Tom Dwan Becomes the Newest ACR Poker Ambassador
5 minutes
Last Updated: March 10, 2024
There are few poker players in the world that have left an impression as big as Tom Dwan, who started his poker career in his teens under the moniker “Durrrr” at Full Tilt Poker.
Once a Full Tilt Poker pro, Tom has now taken on a new role as an ambassador for ACR Poker, the largest unregulated poker site operating in the US.
Lack of proper gaming licenses aside, ACR Poker recently came under major scrutiny once again, as a major bot network was discovered on the site and the associated WPN poker network.
Yet, despite all that, Dwan has decided to join ACR and represent the site as a member of their Team Pro, which also includes the likes of Chris Moneymaker, Nacho Barbero, Chris Moorman, Ana Marquez, Ryan Depaulo, and more.
ACR Poker Announces Durrrr’s Game
Tom Dwan made a name for himself during the Poker Boom era. He was one of the up-and-coming youngsters who introduced a brand-new way of playing the game and crushed the highest stakes available online.
Back at Full Tilt Poker, Dwan battled the likes of Phil Ivey and Patrik Antonius, already legends of the game, and was able to come out on top more often than not.
The games that included those three, as well as hyper-aggressive Nordic players like Illari Sahamies and Victor Blom, were epic and had countless railbirds watching in real-time through the Full Tilt Poker platform.
With Tom Dwan now a part of ACR’s team, the operator will attempt to bring those glory days back by introducing “Durrrr’s Game,” a special online poker game where Tom will go up against other high-profile players.
The difference is that this time around, the games will be live-streamed, which was not even possible during the peak of Full Tilt Poker.
While the exact format of the game was not yet disclosed, it is likely we will be able to see the players’ hole cards in real time (with some delay), and that some interesting commentary will be included as well.
Over the coming weeks, ACR Poker should announce some of the players who will join Dwan in the games, as well as the exact format of the game, which is likely to be different than anything we have seen in the past.
Durrrr Speaks On His Reasons to Join ACR Poker
In the tweet announcing the new relationship between ACR Poker and Tom Dwan, the operator posted a short interview with Tom, where he spoke about his reasons for joining ACR of all brands.
Dwan spoke highly of Phil Naggy, the WPT CEO who apparently shares a lot of the vision for the future of online poker with the high-stakes poker legend.
Tom said that Phil is the only person outside of Asia that he shares such visions with and that he is hopeful they can do great things and get the fans excited about poker once again.
In the short 2-minute interview, Dwan mentioned “progressive squid game” on three different occasions, hinting at a new type of poker game that he would like introduced at ACR.
Whether he plays a brand-new game format or sticks to No Limit Texas Hold’em Poker, Tom is almost certain to get the fans fired up once the games start.
However, a portion of the poker community was not too happy to see Tom Dwan enter this new relationship, with many drawing different parallels between the player and the unregulated operator that’s often been in the center of major scandals.
Tom Dwan Called Out for Massive Gambling Debts
Just as the news about Dwan joining ACR Poker came to light, the player was getting called left and right by those who apparently have outstanding debts they would like to collect.
While it has been hinted that Tom might owe many people money for various reasons, two of them have stepped up and tweeted about the debts Dwan allegedly has towards them.
Haralabos Voulgaris, one of the greatest sports-betting sharps in the world, asked Tom publically to pay him back some $350k he still owed from a sports-betting scheme the two ran many years ago.
Voulgaris also noted that he did collect the majority of that seven-figure debt through another person who owed Tom money but has been chasing the last portion for some time.
A former close friend of Dwan’s, Peter Jetten, also called out Tom for owing over $200k for some years and never owning up to his debt in full.
To top it all off, it is also well-known that Dwan still owes some money to Daniel “Jungleman” Cates from their heads-up challenge, which was played at Full Tilt Poker well over a decade ago.
Yet, it would seem the two are on good terms now, as Jungleman has received a good chunk of the compensation and seems to have forgiven Tom for any transgressions he’s made against him in the past.
The question remains as to whether and why Tom owes so many people money, and when exactly the disputes will finally be put to bed for everyone’s sake.
Expect to See More of Tom Dwan
Tom Dwan had disappeared from the poker world for many years, allegedly playing massive games in Asia and getting involved with the poker community in that part of the world.
Since then, live poker in Asia has exploded, and the birth of the Triton Poker Series meant that Dwan would also return to TV poker games and the poker community as a whole.
With Tom now a regular in Triton Poker games and an ambassador for ACR Poker, you can expect to see much more of the high-stakes legend across different platforms.
We can hope for the first live stream of Durrrr’s Game very soon as we await the conclusion of the drama with the likes of Haralabos Voulgaris and Peter Jetten that has a good chunk of the poker world in an uproar right now.