Tom “Durrrr” Dwan Wins $8.5 Million in Heads-Up Battle in Macau
Written by Thomas | Monday, November 22nd, 2010
Tom Dwan, unarguably one of the biggest and most successful high-stakes gamblers in the game today, has reportedly padded his bankroll by another $8.5 million this past weekend out in Macau. In the 2nd part of a private heads-up match with an unknown Chinese businessman, Dwan rallied from a day 1 defeat in which he lost around $2.5 million USD ($20M in HKD currency) in just a matter of hours!
Playing at stakes in the HK$10,000/$20,000 level, these two went at it for hours on end, with “Durrr” getting the short end of the beatdown stick from his challenger early on. However, the Full Tilt pro came back stronger than ever during their second session, erasing his HK$20 million loss with an UNREAL HK$68 million profit.
In an interesting sidenote to the game, it was agreed upon by both participants that both hole cards had to be turned up regardless of there being a showdown or not, something that is uncommon in any cash game or tournament. Speculation around the internet (more notably, 2+2) believe that this particular rule probably benefited the challenger more so than Dwan himself, with the still-unknown Chinese businessman getting an advantage to being able to learn and gain better insight into the mind of one of the best poker players on the planet.
Tom and other notable pros like Phil Ivey, Chau Giang and John Juanda have been frequenting the high stakes Macau cash games for the last week and a half, reportedly destroying other similarly affluent Chinese businessman and winning in upwards of $2M to $5M+ in their time spent at the now world-famous Starworld Hotel and Casino. Many of them were in town to play in the Asian Poker Tour, but soon busted in favor of the juicy cash games that had been going on during the tournament itself.
For more information on these games, check out this amazing thread going on over at 2+2 – there’s tons of first hand feedback from the poker room managers who have been their railing the action.
2+2 Macau High Stakes Cash Games Thread