Two young phenoms, Tom “Durrrr” Dwan and Daniel “jungleman12” Cates, were dueling again as part of the Durrrr Challenge 2 on March 29. This would mark the second time the two played in just a few days. Railbirds were informed via Dwan’s twitter with his “About to play a short session vs jungleman on FTP now” tweet. And as usual, all action was played exclusively at FulltTilt Poker.

The action started out great for Dwan as he was trying vigorously to win back some of the $270k he lost the last time the two battled. A crucial hand in Dwan’s favor was when he had 10s7s vs. Cates’ Qc5c. Cates led out on a flop of KdJh7c for $4,800 in a $9,600 pot. Dwan thought for a moment before making the call. Cates continued betting on the 9s turn with complete air. Tom again smooth called the bet, this time for $14,000. Cates unloaded the barrel and pushed all-in on a 6h river. Dwan saw past this bluff and called to scoop in the $108,574 pot.

Tom Dwan enjoyed his early $111,000 lead but would soon find himself in a hole again. Cates managed to out-kick Dwan in a $101k pot in which two 8s fell on the flop and both players holding one. Cates had J8 as opposed to Dwan’s 86 and would dodge the three outs, twice. Both players decided to run it twice with Cates winning both times.

Dwan seemed to be flustered and couldn’t gain back any momentum until he finally quit 1,099 hands and down $39,797 later. Of the 50k hands total they are to play they have now played 19,335. Cates is up an amazing $1,251,059 and Dwan hasn’t led since the 3,000 hand mark. On top of this, Dwan is heavily in the red so far this year for his play even outside the challenge. It will be interesting to see if Durrrr can make a comeback as everyone knows he’s capable.