A while back I wrote a post about the Tom Dwan Challenge and said it was dumb. I caught some flack about that post and I also got a lot of support too. One thing is for sure and that is that Tom Dwan fans are extremely passionate and that makes for some interesting banter amongst poker bloggers like myself. Since then I have purposely taken some time to follow-up on Tom at Full Tilt and also read everything I could get my hands on about his personal life and upbringing. What I found was quite compelling and very telling of what I now deem as the “new age” online poker professional.

The fact of the matter is that Tom Dwan is in his element online, despite his impressive live tournament and PAD run, and no one can argue with that. I understand that now. I am sure if he actually focused on his live play a bit more he would have even more success than he has to date. However, what I didn’t understand before that I do now about Dwan is that he simply has no serious desire to play live on a full time basis. Why should he when he kills the online Omaha and No Limit games?

I must admit that I give more respect to players that perform well live in cash games or poker tournaments and I don’t feel there is any fault in that. This is not to say that Dwan or any of the other online pros accomplishments are diminished at all. It is simply my opinion. I still believe it takes more skill to play live than online simply because you take away a key element of the game when you are online – people. I also learned that Tom has an extremely short attention span as do most players in his age group. However, what he does have is focus on the game of poker and any player that can run up $50 to over $100k you have got to respect.

What I failed to understand about Dwan earlier is that he is all about the here and now. He is a thrill seeker, albeit a skilled one, and seeks the biggest kill he can find at that particular moment. Plain and simple. Dwan has stated that he could care less if he lost his bankroll and that he could easily get staked and re-build if he had to. Although that is likely to be very true it reeks of a degenerate gambler and that scares me for someone that young to think this way. With an estimated $10 Million dollar bankroll you would think any player would put half of it away in investments / retirement and play on the rest. On the other hand, maybe his lack of respect for money is what makes him the player he is. Who knows?

What I do know is that I have a much clearer understanding of what makes Tom Dwan tick and I have no qualms admitting when I am wrong. Tom is a cash game specialist. Nothing wrong with that. Having said that, the Tom Dwan Challenge makes perfectly good sense for him and woe to the players that enter the lions den for discretion is the better part of valor.