The 2011 World Series of Poker is winding down with only two events left on the schedule before Main Event Day 1A begins on Thursday. Thus far Tom Dwan has had some close calls, seeing over a dozen Day 2s, cashing in three events and final tabling in one. By the end of the series, he will likely beat the 51 buy-ins he paid at last year’s WSOP, and yet the young grinder has yet to claim a WSOP bracelet.
Over the holiday weekend, Scott Seiver sent durrrr to the rail on Day 3 of the $50,000 Poker Players’ Championship. As of today he’s still hanging on in the $1000 No-Limit Hold’em, but if that event fails to yield a winning finish, he’s got only Event #56: $1500 No-Limit Hold’em and Event #57: $5000 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-low Split 8 or Better left before the Main Event. Last year, Dwan’s desperate bracelet race made him the one to watch early on in the Main Event, but he fizzled quickly under the pressure, leaving the big event without even a cash finish.
As if durrrr wasn’t under enough pressure after playing dozens of consecutive events, fellow pro Antonio Esfandiari sent an extra diversion his way last week in the form of an over-eager railbird. Esfandiari paid the poker fan $100 to run across the playing room and place his hand on Dwan’s head for ten seconds. To get him out of his hair, Dwan then paid the man another $100 to do the same to Freddy Deeb. Then Esfandiari and Dwan teamed up to send the same gullible spectator Phil Hellmuth’s way.
When it comes to an absence of bracelets at this year’s WSOP, at least durrrr’s in good company. Neither of his Challengers – Patrik Antonius and Daniel Cates – have won a bracelet or even cashed for that matter. To Antonius’ credit, he may not be winning a lot of poker hands, but he did win that $30,000 tennis match against Brandon Adams. And while Dwan has been giving all his money to the WSOP, Cates has been donating his to the fans via his Main Event giveaway.
FTP fans are hoping that Dwan’s teammate Phil Ivey might yet break his WSOP fast by entering the Main Event now that his relationship with Full Tilt is on the mend. A number of poker fans have still been able to see him play at his usual high stakes ring games now that he’s back in Las Vegas, but even if he doesn’t buy into the Main Event, he’ll be back in tournament competition as early as August 5 when the new Epic Poker League hosts its first invitation-only event over at The Palms. Dwan has also committed to the tournament along with a number of other notables like Sam Trickett, Barry Greenstein, Phil Hellmuth and Erik Seidel.
