The Online Railbird Report: Tom "durrrr" Dwan Up $2.7 Million in December, ��XBLINK�� Turns $11 into $800K
Taking a break from the nosebleed stakes appears to be exactly what Tom Dwan needed. After losing more than $6.37 million at the virtual tables in November, the man best known as "durrrr" mounted a holiday comeback, earning $2.66 million over the last 30 days on Full Tilt Poker.
Once down a staggering $7 million for the year, Dwan's December run cut his losses to $4.17 million with about 36 hours left in 2009. While Dwan was busy repairing the damage inflicted upon him by mystery Swede ��Isildur1,�� a mystery Canadian appeared on the scene over on Ultimate Bet, the 20-year-old known only as ��XBLINK�� running up a six-figure bankroll from the last $11 in his account.
��durrrr�� Makes a $2.7 Million Comeback
After a disastrous run against Isildur1 in early November, Dwan was left with a far lighter online bankroll and took a dramatic step down in stakes. For most of the month, Dwan ground it out in the $50/100 pot-limit Omaha games, making occasional forays into higher-limit heads-up matches. He was back at the $300/600 and $500/1,000 tables on Monday night, however, surrounded by familiar faces including Brian Townsend, Hac ��trex313�� Dang and Ilari ��Ziigmund�� Sahamies.
Dwan��s evening began with some short-handed $50/100 PLO, in which he faced a number of regulars including ��geoff7878�� and ��OneUponaStar.�� After a bit more than an hour there, he moved up to $100/200, and the same cast of characters followed. From those two sessions, Dwan earned close to $124,000 in 214 hands.
Shortly thereafter, Dwan decided to raise the stakes again, sitting in at $300/600 PLO. Although he started off playing heads-up with Sahamies, he was soon joined by Townsend, Dang, ��rospodin,�� Chau ��La Key U�� Giang, and Richard Ashby. Dwan booked a $54,000 win at $300/600 and then returned to his old stomping grounds, the $500/1,000 heads-up tables, where he engaged in a brief battle with Sahamies.
The Dwan-Sahamies match was nothing less than a bloodbath, Dwan pulling more than $550,000 out of the Finn��s bankroll, including this cooler of a $246,000 pot.
Sahamies opened the action with a $3,000 raise from the button holding 10?8?8?3?, and Dwan elected to flat-call with his Q?Q?J?4? rather than three-bet. Fireworks ensued on the Q?8?6? flop, Sahamies hitting a set of eights while Dwan made a set of queens. Dwan led out for $4,800, Sahamies raised to $20,400, Dwan reraised to $67,200, Sahamies popped it to $114,000, Dwan moved all in for $120,290 and Sahamies called only to discover that he was down to a single out, the 8?. The turn was the 5?, the river was the 7? and Dwan��s set of queens earned him the $246,580 pot.
All in all, Dwan came away with a $730,000 profit for the night.
XBLINK = The New Isildur1?
Meanwhile, over on Ultimate Bet, an interesting story was brewing around a player known only as ��XBLINK.�� First appearing on the site in late November, XBLINK took the last $11 in his account and bought into an $11 no-limit hold��em tournament. After taking down the first-place prize of $750, he ran it up to six figures in five days.
Posting under the name ��89blist�� on the Two Plus Two forums, XBLINK gave the Cliff��s Notes on his remarkable run in the following post:
1. $11 tournament won 1st place ---> $750 (all I had on my account, was going to redeposit if i lost the tournament)
2. $750 grinding low stakes omaha.
3. $750 --> $4k the next day, move up to 2/4 and 3/6 PLO, then to 5/10.
4. 4k -->$16k, played 5/10 and 10/20 PLO
5. For the next 2 days, I was bouncing from $20k - $60k playing 10/20 PLO.
6. 5th day: Start 25/50 PLO , I see 6 digits now.
7. 6th day till now - play 25/50, 50/100, 100/200, 200/400 PLO, and NL when theres no PLO.
Went busto 20+ times by now for $500 each. Hope I dont go busto this time.
I only played on UB and this is my only account.
A search on Poker Table Ratings.com showed that XBLINK��s story checks out. He has been tracked playing limits as low as $0.50/1 short-handed NLHE and as high as $200/400 heads-up NLHE. His online winnings peaked at $833,193 on December 11, but he has lost about $215,000 since then, playing a mix of $50/100, $100/200 and $200/400 PLO.
A 20-year-old student from Vancouver, B.C., XBLINK still lives with his parents and took last semester off from school to play poker. We think it's a pretty safe bet that he'll be skipping next semester as well.
The highest-stakes action all unfolds on Full Tilt Poker. Open an account today and see for yourself.
