ACRPoker Announces New Team Pro: Tom “durrr” Dwan

On Friday, March 8, 2024, leading online poker site ACRPoker announced that it had signed prominent poker professional Tom “durrr” Dwan as its latest Team Pro. Dwan thus joins such notable ACR Team Pros as Chris Moneymaker, Chris Moorman, and Jeff Boski. These Team Pros are basically ambassadors of ACRPoker, representing the brand in media, interacting with customers, and participating in major events hosted by the poker room.

Dwan's Poker History

Tom Dwan, born on July 30, 1986, was one of the earliest online players to capture the public imagination, playing under his “durrrr” screenname at the old Full Tilt Poker. Yes, the screenname with which he rose to fame had four r's in it; we're unsure why his new ACR alias has only three.

Starting with an initial deposit of just $50 in 2004 at Paradise Poker, Tom was able to run it up and (after switching to Full Tilt) successfully compete at the highest levels against the likes of Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies, Viktor “Isildur1” Blom and Phil Ivey. Between January 2007 and April 2011 (when Full Tilt was shut down as part of Black Friday), “durrrr” booked $2.2 million in winnings in high-stakes cash games.

Though he made his bones online, Tom moved swiftly to capitalize on the live poker scene, including televised appearances. Indeed, he set the record for the largest televised cash game pot won when he relieved Phil Ivey of his money in a $1.1 million pot during Full Tilt Poker's Million Dollar Cash Game. This record was only broken in 2023 when Dwan bested himself by scoring a $3.1 million pot against Wesley Fei in the Million Dollar Game at Hustler Casino Live.

Tom “durrr” Dwan

Dwan also found success in live tournaments, booking his first five-figure score of $324,244 in the $10,000 2007 WPT Finals at Foxwoods in Connecticut by finishing fourth. During the past decade, he has been entering an increasing number of high-buyin tournaments, like the events of the Triton Poker Series, and he has had several final table finishes in these lucrative tourneys.

In total, Tom Dwan has earned more than $6.5 million in offline tournament winnings. This only tells part of the picture though and perhaps not the most interesting part because Tom is a frequent attendee at private cash games in Macau where the stakes reach into the stratosphere. It's likely that his wins at these exclusive tables dwarf what he has collected from tournaments or online cash games for that matter.

Dwan has also made a name for himself by undertaking heads-up challenges for six- and seven-figure sums against top competitors. However, Tom attracted a lot of notoriety for beginning several of these challenges and failing to complete them in a timely way.

What Does This Mean for ACR?

Other than being able to play against “durrr” at the ACR poker tables, there are other plans for ACRPoker's users to look forward to. The room has announced the creation of Durrr's Game.

Durrr's Game will be a recurring high-stakes game in which Dwan will participate along with “a number of other high-profile players.” The exact lineup has not yet been revealed, but it will likely rotate around a cast of regular players with others popping in from time to time.

Durrr's Game will be streamed, possibly over ACR's Twitch channel (acr_pkr). There will be some experimentation with “new formats and features,” which sounds very vague but may include innovations that are already common in live large-buyin games, like various card combination bounties and betting on the color of the flop.

ACRPoker has said that Durrr's Game will “[echo] the high stakes cash games of the past.” Thus, it appears to be an attempt to resurrect “Rail Heaven” from the old Full Tilt Poker days. At that time during the mid- and late-2000s, sometimes hundreds of railbirds at a time would spectate the big games at Full Tilt to cheer on their favorite players and marvel awestruck at the princely sums frequently changing hands.

Comments From the Involved Parties

Speaking of the agreement, a representative for ACR Poker stated:

We're really excited to bring Tom Dwan aboard. His bold, daring approach to poker is a great fit with ACR Poker's mentality and we're excited that he'll be working with us to bring big poker to more people, both in the U.S. and around the world.

“durrr” for his part gave a video interview about the signing in which he commented:

At the end of the day, I believe in ACR. I believe in Phil [Nagy, CEO of ACR Poker] especially more than just about any other brands in the industry. There's very few other brands in the industry, especially online operators, that are even close to that where I think their heart's in the right place.

During the interview, Dwan said that he appreciated ACR's willingness to try out new things to move poker forward. He highlighted The Cage, a live, timed tournament in Costa Rica, as an example of this.

Signing Not Without Controversy

Although some are excited at the prospect of Tom Dwan becoming an ACR Pro, there are others who are less than thrilled. Dwan is involved in several controversies mostly surrounding alleged debts that he has not paid over extended periods of time.

On Feb. 18, 2024, Canadian pokerist Peter Jetten posted a tweet in which he said that Dwan owed him $226,000. This debt has supposedly been outstanding for four years with Tom continually promising to pay but then failing to do so.

Big-time gambler Haralabos Voulgaris also says that Dwan owes him money. Evidently, Haralabos had his sports betting action restricted or even banned at certain outlets, so he entered into an arrangement for Dwan to place bets on his behalf in exchange for a share of the profits. This is a time-honored practice in the world of betting, known as “bearding.”

Voulgaris claims that they made “high 7 figures” but that Tom neglected to fork over the winnings. What evidently happened was that Dwan simultaneously lost money in another bearding deal and thus didn't have the cash on hand to cover what he owed Haralabos.

Dan “Jungleman” Cates was one of Dwan's opponents in a “durrrr Challenge” that began in 2010. “Durrrr” quickly found himself down $1.2 million and a favorite to lose the $1.5 million side bet, but then he refused to continue playing. Cates has long been waiting for a resolution to this matter.

Dan “jungleman” Cates

On March 8, Daniel posted on X (formerly Twitter) that “he [Dwan] does intend on paying back his debts and has worked tirelessly towards that.” However, later that same day, Cates said “he still owes” and “it's not resolved.” Perhaps we're being unduly cynical here, but it seems as though Cates may be trying to butter Dwan up with smooth talk in an effort to get him to pay up.

Get Ready to Play With “Durrr”

If you'd like the opportunity to test yourself at the tables against the infamous “durrr” or simply wish to hone your skills in the many other games offered by ACR, you'll need to set up an account if you don't already have one. New users get a 100% up to $2,000 first deposit bonus, and through the use of our exclusive ACRPoker bonus code PRB10FREE, you can claim a $10 no deposit bonus as well. As an added incentive, if you make your initial deposit by April 5, you'll receive entry to a satellite where the top six finishers will each receive a $2,650 ticket to the VENOM $12.5 million guaranteed tournament, scheduled to take place April 14 to May 1.

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