Tom Dwan Wins $1.2M in His Return to High Stakes on Full Tilt Poker

Full Tilt Poker has undergone a lot of changes between Black Friday and its eventual relaunch on Nov 6, 2012. The online poker room is under new (remarkably more reputable) ownership, the once massive team of Full Tilt Pros has been reduced to three, and one of the most iconic faces of the industry, Tom “durrrr”? Dwan, has been all but non-existent on the virtual felt. That last part changed heading into the weekend when Dwan graced the high stakes tables with a phenomenally successful run that earned him a staggering $1.2 million.

Tom Dwan certainly appears to be back to his old self. In a matter of just two days, the prolific pro took to the tables in the same epic fashion we were used to seeing back before the online poker world was turned upside down in April of 2011.

As of last Thursday, Dwan had only wrangled up about 7,500 hands on Full Tilt Poker since the new year began. That may sound like a lot for a casual player, but for professional grinders like Dwan, it’s mere child’s play. His fellow Team Full Tilt Pros racked up many more hands on the tables; Viktor “Isildur1”? Blom amassed 38,800, while Gus Hansen took cards 31,000 times.

Tom “durrrr”? Dwan took to the virtual felt Thursday evening to play NL Texas Hold’em, and it wasn’t until 25 hours later ““ nearly 7,000 hands in all – that he finished up his extensive session. He started at nosebleed stakes of $300/$600, competing against “bbvisbadforme”? and “Sanlker”?. Little more than an hour went by before Dwan was up $17k.

At that point, durrrr packed up his chips and headed over to the PLO tables for a while, followed by a tryst with NL 2-7 Triple Draw. That was when the real action began. Chips were flying like birds in migration, all heading south to nest comfortably in Dwan’s mounting stack.

Over the course of the night, Dwan faced off with several well-known high stakes players as well as some big-name poker pros, including the formidable Phil “OMGClayAiken”? Galfond, Ben “Sauce1234”? Sulsky, Alex “Alexonmoon”? Leneau and Hac “trex313”? Dang.

As the hours wore on, Dwan’s prodigous session saw him tossing chips at 5 simultaneous tables where his total value exceeded $1.8 million. After leading for the majority of a grueling, 18-hour heads-up session with Ben “Bttech”? Tollerene, he ended up dropping about $30k to his worthy opponent. But by the time Dwan left the tables, likely to get some much needed sleep, he had wiped the felt with most of his opponents, racking up more than one million in profits.

As Tom Dwan adds another seven figures to his immeasurable bankroll, we can only hope that the 27 year old phenom ““ who made a legendary name for himself before he even turned 21 – will continue to offer railbirds the same level of exhilarating action at Full Tilt Poker and beyond. After all, it is through watching the extraordinary skills of online poker players like Tom Dwan that inspires us, edifies us, and gives us the drive to become better players ourselves.