While things in the online poker world are starting to quiet down in terms of tournament series, the cash tables have been heating up and railbirds will have been delighted by the recent flurry of durrrr challenge sessions. Tom “durrrr” Dwan has sat across from his rival Daniel “jungleman12” Cates frequently recently, and while jungleman12 still has a substantial lead, there’s no doubt that durrrr has been slowly and surely chipping away at this.
Possibly the most famous internet poker player in the entire world, Tom “durrrr” Dwan has amassed literally millions of dollars playing cards both online and on live tables. In addition to the serious amounts of financial success Dwan has enjoyed, he has also become a regular on many poker television shows and can be seen stirring up exciting amounts of action and keeping viewers glued to the screen. He has recently become a member of Team Full Tilt, and you can find him playing at the high stakes tables of Full Tilt Poker.
The durrrr Challenge, as it has become known, is Dwan’s claim that he can best any player in the world, with the sole exception of Phil Galfond, playing heads-up poker on the internet over at least four tables. The stakes must be $200/$400 or higher, the game No Limit Hold’Em or Pot Limit Omaha, and fifty thousand hands have to be played. If, at the end of this massive heads-up marathon, Dwan is up by more than a dollar then he will receive $500,000 from the challenger, in addition to his winnings. However, if the challenger comes out on top then Dwan has agreed to ship $1.5 Million his way, offering very juicy odds to the poker world.
The first player to step up to the plate was Finish pro Patrik Antonius, and although the challenge is not yet over it’s not looking good for the former pro tennis player. 40,000 hands of Pot Limit Omaha in, durrrr is up over $2 million and it will be a very tough feat for Antonius to turn that around. The second and only other challenger is Daniel “jungleman12” Cates, who selected No Limit Hold’Em as his game of choice and is putting in a much better showing, currently up hundreds of thousands of dollars in the first fifteen thousand hands.
Having said that, not many weeks ago jungleman12 was up well over $600,000, but, thanks to the recent sessions put in, Dwan has managed to chip away at that lead and has reduced it to just a touch over $500,000. He knocked it down by $63,000 in their latest session. He could have reduced it by even more were it not for one unfortunate hand in which his internet failed while he held the nuts, and he missed a potentially very profitable value bet. As you can imagine he was less than impressed, and vented his frustration in the Full Tilt Poker chat box:
Dealer: durrrr has timed out
Dealer: durrrr shows a flush, Ace high
Dealer: durrrr wins the pot ($35,399.50) with a flush, Ace high
jungleman12: ….
durrrr: wowthat
durrrr: thats so gay
jungleman12: hey
durrrr: gg
jungleman12: i thought it was pretty cool
durrrr: nice douchebag comment ty
jungleman12: joking obv
durrrr: pretty off timing
durrrr: to joke
durrrr: after running pretty sick for 20min and then my 1st intnet messup in days it chks behind nut flush vs ur 2p which obv autocalls
durrrr: but w/e enjoy the needle play later
jungleman12: gg
That apparently wasn’t sufficient to cool his collar, and via his twitter he shared his view on the matter with the world:
“Just had one of the most tilting hands of my life happen. Was playing JungleMan in the Challenge and my internet cut out, so I checked behind… the nuts in a spot where he would’ve 100% called with two pair for $34,683 more. Sooooooooooo tilted.”
While the outbursts aren’t perhaps entirely necessary, it’s pretty easy to imagine being less than impressed if you had just effectively lost over thirty thousand dollars. While Dwan has more of a stomach for losses than your average bear, it’s also important to consider that in addition to the immediate money lost, he does also have $1.5 Million riding on this bet. With any luck the railbirds will be able to continue enjoying the action and the two will keep battling it out regularly until a victor is decided.