Tom “durrr” Dwan is no stranger to tossing around money like it’s going out of style. Synonymous with some of the largest pots in cash game history, Dwan has broken players looking to make their comeuppances at the highest stakes of the game online. He is a gatekeeper with deep pockets and an even deeper understanding of the game. If you haven’t spectated his tables, you have probably watched him on High Stakes Poker, playing at a level of play atop another plain of thought light years beyond anyone who isn’t Phil Ivey. He is also synonymous with being one of the greatest players alive that doesn’t own a World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet.
As it was previously reported, Dwan traversed a 2,563-player field earlier this month to battle Simon Watt, 2009 Asia Pacific Poker Tour Aukland event winner, heads-up for a WSOP bracelet. Regardless of the riches he has accumulated, all of the money in the world can’t buy the notoriety WSOP gold represents. Fortunately and unfortunately for durrr, it can buy him into more events, which is just what he will have to do after coming in second of the $1,500 no-limit hold’em event
Dwam earned $381,885 for his troubles, which is a couple of hours in the poker office at $200/$400 or a relatively large pot at his $500/$1000 Omaha tables. To put it into perspective with the million dollar hands he’s been in, it’s a relatively small splash in a big pond. Put the money into perspective with the potential money he had riding on prop bets with a WSOP bracelet in 2010, it was a pin prick to a Stegosaurus.
Erik Seidel tweeted later that night: “Durrrr was a player away from winning the Main Event of the WSOP 5 months early.” Mike Matusow said much the same after his runner-up finish concluded: “[Dwan] was playing for the main event title right there.”
It was originally estimated that Dwan had $2 million riding on bracelet prop bets for the 2010 WSOP. Once heads-up play began, the fully realized amount riding on the difference between first and second was newly estimated at $12.5 million. The difference between first and second on paper was $232,363. The difference between first and second off the record was life-changing and undoubtedly a figure that would have bankrupted the poker economy, or at least some of its players in on the degeneracy. It would have been put so deeply in the red by a Dwan victory that President Obama would of had to offer it a bailout.
No stranger to big game players are big boy prop bets, as you’ve seen me previously report. The lofty multi-million dollar purse Dwan stood to win is the largest ever reported, and could remain that way for a very long time. To give himself better odds, Dwan had even registered in the $1,500 2-7 no-limit single draw event, simultaneously running while he was deep in the no-limit hold’em event. Running back and forth between his two tables to maintain his stacks and afford himself better odds, Dwan gave new meaning to the words “determined” and “sick”.
Even a player of Dwan’s superior skill and tact had to be left reeling after his elimination in second place, knowing full well that in a heartbeat, the bankroll he had grinded up over his year’s of online play–resting roughly at $6 million–would have tripled over night. That’s just stating the obvious though, like a reporter going up to the star quarterback after losing the championship game and saying “You just lost the championship. What are you feeling right now?”
Like a true professional, Dwan was on to his next tournament the following day. Time is money, and being a man with his skill and lots of both, it’s only a matter of time and patience before he hits the prop bet lottery.
Forget all that stuff about volcanoes and earthquakes in 2010. I’ll lay you 100 to one on your money that the world isn’t ending and you’d rather read about people who aren’t you spending money you don’t have on stupid things. Pay up.
If you tuned in yesterday, you were probably left thinking, “Man, I sure would love to read more about prop bets!” Well you wanted it, you got it. And by you wanted it, I mean this is what you’re getting, and by you got it, I mean enjoy part two of the magical world of pro poker prop bets.
When you’re as ballin as Phil Ivey, winning hundreds of thousands of dollars playing some of the biggest cash games in the world is just another mundane day at the office. So how do you pass the time in your ho-hum life in between quarter million dollar hands and casino buffets? Prop bets.
