One of the most accomplished poker players to come out of the state of Iowa is Dustin Dirksen, a law school graduate who runs several businesses while also playing poker on the side. A high-stakes pot-limit Omaha (PLO) crusher, Dirksen has also compiled an impressive tournament résumé.

According to The Hendon Mob, he has more than $1.8 million in lifetime earnings (as of Summer 2022) dating back to 2006. That includes a career-best score of $600,000 for finishing sixth in the 2009 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) Main Event.

Dirksen has come close to winning a World Series of Poker (WSOP) gold bracelet on several occasions having made eight final tables. Among those he has three runner-up finishes with the first being in the 2007 WSOP Event #35: $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em for $381,381.

In 2021, he took second to Kevin Gerhart in Event #62: $1,500 PLO Hi-Lo 8 or Better for $115,440, and a year later finished runner-up to Daniel Zack in the 2022 WSOP Event #15: $10,000 Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better Championship for $272,408. In the latter, Dirksen and Zack battled in a back-and-forth heads-up match that lasted a grueling seven hours!