US high-stakes poker player Tom Dwan has pledged to initiate “a series of lawsuits” after he spent two weeks in a London psychiatric facility due to a reported mental health emergency. 

On April 29, Dwan started tweeting from the Park Royal Centre for Mental Health located in West London, asserting that hospital personnel were “attempting to kill either me or a large part of my brain” via coercive treatment. 

The sequence of unclear and frequently ambiguous posts alluded to foreign intelligence agencies and "US operational command." They suggested that Dwan thought his water had been contaminated with drugs and that his phone had been interfered with. 

Certain tweets mentioned politicians, including US President Donald Trump, US Vice President J.D. Vance, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, and Home Secretary Yvette Cooper. 

 

Delusions of persecution? 

The tweets indicated that Dwan was having persecutory delusions, aligning with conditions such as acute psychosis or manic episodes that include psychotic features. 

Dwan also claimed that the UK police had fractured his rib and hand, and might have perforated a lung. A PokerNews reporter from the UK, Will Shillibier, managed to see Dwan at Park Royal hospital and noted that he “looked fine and seemed physically uninjured.” 

On Saturday, 21 days after his ordeal started, a much clearer-minded Dwan tweeted he was heading back to the US, stating he had a legal issue to resolve with the Park Royal Hospital. 

“I’ll be filing many complaints and a buncha diff lawsuits, along with some various tweets and other PR… But only proper channels type stuff, cool imo,” he tweeted.

Dwan refuted claims that the incident was triggered by the use of recreational drugs. 

 

Does Dwan Possess a Case? 

In the UK, a person may be held under the Mental Health Act (MHA) 1983 (revised 2007) if they are regarded as experiencing a mental disorder and their detention is seen as essential for their well-being, safety, or to safeguard others. 

This evaluation and suggestion must be conducted by two physicians and a certified mental health expert. According to Section 2 of the MHA, a person may be held for evaluation and potentially treatment for a maximum of 28 days. Section 3 allows for treatment detention for a period of up to six months, with the possibility of renewal. 

In these sections, treatment may be provided without the patient's consent if it is considered essential for their well-being or safety, or for the safety of others. 

Individuals in detention possess certain rights under MHA, such as the right to legal counsel, the right to challenge their detention at the Mental Health Tribunal, and the right to notify their nearest relative about their situation. 

If the healthcare providers complied with the MHA and operated within its legal parameters, Dwan’s legal choices would be restricted. However, he asserts that they did not. 

“They took my phone n devices, didn’t give in to my repeated requests for medical care, or my legal rights (nearest relative, tribunal, imho), for ~2weeks, and did what they could to bar me from all contact,” Dwan tweeted on Monday. “There were a few [decent] ppl, but majority followed (illegal) orders.”

Dwan admitted that his phone was confiscated after he posted a picture of an NHS employee to his audience of over 200K followers. 

 

What occurred with Dwan? 

It is challenging to assemble the details concerning Dwan's first arrest. In his previous tweets, he stated that “an individual impersonating a flight attendant” on the journey to London had “charged his phone and deleted its browser history and other information.” 

Dwan seemed to think that the flight attendant was involved in a scheme to "manufacture false accusations" against him. 

In the “Mania” podcast that he hosts alongside his wife, Amanda Leatherman, Daniel Negreanu shared the following insights. 

“He was flying to London to meet with a guy – I won’t name him, but I know who it is – and at the airport, apparently, he was acting crazy, talking crazy or whatever.”

Although Negreanu expressed worry for Dwan's mental well-being, he pointed out that he observed something was “a bit ‘off’ with him” several years back. Negreanu shared a story from Aria Las Vegas, where Dwan came up to him and mentioned he had something significant to discuss. 

However, Dwan requested Negreanu to hand over his phone so that their discussion wouldn't be documented. Ultimately, Negreanu consented to take out the battery from his phone. Dwan went on to “just chat casually,” as stated by Negreanu. 

“He’s always had a little bit of a delusion of grandeur, if you will,” Negreanu added. “He sees something going on in the news and he’s like ‘Let me talk to Putin, I’ll handle it.’ He believes he can go and talk to Kim Jung Un and fix things. And he really believes that.”