The elite group of 13 poker pros that comprise Team Full Tilt Poker has a new member joining its ranks. The online poker room just announced that its 14th member of the team will be 23-year old high-stakes online poker pro Tom “durrrr” Dwan.
Full Tilt Poker recently added Dwan to its roster, but Dwan has been a noticeable presence on the site for quite some time prior to the new sponsorship deal. Full Tilt has been hosting Dwan’s “Durrrr Challenge” cash game tables since the epic bet first came to light in February and the youngster is a mainstay on all of the highest stakes cash game tables on the site as well.
Prior to Dwan, the last addition to the squad was Patrik Antonius, who joined Team Full Tilt in the summer of 2008. The other members of the exclusive group are Howard Lederer, Jennifer Harman, Allen Cunningham, Chris “Jesus” Ferguson, Gus Hansen, Mike Matusow, Andy Bloch, Erik Seidel, Phil Ivey, John Juanda, Phil Gordon, and Erick Lindgren. The group has a collective 37 World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelets and is widely considered to represent some of the best tournament and cash game players in the world. Dwan is now the youngest member of the group, but in his brief career, he has made an indelible impression on both the online and live poker communities.
In a press release announcing the news, Lederer spoke about the young pro and why they decided to include him on the team: “Team Full Tilt doesn’t take adding a team member lightly, but Tom Dwan has proven, through skill and dynamic play, that he will be a force to be reckoned with for many years to come. We are proud to count Tom as one of our own.”
Dwan’s list of accomplishments include over $1 million in tournament poker winnings, three WSOP final tables, a World Poker Tour final table, and several successful appearances on poker television shows like “Poker After Dark” and “High Stakes Poker.” Dwan holds the record for both the largest pot in “High Stakes Poker” history as well as the largest pot in televised poker history, which he recently won off of Ivey during the filming of the “Full Tilt Poker’s Million Dollar Cash Game.” Dwan won the $1.1 million pot when he turned a seven-high straight against Ivey’s five-high straight and the two players got it all-in. The big hand is scheduled to air as part of the show on U.K.’s Sky Sports in January of 2010.
Now that Dwan is a member of Team Full Tilt, he will be facing off against his fellow team members as action continues in his “Durrrr Challenge” bet. Dwan and Antonius have played a little over 27,000 hands of the 50,000 required. Dwan currently holds a $779,248 lead over Antonius. Once Antonius finishes his 50,000 hands against Dwan, fellow Team Full Tilt member and recent seventh place finisher in the 2009 WSOP Main Event, Ivey, will step up, as will David Benyamine.
Dwan is set to take part in the upcoming season of “High Stakes Poker,” which will be filming at the Golden Nugget in Las Vegas from November 11th to 13th and will likely be sporting a Full Tilt Poker patch as part of his duties.
