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Tom Dwan’s rise to fame was truly something special, only rivalled by fellow online star Isildur1. From 2008 – 2011 Dwan was everywhere in the poker world.
Grabbing headlines, engaging in online high stakes warfare, and placing figurative firecrackers under the chairs of sleepy old school pros whenever he sat down in a televised live game.
In 2016, he is still being mentioned regularly in poker media.
The only difference is, the bluff broadcasts and online results reports of old have now been replaced by speculation about where he is and what he is up to. What began as innocent enquiries about where he might be, soon grew into hilarious theories and investigations.
Many amateur poker playing detectives began their investigations by examining the trail of his Twitter feed, which had gone cold in May 2015. His last post had been a picture of him attending a Poker King Club event in Macau.
And the sight of him endorsing a brand linked to high profile personalities Richard Yong and Paul Phua as they were facing legal trouble in the US only fuelled rumours. The main story doing the rounds was that Dwan had gone broke and was now owned by the Triads and was being forced to play poker for them.
Dim Tim Dawn
Done Triad wrong
Swim with fishes
All night wong
The hashtag #SaveTom gathered momentum after Doug Polk’s video showing Dwan pleading for help from within a cave.
With all these questions surrounding Tom Dwan, Somuchpoker decided to travel to Manila for the Third Edition of the Triton Super High Roller Series.
There, we found Tom Dwan.
Thankfully, he was not dishevelled or emaciated, and where conspiracy theorists might expect to see a ball and chain around his ankle, we only saw socks.
Everything seemed fine.
Apart from rearranging his chipstacks into the letters H E L, and getting halfway to making a P before losing a huge pot… And looking around the table with frightened eyes, blinking in what could be morse code…
We joke of course. As far as Somuchpoker can tell, the only thing Tom Dwan is chained to is his habit of blasting people off big pots with sick bluffs.
His former problems with the $1.5M durrrr challenge and Daniel Cates also appear to have been resolved, as the pair chatted amicably to each other while seated beside one another during the Triton High Roller.
Dwan also appears to still be a regular in the biggest games in Asia, which he has been attending since they began 6 years ago.
Those games are bigger than ever according to our exclusive reports, with some players requesting minimum buy ins be raised to $3.5M.
Tom Dwan has always been a favourite opponent of the VIP’s there because in the words of Winfred Yu “he is a very likable guy and gives a lot of action”.
More: Tom Dwan in 2016: High Stakes Cash Games and Triton Super High Roller Series
Further details of these games has also been unearthed recently, with insiders suggesting that 6+ Holdem is one of the game of choice in 2016. This game simply involves removing all cards below 6 from the deck
With online games drying up to some degree, and favoured high stakes games being in mixed games now, it’s unsurprising to see that Dwan rarely plays online. Much like Phil Ivey, he spends a lot of time in the Asian live games because they are the most profitable place to be.
Along with his live play in Asia, Dwan has also been visiting Montenegro lately, and taking part in games run in a casino owned by Richard Yong.
This was apparently what he was busy doing this summer when he missed the WSOP. For all those wishing that Dwan would return to the spotlight, those wishes are understandable.
But a truth exists which is likely to remain for the foreseeable future: From a business perspective, the Asian games are where Dwan feels he can make the most money.
And as long as that remains the case, he will certainly remain shrouded in mystery. Living in the distant shadows, but thankfully, not in a distant cave or prison cell.
Read More : Tom Dwan’s life: Biggest profits and losses, Private life and Net worth
