Tag: tom dwan

Tom Dwan Responds to the $1 Million Question

Last Updated on

Just after the indictment of Full Tilt Poker, Poker Stars, and Absolute Poker, the online poker world was in a frenzy in the United States.  Players had an incredible amount of money locked up in the online poker sites, so on April 19th, just four days after the indictment; both Tom “durrr” Dwan, and Phil Galfond took to Twitter in hopes of calming the US online poker nation down.

Both pro poker players said that they would pay back $1 million out of their own pockets if Poker Stars and Full Tilt didn’t pay back their players.

Since that time, it’s been an up and down ride.  Poker Stars was able to pay back over $120 million of what they owed to US players, while Full Tilt is currently not even up and running anymore.  Full Tilt still currently owes $150 million, and had its gaming license suspended by the Alderney Gambling Control Commission last month.  The US online poker nation now waits to see if a group of European investors will be purchasing the site, so that they have a shot to get their money back.

With Full Tilt currently in a really bad spot, players have been lighting up Dwan’s Twitter attempting to find out more about the $1 million that he said he’d put in.  Dwan has responded though, saying that: “Lotsa ppl pming me n messaging on twitter w/o having read up on what I said. If worst case happens I’ll pay in a fair way, and that won’t involve paying individuals jus b/c they messaged me a lot. Timeline was late 2012 I think (or anytime I’m >90%ish of ftp not paying out).  That said let’s hope everything gets resolved n I can keep my $$s to spend on some goofy stuff that I’ll think up later.”  Galfond originally set the date as Hanukkah of 2012.

It’ll be interesting to see how this is handled when the $1 million is paid from Dwan and Galfond.  Will they pay random players, or do they have specific people in mind?  Only time will tell.

US Online Poker Pros Moving Abroad

Last Updated on

The crackdown of Pokerstars, Full Tilt Poker, Absolute Poker and UB on Black Friday took the favorite pastime away from millions of American poker players. Other poker sites such as Lock Poker, Bodog and Cake Poker are working around the clock to provide all US players with a new home.  They are doing a great job, most of the  casual players are happy to play at those sites. Some things are different though, the choice in games offered is lower and the waiting time for some sit and go formats is a bit longer. Does this mean the DoJ actions didn’t have an impact on the US poker players? No, there is a group of players which found itself in serious trouble: the online poker pro.

When we think of poker pro’s we usually picture the high profile players who we see on tv shows like High Stakes Poker, Poker After Dark or the Big Game. These pro’s represent the big sites, live the good life and make millions in the process. There is however another complete different order of poker pro’s and they aren’t nearly as visible and high profile as the established pro’s like Doyle Brunson, Tom Dwan or Daniel Negreanu.

These online poker pro’s make their living playing or teaching online poker and they don’t make millions. Instead, they grind out the cash tables and sit and goes all day and most of them make only a modest salary. On top of that, grinding online poker can be a very stressful job. Playing poker is probably the only job in the world where you can end the day with less money then you started with. Variance is the one thing you can’t use when you are depending on your play to pay the rent. Variance is the enemy to the online pro and to limit it they play as many tables as they can, sometimes up to 24 tables.

Suddenly unable to play at the Big Three, they are in serious trouble now. Because they can no longer play the amount of games they used to, they don’t make enough money anymore to pay their rent. Some of these players played professionally for years and have considerable gaps in their resume’s, others decided to drop out of college to play poker full time. Their options are limited: Finding a job in the current economy is very hard, they can’t wait until the US regulates online poker and they also don’t have the time to wait until other sites and networks offer the games they need. On top of that their entire bankroll is currently frozen and they can’t touch it. This bankroll is not only money for them, they need it to make money, it is their livelihood.

Moving abroad has become a viable option for them and a lot of grinders are looking into that option now. Canada is the favorite haven to play followed by Malta. The UK is also amongst the top destinations because online winnings aren’t taxed there. The short term goal for the movers is to regain access to their frozen funds. For the long term they can keep playing at their favorite sites abroad until the US has figured their legislation out. The DoJ’s actions of Black Friday really had an impact on these people that nobody ever anticipated.

Is this a bad thing for poker? Not really. With a lot of these mass tabling grinders out of the way the game becomes more fun again. No longer waiting for the guy who plays more tables then he can handle to finally act and less grinders in the sit and goes means the casual player will most certainly see his ROI improve. People wondered when the next poker boom would be after the Moneymaker boom in 2004. Well, this might be it.