Tom Duane - the poker guru who loves the big stage of high stakes

Tom Duane - the poker guru who loves the big stage of high stakes

Your parents convince you that education comes first. He who studies will succeed. But you drop out of school and become a millionaire. Make no mistake…almost every kid has had a similar dream. But one kid from Edison, New Jersey is making it a reality. Born in 1986, Tom Duane dropped out of Boston University after his freshman year to pursue a career as a professional poker player. Although all too rare as a script, his solution turns out to be quite good. Over the years, Duane has won millions from prize pools and cash tables, and has a pretty serious career in television. In 2011 alone, he cashed in 3 of the World Series of Poker tournaments, and during his career he achieved this in a total of 10 competitions.

These are just the basics in his career. It all started in 2004. Then, at the age of 17, the American started with a deposit of 50 dollars. In just a few years, this investment turns into millions. In 2007, he was already part of the poker elite and played in the tournaments with the highest buy-ins. At the end of it, he won $324,000 from the World Poker Finals, where he finished 4th.

Soon after, the "Durrrr Challenge" begins. In its first episode, Duane collects $2 million from Patrick Antonius. But that's just the beginning... Phil Ivey, Ilari Sahamis and Victor Blum later thin Tom's account by about 5 million.

Over the years, Duane has racked up serious tournament winnings, but the so-called cash tables remain his great passion. For this reason, he appears on a number of television poker programs. Tom has been a part of shows like "National Heads-Up Poker", "Poker after Dark", "Million Dollar Cash Game" and "High Stakes Poker". As a result, the world saw "Durrrr" win over 900k in just one hand against the two aces in Barry Greenstein's hand. Later, again in one hand, Duane took more than $1.1 million from Phil Ivey, a new record at the time.

All of these media appearances by Tom were followed by the downfall of the major online rooms and Full Tilt Poker, which he worked for. For this reason, he moved to Macau, where poker progressed strongly. Few know exactly what happens there because the information is confidential. In 2017, the exile of about 2 years comes to an end. Big wins, big losses, a wedding and many other events mark his life to this day. Nevertheless, Tom Duane remains one of the most iconic and risk-loving figures in poker.

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