Tom Dwan Joins the Run It Once Elite Q&A

Tom Dwan sits down with Mikey Stotz for a candid Run It Once Elite Q&A. Durrrr breaks down famous hands vs. Ivey, Wesley, and Doug, shares wild Macau stories, explains how live reads beat solvers, and gives his honest take on whether poker has a future in the AI era.

Dwan argues live reads and exploitative play still trump GTO in unique spots, but solvers are killing the long-term poker ecosystem.

When Reads Beat the Algorithm:

• Dwan folds a 97542 playing Tom's stack in no-limit single draw - a read that saved ~40K.
• He outlines how he spotted live tells on both Wesley and Doug during their famous Hustler hands, parlaying multiple signals into one big read.
• Dwan rates Phil Ivey as the greatest live-read player ever, but still thinks Ivey was lost — not clairvoyant — when he folded to the famous bluff.
• He warns that solvers now make it nearly impossible to grind up from small stakes the way his generation did.
• Dwan proposes simple rule tweaks (e.g., burning extra cards) to make games solver-resistant and preserve the human edge.
• On high-stakes Asian games, he shares cheating red flags and a jaw-dropping story of a player who walked in cold and lost 7–9 million.
• He reflects that strong parental support gave him the mental resilience that fueled his biggest edges at the table.