People who know people who became mentally ill know that it's rarely if ever a singularity.

Sure there might be people who snapped and did something really stupid like kill someone and from then on they need to convince the world that they were insane at the time.

But in most cases mental illness is a gradual winding descent with ups & downs including slow decay of established relationships ( career, education, peer group, friends, and finally family ) until all that is left is drug pushers, law enforcement, legal, & medical professionals and possible institutionalization.

Some on here want to read the riot act to others who speculate on what's going on.

But truth is we all log-in here to read exactly that : rumors & speculation. If it's news we can read it on a commercial news site.

I think the combination of his extreme indebtedness ( Doug Polk says $30M ) and his expectation that his genius would enable him to eventually right the ship slowly inexorably damaged his mental health.

This spiral may well have been exacerbated by drug use probably Adderall or other stimulants to enable extremely long hours of focus at the tables which he always believed would be his salvation.

Also the rumors of heading to Asia working off a big debt to The Triad may be true and that level of stress ultimately because intolerable to his psyche which then retreated into madness rather than face the continuing towering challenge of re-attaining his financial freedom.

Throughout history there have been many geniuses who chose madness rather than continue to deal with this perverse twisted conflicted corrupt state of reality.

Psychologically Tom ended up in an impossible place where variance shifted from his friend to his enemy and the only real option was to walk away from poker and assume another identity ( I mean rationally & purposefully, not schizophrenia ).

But instead Tom continued to battle on as his peer group and the media had set him up to believe was possible.

One last thing : I don't believe for a NYC second that the poker community really gives a crap about anyone's mental health. Poker is for people who are at full strength, in full control of their lives & faculties, and who have a strong support system outside poker. That's the only way you can survive the fake camaraderie of a set of people actively deploying the full powers of their intellect to outsmart, deceive, and take your money.

Disagree about that, a lot of people seemed to try and help him. The only one I saw that posted something insulting was jmo that called him a idiot. The pokernews who said he seems to be fine etc was probably trying to be nice. He tweeted just a few hours before he visit him that he had broken ribs and something else. He still represented the scam full tilt and f'ed over a lot of people for a lot of money during the durrr challenge. Seems like he also owe a lot of money to a lot of people. I'm more often surprised how nice a lot of people are to people like him. If you go back 100 years he would prob have his legs broken for what he have done or be dumped in the ocean. He might not be a bad guy on purpose but he still made a bet where he freerolled people for millions worth of ev

Feeding his paranoid fantasies is not helping him.

Me for example I didn't come to the forum to listen to the gossip or to join in.
I saw the title <Tom the missing man> by chance and was immediately worried.
In a split second, I thought of Johannes Strassmann, who went missing in 2014 and was found dead after being under drug influence.

You are not right if you say that there are no people in the poker community who are worried and care.
Tom is a poker icon. I grew up playing poker at the same time as him and was successfull, but not like him.
Tom, Viktor, Patrik, Phil Ivey, Gus Hansen, they are the Ful Tilt legends. Everyone should wish them the best as they pull us forward in our quest to become better.

As far as Tom's health is concerned, it is still not clear what exactly happened. All we have are tweets, rumors and a hospital stay, that's it.
The hospital stay was also limited to the minimum of 2 weeks. If Tom was so, insanly mentally ill as some irresponsibly give the impression here, why is he out after the minimum stay?
Many people just write without even spending a second to use their brain for alternative narratives.
All they care is their toxic *****.

The fact that he posted that he had injuries that are not yet there in reality is of course a clear indicator of psychosis. But there is also the possibility that he wrote it to support his attempt to get outside help.
I don't think that's likely, but it's a possibility if you're admitted to hospital under duress. This is an extreme situation for the psyche. Compulsive restriction of freedom is something that most people can only understand once it has happened to them. That includes police imprisoning, kidnapping, abuse etc Some people are traumatized by it for a while. And it can break you.l, if you're not that strong.

People should not talk about his mental state, as they have really no clue what is really happening.

Instead just wish him the best bro.

The dept thing could he true, could also be exaggerated. Could be payed already.
I mean 30M is not that much if you play NL 1M.

30 stacks is nothing in a game full of potential fish. People go on 15+ buyin runs all the time. At least I do.

The pressure would be high though I agree, and usually things don't work well under pressure.

I am very angry right now is how I am doing.

I will always remember Dwan as the guy who played an IM in chess (IM was down a Rook) for $50,000.

#LEGEND

You can't beat any chess player that is halfway decent being down a rook that is crazy. I use to play chess, Dwan must not understand the game of chess. Is Tom Dwan a narcissistic? You would have to be completely delusional to beat any solid chess player down a rook that is laughable.

Hikaru got his rating over 2400 while sacrificing his queen every game.

I think we should do less hypothesizing about Dwan and more appreciating. #LEGEND

I’ll just address this last bit of your disjointed stream of consciousness because I haven’t seen anyone on here hope for anything other than the well-being of Tom.

Acknowledging that he’s shown signs of the deterioration of his faculties isn’t ’getting off’ on his situation.

In fact, if he’s reading this (hopefully he isn’t, for his own sake), then it’s obviously more detrimental for him to read posts from guys like you who give credence to his delusions.

That is bugged out

Few on this thread have any clue what they're talking about.

Only medical professionals and those who have been through the mind-bending soul-sucking ordeal of a loved one becoming mentally ill have the experience to make an accurate analysis.

Those experiencing psychosis want nothing more than confirmation that what they're experiencing is real. House bugged, food & drink drugged, neighbors spying, people whispering about them everywhere they go, people tailing them on foot and in cars, involvement of well-known government spy agencies ( CIA M6 KGB ), delusions of grandeur, superhero complex, etc.

And they will deploy your love for them as a weapon against you if you do not actively confirm their paranoid fantasies. You will switch from a dearest loved one to "one of them" and vile hatred will be lasered in your direction.

If you really love someone, you have no choice but to take the side of rational thought and stand firm no matter their irrational demands.

1. no what you think is happening, in actual fact this is not happening because of x, y, z ( provide specific reasons why what they are claiming is nonsense )
2. you weren't always like this, just n days/weeks/months/years ago you never said anything like these stories & claims that you've recently begun to tell us about
3. no I'm not a member of the group persecuting you because there is no such group
4. you are experiencing a chemical imbalance that is altering your perception of reality, but there are medicines which can return you to normalcy ( Zyprexa is one ), will you agree to see a psychiatrist

You need to be incredibly strong and repeat 1-4 over & over, with a calm demeanor and loving but firm voice, never wavering, never yielding to what the mentally ill person falsely desires which is for you to confirm your love by engaging them and joining their paranoid fantasies as an active member of the persecuted.

Based on what I've seen there's little doubt in my mind that Tom has become mentally ill. Clearly he has not emerged from the psychoses that led to the episode that resulted in UK legally sectioning him under MHA.

Solid post, I agree, this has likely been slowly happening to him over years but even his “friends” probably didn’t know how to handle the initial signs beyond “haha you crazy”. The DN podcast info was more than enough for me, “lets put the phones in the car,” just to go chat in a restaurant at dinner….has to be only the tip of the iceberg.

All that to say if he is not self-harming or violent towards others, there is a chance to overcome if he has the right support around that he trust.

Sorry, not even close

Really disappointed on the lack of empathy in this thread. TD at the height of his powers was everyone's hero.

Brilliant player that just crushed online and then live. He was so good. He confused the **** out of everyone. Next level.

That look in his eyes.

It's obvious that he has some mental problems or is on drugs.

So sad.

Anyway, my thoughts and prayers go out to TD. I hope he gets well soon. I hope he gets sober. I hope he gets healthy. I hope he settles all his debts.

One of the greatest cash game players of all time.

How so? Explain your logic with this comment? How am I off base here? No sarcasm and explain to me how I am incorrect.

No rational refutations can be made, since you made no arguments to reply to
I can only share personal experience

I play chess since I was 4, I'm a decent amateur, and I would be very much -EV versus an IM minus one rook

I could ask what your ratings are on chess.com and or lichess to situate where your pov came from

A rook is worth five points. A pawn is 1, bishop is 3 along with the knight. You can't beat a competent player being down a rook.

Ok I have a comparison that may not be relevant. So in darts if u have the throw when u when the cork to see who goes first for the bullseyes. If u watch Luke LIttler if he goes first u are not going to beat Luk against the throw very often. You have to throw a 13 dart let or so to maybe get lucky. Bobby fischer or Kasparov won't allow to u make any erros along with Magnus. Being down a roook no chance in hell u lose vs anyone who has a clue in chess.

Youre making it sound as if Dwan won the bet, playing against an IM who was a rook down. Surely he lost?

He did. In the analogy above I guess the Magnus Carlssen/Luke Littler is Jungleman.

More likely he started the game, went to the bathroom, and never came back.

Dwan was not the one down a rook.
He played against a chess master. The master was down a rook. He still beat Tom.
Tom didn't think he could beat somebody decent down a rook. He tought he could win vs a international chess master if the master was down a rook. Tom lost.

"Not just" means they are also included.
But I was kinda hoping that you were talking about the people that were not showing enough empathy cause the post you quoted was saying we should respond with empathy.

Nobody will never be able to, 100%, factually prove whether he was drugged or not drugged. You can hold on to that theory as much as you want. Even Tom doesn't say or imply that it was the case.

He still tweeted like he believed the stuff he was thinking during his breakdown was true. 20 days later. What drug can he take that makes him act like a schizophrenic person for 20 days? And wouldn't they test for that at the hospital before releasing him?

Even if somehow we could prove he wasn't drugged, you will just make up another close to impossible scenario and throw it at everybody that says he is showing signs of mental illness.

I could tell my phone has been hacked by the government and that the president himself listen to my conversations. You wouldn't be able to prove the contrary. But if I truly believe it, it's paranoia.

Given your posts:
- You avoid telling what you doctorate is. (I suspect law)
- You haven't read the thread before telling