Home / Poker News January 2011 / Looking back at 2010 – Tom Dwan and his bracelet bet
Looking back at 2010 – Tom Dwan and his bracelet bet
Posted by: James Carter. - Sun, 2011-01-02 09:08
If you think the most significant event of the
2010 WSOP was the Main Event, you are woefully wrong. It may have been the most significant in terms of money won from the actual prize pool of the poker tournament, but a relatively insignificant looking $1,500
NL Holdem event, which took place on the second Friday of the series far surpassed it in just about every other respect. The reason why this event stood out was a simple one: Tom Dwan finished in second place in it, eliminated by Simon Watt, who, more or less unbeknownst to him, became the savior of the poker community on that day.
Tom Dwan apparently struck a bet with several high-stakes regulars, a bet about his ability to secure a gold bracelet in the 2010 series. The bet was the lone reason why Dwan, who is usually much more keen on playing in high-stakes cash games during the series than showing up with the rest of the poker elite, played in just about every single WSOP event he could physically show up for.
The above-mentioned event was the one that saw him come closest to winning that elusive bracelet. How much money he was set to win in case of a successful bracelet bid will probably remain unknown. Rumor has it however that the sum was in the $9-12 million range. Dwan himself said that a bracelet win would probably turn out to be his largest ever payday and that certainly meant something coming from him.
Many of the biggest names in the poker world had money on the bet. Phil Ivey was said to have posted $3 million alone. Mike Matusow and Daniel Negreanu had money riding on it too, as well as several other players like Huck Seed, Eli Elezra and Sorel Mizzi.
Many of these guys found the action over at Dwan’s table much more interesting than the event they themselves were playing in, so they kept running over to witness the biggest side-bet in the history of poker unfold.
