Tom ‘durrrr’ Dwan and Full Tilt Poker have parted ways after a long-standing sponsorship deal. The split is said to be amicable and an official statement from Full Tilt Poker said, ‘To have one of the most respected names in poker on our team has been a great pleasure. We will continue to watch Tom at the tables and wish him every success in the future.’
Dwan’s relationship with Full Tilt began in 2009 when he was first unveiled as a member of Team Full Tilt in under the original regime spearheaded by Howard Lederer and Chris Ferguson. His signing was celebrated with an elaborate (and slightly awkward) press conference;
After Black Friday, and the scandals that enveloped the old Full Tilt, Dwan was unaffiliated with any poker site for over a year before re-joining Full Tilt Poker just over one year ago. Now under the ownership of PokerStars, Dwan was one of the three original members of ‘The Professionals’ along with Gus Hansen and Viktor Blom.
Since then Dwan has rarely been in the limelight, regularly declining media duties, turning up late for scheduled events and hardly participating in social media. Despite his clear aversion to this side of the game, Dwan’s influence on the online poker world cannot be overstated. ‘durrrr’ was the original online poker superstar, crushing the high stakes games and – better yet – representing online pros perfectly with his groundbreaking performances on shows like High Stakes Poker and the Poker After Dark cash games.
Even years later, Dwan’s play on these shows is still amongst the best TV poker ever screened;
For now, Dwan is on his own. For the past few years, he’s been a mainstay in huge cash games that take place in Macau and, with online poker in America still on uncertain ground, the live game looks to be where Dwan will continue to focus for the near future.
