Tom “durrrr” Dwan has become something of an internet poker superstar over the past years, and with good reason. The young pro, who is widely considered to be the best online player out there, issued a Heads Up challenge to the poker community some time ago, putting more than $1.5 million on the line. Just this week the latest player to step up to the plate and accept the challenge has been named: jungleman12.
The durrrr challenge, which is open to the entire poker community, except Dwan’s close friend Phil Galfond, pits the challenger against durrrr in an online heads up battle. 50,000 hands of either No Limit Hold’Em or Pot Limit Omaha must be played at stakes of at least $200/$400 and, most importantly, play must take place on four tables simultaneously. In addition to the winnings or losses from the poker itself, if the challenger is down at the end of the 50,000 hands he must give durrrr an addition $500,000. If, however, the challenger is ahead by even so little as a dollar, he will receive an additional $1,500,000 from Tom “durrrr” Dwan.
Speaking of the top live pros to have already accepted the challenge, durrrr commented, “I think all of them actually are better over-all poker players than me — by quite a bit; I happen to think in this one area, I might have a little edge — and we’ll see if I do.” Thus far the only challenger to have played any hands with durrrr is scandinavian pro Patrik Antonius, and indeed durrrr does seem to have the edge. Over the first twelve thousand hands it seemed fairly even, and Patrik Antonius pulled ahead for a time, but since then durrrr has shown himself to be unstoppable. As the players approach the 40,000 hand mark Antonius is down over $2 million, and it will be a struggle to reverse the situation and come out on top.
Little is known about the identity of durrrr’s latest challenger, jungleman12. Nobody is calling into question his poker prowess, however, as he regularly dominates online cash games playing stakes up to $300/$600 on Full Tilt Poker. He appears to be a jack of all trades, excelling at limit, no limit, omaha, texas holdem, ring games and tournaments alike, and so promises to be a very worthy opponent for durrrr, despite only having appeared part-way through last year.
It is unclear when the two will battle it out, but it could be much sooner than anticipated with durrrr being quoted as saying comfortably, “I can do two [challenges] at once”. Definitely keep an eye on Full Tilt Poker where the two internet poker greats will be squaring off, as this one promises to be a match full of excitement and intrigue- definitely not to be missed!