Texas Holdem Poker

John Dolan starts 2nd in chips at this year’s WSOP final table with 46,250,000 in chips. This online pro, who plays online under the name”JRD312,” has numerous strong live tournament performances, including making the final table of $1,000 NL Hold’em Event #36 earlier in the 2010 WSOP and his $94,000 win playing online in a Full Tilt Poker $1k Monday tournament in 2009. John Dolan WSOP final table could be either legendary or short-lived, since the pro has had a tendency in the past to blow through bankrolls. Still, Dolan’s professional record is impressive, boasting over $1 million in lifetime earnings, including nine titles and 91 cashes. Dolan was born in New Jersey but grew up in Bonita Springs, Florida and attended Florida State University, where he studied Business.

The Poker Styles of Patrik Antonius

Ever since the “poker boom” that took the world by storm, there have been amazing players popping up from places all over the globe. One of those great players is the young man from Vantaa Finland named Patrik Antonius. After bursting onto the scene in the 2005 World Series of Poker, Patrik Antonius has made a name for himself as not only one of the best European players in the game, but one of the best players in all of the world.

One of his most crowning achievements as a pro came in the 2005 European Poker Tour event in Baden bei Wien as he earned first place honors and a prize of nearly 300,000 Euros. There is nothing quite like winning a major poker tournament, but Antonius might be most happy with his 2nd place finish in the 2005 World Poker Tour event called the Diamond World Poker Classic. His efforts earned him just over $1 million, not too shabby for finishing runner up.

Those tournaments in 2005 no doubt gave him a great deal of confidence as he moved further in his career. Through the end of 2009, Antonius is reported to have earned approximately $2.8 million in all of his live tournaments with almost $800,000 of that money coming on the biggest stage in the World Series of Poker events.

It is true that Antonius is a dominant force in the high stakes tournament arena, but he has also made a killing playing in cash games. Both online and live, Patrik Antonius has been making it a habit to rake in massive pots. He is no stranger to the hit TV show “High Stakes Poker” where he regularly plays against the fiercest competition in the game. One of the best aspects of Antonius is his demeanor at the table. He rarely shows emotions even after he lost a poker pot worth over three quarters of a million dollars to the animated Jamie Gold. That loss did anything but deter Patrik because he continued to play the richest cash games in the world and he has the distinct honor of winning the biggest single pot ever recorded in the history of internet poker, $1,356,946.

Even though he has quite a lustrous past playing in high stakes cash games and huge buy-in live tournaments, his passion remains heads up poker. The thrill of playing against a single opponent and the massive amounts of money that is up for grabs seems to really make his poker clock tick. His confidence is so high that he is willing to play for almost any amount of money at any time. He even agreed to play against fellow poker star Tom Dwan in a heads up battle for $1 million dollars. The marathon poker challenge has not been finished yet, but one thing is for sure, whether Antonius wins or loses, we will remain one of the best and richest players in the world.

Fresh young faces at the poker table have been a reoccurring theme in the past 5 to 10 years. With the boom of internet poker and televised live tournaments, there has been an ever-growing amount of people wanting to take a shot at stardom. Enter Tom Dwan: the 23 year old internet poker sensation turned high stakes live tournament player. For 6 years, Tom has been playing poker as much as possible and really mastering the game.

His dream began when he was just 17 years old with a modest $50 initial investment. It was a gift from his father placed on an internet poker room that gave Tom the start he needed. Amazingly, he lost over half of his $50 and was ready to write off his possible talents. But Tom was not satisfied with giving up so easily. He pushed on and turned a meager $15 into a promising career.

Play Online Poker

As Tom Dwan, aka “durrrr” – his internet poker nickname, started to build his bank roll, he experimented with many different games. Sit n Go tournaments, cash games and multi-table tournaments until he found his favorite. That favorite game was heads up no limit poker. Tom was not afraid to go up against the big guns either. He regularly battled against some of the top pros both from the internet and from the pro circuits. With Tom’s newfound confidence and his impressive knack for the game, it was not wonder that he showed up at the World Series of Poker to try and make a name for himself. With 2 cashes at the World Series including one final table, Tom has really brought some attention his way.

One of the most interesting aspects of Tom Dwan is his fearlessness. Amazingly, Dwan reports that he has lost huge amounts of money in very little time periods. It is believed that Tom lost of about $2.5 million in a just four month’s time. What is even more remarkable is that Dwan has managed to gain it all back. He is even challenging huge name players to go heads up for $1 million. It seems like the kid has ice in his veins. If there is one thing we can count on from Tom Dwan, it is that he is not going anywhere for a while. Look for Dwan to make a lot of noise through his heads up challenges and he might even be a threat to win some events at the World Series of Poker this year.

The New Face of Team Full Tilt; Tom “Durrrr”
Dwan

It has been a long time coming but the inevitable has finally happened. After crushing the biggest cash games online; at the $500/$1000 No Limit Texas Holdem Poker games on Full Tilt Poker Tom “Durrrr” Dwan has finally become part of Full Tilt Poker’s sponsored players. He is not “just” another member of the “Full Tilt Pros” he is now part of the elite community that creates the legendary “Team Full Tilt”. He joins some of the top players in the game today including Phil Ivey, Howard Lederer and Mike Matusow. Interestingly Dwan is the second person to be enlisted to this career-affirming group who was born from the online age of poker, after Patrick Antonious who joined one year ago. This is certainly a step towards strengthening the credibility of the new online superstars of today’s game and Durrrr is certainly one of them.

Full Tilt Poker says that Tom Dwan is “one of the most influential and successful players in online poker history”. Howard Lederer, also speaks highly of him; “being part of Team Full Tilt; it is about being committed to the game of poker” And Durrrr certainly fits the bill; with his prolific skills in all the major formats of the game; live and online, tournaments and cash games, No Limit Holdem and Pot Limit Omaha. He not only plays well in all these areas but excels in them. The cordial Phil Gordon says it best: “he’s dominated the biggest games online and live for the last couple of years… he’s here to stay and we are very pleased to have him as a member of Team Full Tilt”. The other members of Team Full Tilt have also embraced this online phenomenon into their family. Chris Ferguson feels that “Tom Dwan represents the new breed of online poker players”; nothing attests to this more than his fearlessness to play anybody who dares challenge him, including Full Tilts very own Patrick Antonious in the “Durrrr Challenge”. When Durrrr has finished with Antonious, Phil Ivey and David Benyamine are next on the list.

There are few, if any that have played more hands or won more money from online poker but the legendary status of Dwan does not stop there. He has made over $1 million in live tournaments to date including a 2nd place finish at the Borgata Winter Open in 2008 and a 12th place finish at the National Heads Up Poker Championship in 2009. Dwan is also regarded as one of the biggest forces in the televised poker arena; battling it out against the greatest in the game. On the latest season of High Stakes Poker Durrrr managed to take down a $1 million pot against Barry Greenstein and on Full Tilt Poker’s very own Million Dollar Cash Game he won over $1.1 million in cold hard cash from Phil Ivey.

As a member of Team Full Tilt Dwan will be contributing to the Full Tilt Poker Academy and will surely double the number of railbirds eager to watch him play his uniquely aggressive style. With the star appeal that Dwan has and the marketing power of Full Tilt Poker this will clearly be a win-win situation for them both. Dwan is very happy to finally be part of Team Full Tilt and is looking forward to contributing to the game and the site that has made him millions. “Joining Team Full Tilt and the extraordinary people that are in it is a huge honor… I am excited to join”.

Visit the Durrrr blog here and his Tom Dwan Bio here.

Dutch Poker Players
There are many beloved poker players who come from the Netherlands, some very highly regarded in the poker community. One recently well-known poker player from the Netherlands is Rob Hollink, who took home three wins from the 2008 WSOP, one of which was first place in Event #30, the World Championship Limit Hold ‘em. He also placed 15th in Event #19 Pot-Limit Omaha and 22nd in Event #50 World Championship Pot-Limit Omaha.

Another rising star from Amsterdam in the poker world is Noah Boeken, born in 1981. Like many other professional poker players from all parts of the world, his strategy skills came from excelling in the game Magic: The Gathering, which prepped him for a successful career in poker. His big break came from his 1st place win at the 2005 Scandinavian Open when he took down Ram Vaswani for almost $200K.
Boeken is often called Mini-Marcel after his mentor, fellow Dutchman and intercontinental poker champion, Marcel Luske, who is probably the most well-known of Dutch poker players. Luske is also known as the “Flying Dutchman” as he started out playing poker all over Europe, flying from city to city to compete in tournaments. Luske is an avid player at many high-stakes live events and a winner of millions of dollars. This classy poker giant, also from Amsterdam, is the definition of poker etiquette and his stylish air is pleasantly complemented by his acute sense of humor, known for breaking out in song at the tables and wearing upside down sunglasses. Being an older poker player gives him an edge against the young guns that populate the tables these days. He approaches poker with respect and in 2001 was ranked as the number one player in Europe, later to be European Player of the Year in 2003 and 2004. In 2008, he ranked as 150th on the Player of the Year list, up from 884th in 2007. Needless to say, he’s not new to poker.
Luske taught Boeken that there is a place for modesty and respect for yourself and others in poker and in life, in general. Luske has been called “Poker’s Roving Ambassador” for the goodwill he exhibits among his opponents. He embodies the honorable character of the region he represents and teaches Boeken to do the same. These two players are seen together often, representing the past, present, and future of Netherlands poker. Both of these poker players from the Netherlands are proud of the role they have played in Dutch poker, as well as global poker. They have a huge Dutch following, and many of their fans are inspired by them enough to follow in their footsteps. Luske, especially, has done a great job promoting poker as a rather admirable job in the Netherlands.

Matt Hawrilenko wins 200k from Patrik Antonius in Texas Holdem Poker on Full Tilt

At table “Mirasol” on Full Tilt poker, two heads up specialists collided in a session of $1,000 / $2,000 Limit Hold em. Patrik “Finddagrind” Antonius went one on one with Matt “Hoss_TBF” Hawrilenko. They grinded it for two hours, exchanging chip leads every few hands in the first hour. Hawrilenko was soon leading for the remainder of the session. Antonius missed many of his draws while his opponent seemed to be hitting them repeatedly. In the end, Hoss_TBF was seen sitting with $289,000, of which, $200k came from Finddagrind. Apparently tilted, Antonius left every table on Full tilt after he lost his last reload to Hawrilenko.

“Finddagrind misses a straight flush draw in a 32k pot”

Full Tilt Poker Game #5541536484: Table Mirasol (6 max) – $1000/$2000 – Limit Hold’em – 18:25:00 ET – 2008/03/07
Seat 3: FinddaGrind ($67,927.50)
Seat 6: Hoss_TBF ($101,916)
Hoss_TBF posts the small blind of $500
FinddaGrind posts the big blind of $1,000
The button is in seat #6
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Hoss_TBF raises to $2,000
FinddaGrind raises to $3,000
Hoss_TBF calls $1,000
*** FLOP *** [2s 4s 8d]
FinddaGrind bets $1,000
Hoss_TBF raises to $2,000
FinddaGrind raises to $3,000
Hoss_TBF calls $1,000
*** TURN *** [2s 4s 8d] [4c]
FinddaGrind bets $2,000
Hoss_TBF raises to $4,000
FinddaGrind raises to $6,000
Hoss_TBF raises to $8,000
FinddaGrind calls $2,000
*** RIVER *** [2s 4s 8d 4c] [Jd]
FinddaGrind bets $2,000
Hoss_TBF calls $2,000
*** SHOW DOWN ***
FinddaGrind shows [5s 3s] a pair of Fours
Hoss_TBF shows [4d As] three of a kind, Fours
Hoss_TBF wins the pot ($31,999.50) with three of a kind, Fours
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $32,000 | Rake $0.50
Board: [2s 4s 8d 4c Jd]
Seat 3: FinddaGrind (big blind) showed [5s 3s] and lost with a pair of Fours
Seat 6: Hoss_TBF (small blind) showed [4d As] and won ($31,999.50) with three of a kind, Fours

“Hoss rivers the split pot”

“Finddagrind tries to bluff a 30k pot”

Full Tilt Poker Game #5541737576: Table Mirasol (6 max) – $1000/$2000 – Limit Hold’em – 18:41:26 ET – 2008/03/07
Seat 3: FinddaGrind ($52,418)
Seat 6: Hoss_TBF ($117,404.50)
Hoss_TBF posts the small blind of $500
FinddaGrind posts the big blind of $1,000
The button is in seat #6
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Hoss_TBF raises to $2,000
FinddaGrind calls $1,000
*** FLOP *** [Ah 2d As]
FinddaGrind bets $1,000
Hoss_TBF raises to $2,000
FinddaGrind raises to $3,000
Hoss_TBF calls $1,000
*** TURN *** [Ah 2d As] [6h]
FinddaGrind bets $2,000
Hoss_TBF raises to $4,000
FinddaGrind raises to $6,000
Hoss_TBF raises to $8,000
FinddaGrind calls $2,000
*** RIVER *** [Ah 2d As 6h] [Td]
FinddaGrind bets $2,000
Hoss_TBF calls $2,000
*** SHOW DOWN ***
FinddaGrind shows [4h 3d] a pair of Aces
Hoss_TBF shows [2h 2c] a full house, Twos full of Aces
Hoss_TBF wins the pot ($29,999.50) with a full house, Twos full of Aces
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $30,000 | Rake $0.50
Board: [Ah 2d As 6h Td]
Seat 3: FinddaGrind (big blind) showed [4h 3d] and lost with a pair of Aces
Seat 6: Hoss_TBF (small blind) showed [2h 2c] and won ($29,999.50) with a full house, Twos full of Aces

“Hoss disappoints his opponent with another completed draw”

Full Tilt Poker Game #5541906923: Table Mirasol (6 max) – $1000/$2000 – Limit Hold’em – 18:55:12 ET – 2008/03/07
Seat 3: FinddaGrind ($49,858)
Seat 6: Hoss_TBF ($186,712.50)
Hoss_TBF posts the small blind of $500
FinddaGrind posts the big blind of $1,000
The button is in seat #6
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Hoss_TBF raises to $2,000
FinddaGrind calls $1,000
*** FLOP *** [Qc 2s 3c]
FinddaGrind checks
Hoss_TBF bets $1,000
FinddaGrind raises to $2,000
Hoss_TBF calls $1,000
*** TURN *** [Qc 2s 3c] [6s]
FinddaGrind bets $2,000
Hoss_TBF raises to $4,000
FinddaGrind raises to $6,000
Hoss_TBF raises to $8,000
FinddaGrind calls $2,000
*** RIVER *** [Qc 2s 3c 6s] [4d]
FinddaGrind bets $2,000
Hoss_TBF raises to $4,000
FinddaGrind calls $2,000
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Hoss_TBF shows [4h 5c] a straight, Six high
FinddaGrind mucks
Hoss_TBF wins the pot ($31,999.50) with a straight, Six high
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $32,000 | Rake $0.50
Board: [Qc 2s 3c 6s 4d]
Seat 3: FinddaGrind (big blind) mucked
Seat 6: Hoss_TBF (small blind) collected ($31,999.50)

“Finddagrind’s final hand”

Full Tilt Poker Game #5541997884: Table Mirasol (6 max) – $1000/$2000 – Limit Hold’em – 19:02:33 ET – 2008/03/07
Seat 3: FinddaGrind ($4,695)
Seat 6: Hoss_TBF ($284,561)
Hoss_TBF posts the small blind of $500
FinddaGrind posts the big blind of $1,000
The button is in seat #6
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Hoss_TBF raises to $2,000
FinddaGrind raises to $3,000
Hoss_TBF calls $1,000
*** FLOP *** [Jd Tc 9s]
FinddaGrind bets $1,000
Hoss_TBF raises to $2,000
FinddaGrind calls $695, and is all in
Hoss_TBF shows [Kc 3c]
FinddaGrind shows [4c 4d]
Uncalled bet of $305 returned to Hoss_TBF
*** TURN *** [Jd Tc 9s] [Qc]
*** RIVER *** [Jd Tc 9s Qc] [Jh]
Hoss_TBF shows a straight, King high
FinddaGrind shows two pair, Jacks and Fours
Hoss_TBF wins the pot ($9,389.50) with a straight, King high
FinddaGrind is sitting out
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $9,390 | Rake $0.50
Board: [Jd Tc 9s Qc Jh]
Seat 3: FinddaGrind (big blind) showed [4c 4d] and lost with two pair, Jacks and Fours
Seat 6: Hoss_TBF (small blind) showed [Kc 3c] and won ($9,389.50) with a straight, King high