Tom Dwan made a rare appearance this week and revealed what he’s been up to during lockdown. Including surfing in Hawaii with Rick Salomon and how it took a drunken night with Phil Hellmuth to find out Negreanu had gazumped him for a big match.
Tom Dwan’s lockdown stories
The man known to millions of poker fans as ‘Durrrr’ was a surprise guest on the No Gamble, No Future show, with Brent Hanks and Jeff Platt quizzing the poker legend.
Appearing with what appeared to be a glorious Nevada hills backdrop, Tom Dwan was relaxed as he revealed his lockdown stories. He spent seven months in Hong Kong as the worst of the pandemic ravaged the USA and only returned for the High Stakes Poker reprise.
We’ll get to that in a minute. However, first up Tom wanted to share his surfing stories from a month and a half spent in Hawaii. He revealed he “can’t surf” but found his own happy version in “tow-surfing”.
Spending time with highstakes pro Rick Salomon could easily have to led to some adventures on and off the tables. The brash New Jersey man is famous – or infamous rather – for his sex tape with Paris Hilton.
Tom Dwan wants to play Phil Hellmuth in High Stakes Duel
What happens in Hawaii stays in Hawaii, it seems. Dwan remained tight-lipped on any degenerate tales from his time with Salomon on the Big Island. “No comment!” and a smile all that Hanks and Platt could get from Tom.
Tom Dwan was rather more forthcoming on the ongoing High Stakes Duel series of matches that PokerGO (the No Gamble, No Future show’s bosses) have been running.
As we have covered extensively, Phil Hellmuth has been running riot so far, defeating Antonio Esfandiari 3-0 and Daniel Negreanu 2-0, with DNegs third and possibly final attempt to topple the Poker Brat due on June 23rd.
However, according to Tom Dwan it really ought to have been him rather than Negreanu in the Hellmuth hot seat!
Tom explained: “So we were sitting there (I think it was HSP) and they brought up, ‘Why don’t you and Hellmuth play next?’ I was like, ‘I’m game, and Phil was like ‘I’m game’…and I thought I was playing next…”
“Then all of a sudden Negreanu just swoops in, steals my spot!” Tom exclaimed, before adding with a crafty smile, “But Hellmuth taxed him for it!”
Tom talking about the upcoming WPT Heads-Up Championship
Dwan actually found out DNegs had queue-jumped him on a night out after filming High Stakes Poker. “I was in San Francisco and getting drunk with Phil Hellmuth…and I think that was when I found out I wasn’t getting to play Phil Hellmuth.”
On the subject of Hellmuth and his heads-up “White Magic” in the High Stakes Duels, Dwan wasn’t overly impressed.
“I don’t think it’s that crazy…it’s just 5-0,” adding: “I’m not the man for your hype!”
He wasn’t too hyped either about the upcoming $25k buy-in WPT Heads-Up Championship being co-hosted by his own sponsors, PokerKing.
Tom Dwan seemed to know less than most about the new venture, though he admitted of the 32-player highstakes tournament that will see his long-time friend, PokerKing colleague and rival Phil Ivey participate, “it’s still neat to try out”.
Running from June 18-22 the event will be played in Mexico and streamed live on both YouTube and Twitch. Dwan and Ivey will be joined by Brad Owen, Nick Schulman, Landon Tice, and many more.
Finishing off with a walk down memory lane and a huge HSP triple-barrel bluff against Phil Ivey. It was a quick and enjoyable 25 minutes in the company of Tom Dwan.
He seemed healthy and happy and it’s likely we’ll be seeing much more of the poker legend. He’s back on US soil and the poker world is opening up again.
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