05 Feb 2026 Advanced This material is for experienced players exploit GTO 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.
