In episode eight in our 888 Ride series, we get one-on-one with a legend of the game, Tom Dwan He reveals why he’s not a bracelet hunter, what truly inspires him and what's next for this OG online god.
Join us as 888poker commentator David Tuchman does Tom a solid by giving him a lift in the auspicious 888ride. Along the way, we discuss private games, crypto and the infamous $3.1 million Wesley hand!
Check out the full-length Tom Dwan podcast HERE.
World Series of Poker Bracelet Hunting?
We hook up with Tom smack dab in the middle of the World Series of Poker. But we’ve got Tom Dwan in the car, who seemingly doesn't care about WSOP bracelets. What do you care about? So, what truly inspires him?
"I'll take the millions of dollars. I mean, when I did the bracelet bets, it was because it would have helped for sponsorship… Right now, we're getting another poker boom kind of bit. So, yeah, I guess it pains me to admit that it matters, but I guess it does matter.
“I'm, like, embarrassed to admit it to myself that I do [care] a little bit, you know?”
Beating Ivey and the Secret World of Private Games
In 2009, televised poker was all the rage. Chris Moneymaker had won the Main Event in 2003 and six years later, poker was booming both live and online in the USA.
Phil Ivey and Tom Dwan, two Full Tilt poker pros at the time, got entangled in the biggest-ever poker pot in history.
Tom's 7h6h demolished Ivey's Ac2d in a hand in which the two went head-to-head in an aggressively played ginormous pot. Tom made the top end of a straight, and Phil had the wheel.
When the dust settled, Dwan dragged a $1.1 million pot!
Tom “Durrrr” Dwan was just as successful online, but much has changed in recent years when it comes to Tom’s high-stakes action.
"Well, online high stakes was a lot more prevalent, and now a lot more of the high-stakes games are live. To be playing high stakes online is a lot more complicated, you know, I didn't see that coming.
“If you told me in 2009 I was going to be playing, spending more and more time playing live poker than online, I never would have seen that. But then again, I didn't know that the sites were going to get shut down.”
Private games are all the rage now, but some professional poker players are kind of against them, thinking it's not right. The idea that you have to know the right people, grease the right palms, and massage the right people to get in is a little disingenuous.
“I mean, they might be against it - Like this is happening. It's there. And part of why it's there is because a lot of the power structures, for a long time, listen to the most vocal people, which was often the pros.
“Because the pros, you know, are going to spend more and more effort and time trying to push rules in their favour. In a way, that's better for them. Imagine, for example, someone like Santosh, right? When Santosh first came last summer, everyone was trying to pull him [in a hundred] different directions.
“But if you don't spend a bunch of time trying to think of what the businessmen want, what the recreationals want, then the people that do will set up a game or a tournament or whatever that they like more.”
Beating Ivey and Destroying Private Games
The Ivey pot was a drop in the ocean compared to a recent cash game in which Dwan went heads-up against the inimitable Wes. Tom had minimal reads or insight into Wesley's play, but he sensed that Wesley was trying to up his game by bluffing one of the game's most well-known and formidable players.
These private games can be chummy. So, after Wesley allowed Doug Polk to take a peek at his hand, Tom couldn't help but pay attention to Doug's reaction.
"And then, Doug, like, gave away quite a lot when he, you know, the way he acted when he saw Wesley's cards. And then throughout the hand, every step [Wesley] did fit into this story of, like, I didn't think the guy had it.
“And then the only question was whether he flopped it or not or whether he got there.”
Wesley hadn’t got there... Dwan called the river all-in and dragged a $3.1 million pot!
Chasing Crypto and Courting Controversy
Away from the felt, Tom has gone from crypto geek to business investor. He likes the opportunities that the field offers and the overlap between poker and crypto.
As controversial as crypto has been in the past, Dwan is no stranger to controversy himself.
“I've had people like interrupt [me] when my mom's sad or girlfriend or ex or whatever is sad or something. [In] this kind of moment, they [fans] come up to interrupt, and it's like, yo! I'm busy.
“And I think, [the fame] is kind of something that's not my favourite thing of the poker world… I thought when Full Tilt went down, I thought a lot of people gave me *** unfairly…
“I feel like people look at that stuff from like an equity perspective, like - Oh, it's not that plus EV for them to speak up, so then they don't. I don't like how the poker world is PR-wise.”
There's some controversy about outstanding debts that's followed Tom around. Tom is vague but adamant that most of these stories are "planted."
"Certain people in poker didn't mind adding to their fire when they, you know, should have known better - or did know better - including some of the poker sites, believe it or not. But luckily, we're arriving here, so I won't go *** on people that planted stories about me."
