Last year wasn’t so great for the 23-year-old online sensation. He spent most of it in the red online — at shocking development considering durrrr won more than $5 million online in 2008 and established himself as one of the game’s elite. This year, at his lowest point, Tom “durrrr” Dwan was down $6.8 million in November, mostly thanks to Isildur1, who before he went broke, crushed Dwan for millions.

Tom Dwan

In December though, Dwan hit the lower stakes and rebounded, winning $2.7 million. He’s also up almost a million in the Million Dollar Challenge with Patrik Antonius with about 20,000 hands left to play. (durrrr challenged everyone but Phil Galfond to a four-table, 50,000-hand contest, if his opponent was up at least $1 after 50,000 hands, durrrr would owe the player an additional $1.5 million, if Dwan was up at least $1, he’d get $500,000 extra from his opponent.) His live play, at least the hands that have been shown on television in the last year, has also been exceptional, so it’s a reasonable assumption that he’s in the black in live games.

Games like the Million Dollar Challenge are the reason why I think durrrr will have a decent year in 2010. He sets the terms in his games, playing only when he thinks he has an advantage. And though I don’t think he has a tremendous edge over his competition, he confidence in his heads up game — and confidence goes a long way in poker.

Plus, durrrr is now a full partner in Full Tilt, so when you play a $5 pot on the site and they take 50 cents for the rake, he gets a percentage of that. The site will probably encourage durrrr to play some tournaments this year, it will be interesting to see if durrrr has enough motivation to play well — he’s had success in the past with a few final tables in 2007 and 2008.

Whatever durrrr does, whether he goes broke or crushes the competition, he’ll continue to play the biggest games online — it should at least be fun to watch.