hellmuth in round 2 of the High Stakes Duel III by Poker Go. Dwan ended Hellmuth's winning streak and took home $200,000.
The pair agreed to a third round at double the stakes to take place in Las Vegas during the 2021 World Series of Poker.
Style
In a YouTube video commenting on hands played by Dwan at the Hustler Casino in California in 2023, friend and fellow high-stakes poker player Phil Galfond described Tom Dwan as having the most thoughts per minute of any poker player he knows. Galfond mentioned that Dwan is factoring in bits and pieces of information at a speed and depth of thought that is "ridiculous".
Career earnings and debts
As of August 2026, Dwan's total live tournament earnings are approximately US$6.97 million.
Dwan has been embroiled in a long-running saga involving allegations of unpaid debts. Reports suggest that Dwan owes significant sums of money to various individuals, with some estimates placing his total debt at around $30 million.
This figure includes debts to poker players such as Daniel "Jungleman" Cates, Peter Jetten, and Haralabos Voulgaris, as well as rumored connections to high-stakes games in Macau and alleged dealings with the Chinese Triads.