I don't think it's clear whether he has delusion of grandeur or a huge ego (narcissist). I'd lean toward the second one though (fwiw).
That'd not be big news anyway:
- Few people already said he had a huge ego (I remember Greenstein and/or Ivey saying it)
- The chess bet
- The Durrrr challenge
- The way he was trying to talk his way out of saying he owes Jetten.

Saying he should be entitled to talk to Putin and saying he could convince him if he could talk to him are two different things. It sounded more like the 2nd to me but I definitely could be wrong

You can if you are an IM :-) (or better)

But it does seem you think Dwan was down a rook as fish_but_lucky explains
Which was not the case

For the record:
This point system you refer to is a very rudimentary way to evaluate chess winning chances
A better way to think is that these numbers are dynamic depending on position
A knight on the rim (and out of play) can be worth as little as 1.7 points
While a central well defended knight can easily rise to 4
This is part of being able to evaluate a position correctly

In this case:
An IM will most likely have equalized or gained an edge in the opening before any rooks have come into play
(although this is hardly the whole story)

Rook handicap is 400-500 elo boost . So if you have 500+ elo difference you would still win

I am having a hard time imaging someone losing being down a rook. This isn't possible vs a competent player. I am not buying the narrative others are trying to sell me here in this thread. A decent chess player would never lose down a rook that is absurd.

Fortunately you don't have to imagine it. It happened. Just look at the results. FFS.

There have been plenty of “hope he gets better soon”, I even threw one in myself but we are allowed to discuss other things.

But even in his heyday he wasn’t Mother Teresa running around helping people. And he welched on Jungleman when he was at height of his powers and possible bankroll

An IM will destroy you even when he is down a rook.
Gothamchess was an IM for a long time, and when you look at his thoughts in his videos when he really goes deep into it, it is freaking crazy.
He even won blind vs Anna Crambling
International Masters are absolute beasts in chess.
They don't give a damn if you are up a rook.
Their endgame is insanly strong and they have so many midgame boards in their freaking heads.

I didn't know about the story of Tom playing an IM and starting up a rook. But I smiled instantly, because normal players with elos between 1000 - 1800 just can't win vs an IM.
Fedor has 1.8K I believe.

The crazy thing in chess is, that one can make it to almost 2000 with a little bit of tailwinds, good matchmaking and daily practice etc. But mostly comes from memorizing openings and having a somewhat decent mid and endgame.
But IMs are just so crazy at really analysing positions and think ahead so many combos, and just see things that a normal player just can't see. They will look at a position and will know that this is a position from 2023 Carlsen vs Hikaru, and know instantly what to do and will capitalize on every misstake you make, when a player with lets say 1800 elo is basically just guessing around with limited capacity of thinking ahead.

Seems sinster of you to smile at another person's expense. That is what a narcissist would do, dupers delight. I heard of Anna Crambling I believe from Youtube she is a good chesss player. I don't believe I would lose down a rook.

Gossip is the G in NVG

There is no S for supportive

Well posters on here and people hyped up Durrr a ton. Phil Hellmuth was sort of right when he said we shall see if you are around in 5 years. Why does Tom seem to be highly respected when he owes people money. I owe no one money and play my own bankroll and yet I get threatened on here makes zero sense. ToM Dwan has proved that he is a terrible human being. A good person would make a real effort to pay people back. I have zero sympathy, empathy for Tom. Pay your debts Tom, we have no sympathy for you anymore Tom we hate you Tom because you give poker players a bad name.

He also wanted / did make a bet (?) that he could convince sauce in like 30 minutes that gto is not the best strat like 10 years ago lol

I don't believe Tom has debts... seems there is hardly any evidence for that. People claiming so on NVG doesn't count as evidence btw

I don't think Doug Polk would say Tom was in debt if it weren't true. Dougs reputation would be tarnished and that could be libel if I am not mistaken against Doug. Why would Doug lie about Tom being in debt?

idk if this is some kind of ragebait, but in case it isnt. When the whole robbie j4 stuff went down him and haralabos talked quite openly about him owing haralabos like 300-500k. Haralabos also mentioned this in his chicagojoey pod a decade ago. First of all, why wouldn't you pay a debt that is what, like less than 3-10bi of his normal stakes? It's also not too common in the poker world that you only owe one person. Would be genuinely surprised if he wasnt at least 8 figures in debt. Zero chance he isnt 7 figures in debt.

lol, ‘$35m of debt means nothing’

—magicpro

You’ve said this twice now, so I felt compelled to point out how stupid you sound.

As if the stakes he plays (you seem to be assuming that’s all his money on the table) mean that ‘‘tis but a scratch’ to owe $35m.

Omg, too good.

The only way Dwan scrapes together a million is selling pieces or more borrowing and neither is optimal for payoff of previous debts.

Tom is one of us. Spreading gossip and cracking jokes about someone potentially in trouble is just *****y. But then a lot of you on here have always just been azzholes.

I wouldn't say Tom is a friend, but we were friendly and hung out back in the day. He was always a good guy and a kind person. At least from what I saw. And although I haven't spoken to him in a few years, if he's in trouble, I hope he finds his way out and if there's something I could do to help, I would.

Isn't his rep already tarnished from shilling that shitcoin that went under almost immediately when the market took a downturn? Meanwhile I'm still holding shitcoins that while down in value are hanging in there.

Libel basically is never going to be worth taking to court. It's kinda hard to prove that you don't owe anyone money, and beyond that you have to prove what material damages that Doug's claim caused you.

Isnt Tom still married to Maria? Where is she in all this? Tom needs the support from someone very close to him (non-poker related) and step away from poker for a while.

You are in no space to make moral judgements. You videotaped pornography as a job, so you have a low character. Get off your high moral ground talking down to others you are no better than anyone else. That topic at hand is about whether or not Tom Dwan is going to pay his debts off.

Tom paying debts is off the table now and forever.

My analysis of his mental state is that it's real what he's experiencing not a ruse to avoid debts.

It will take many years if ever for him to recover and to do so he will need to completely exit poker which is a core enemy of everyone's mental health.

Ultimately he'll end up in a better place, even if it's not as glamorous of remunerative.

But poker is done.

this so much, everything balto has posted is right on point

yet oddly tom still lost, weird

the fix must have been in i tell ya!

Almost 20 years in my case…I was also apparently a part of the highly-coordinated astroturfing campaign on 2+2 that Robbie Lew financed. Never did get that check tho…

I wouldn’t hold my breath while you wait for magicpro to give you an answer, and if he does, it’ll include vague innuendo about the Deep State, no doubt.

...almost 20 years of trolling on the search for attention.