One of the best high-stakes players around, Tom “Durrrr” Dwan has issued an open-challenge to all high-stakes players. In a recent post Durrrr stated he will play anyone except fellow-pro Phil Galfond 50k hands of heads-up No-Limit Hold’em or Pot-Limit Omaha High at blinds $200/$400. This stipulations were players must four-table and that if Durrrr were to finish up $1 or more he wins an extra $500,000 while if his opponent were to finish up $1 or more he/she would take home an additional $1,500,000.
So far there have been reports of three players (Phil Ivey, David Benyamine, and Patrik Antonius) willing to accept the challenge. In a recent interview Ivey mentioned he felt Durrr has a distinct edge early in the matches until his opponent’s were able to adjust to multi-tabling. Running at least four tables means players will get in approximately 1,000 hands an hour.
Each of Durrr’s challengers have quite impressive resumes. Phil Ivey is one of the most dominant poker players in the world. He is widely considered the world’s best player and has earned nearly $8,000,000 playing online the past two years. He can also be seen playing $10,000+ buy-in tournaments and in huge cash games in Bobby’s Room in Las Vegas where limits reach $4,000/$8,000. Ivey is considered a great NLHE player and has been improving at PLO as of late. He did not mention in his interview which game he wishes to play against Durrrr.
Patrik Antonius started playing online poker and was immediately drawn to the game. He put in extremely long sessions and soon found himself playing nosebleed stakes both live and online. He is a Full Tilt Red Pro and can bee seen playing $200/$400 to $500/$1000 NLHE and PLO as well as $2000/$4000 HORSE games. Antonius made a similar challenge last year, calling out a lot of the high-stakes internet professionals to play him heads-up No-Limit. Unfortunately for Patrik most declined and he has been unable to prove his proficiency at the game.
The final challenger, David Benyamine, now plays as “MR B 2 u Son” on Full Tilt and Heads-Up PLO is considered his best game. Over the past two years he has made nearly $10,000,000 playing PLO on Full Tilt alone. He is not considered a great NLHE player therefore most assume he and Durrrr will be playing PLO in their matches.
Working out a little math, if a player were to win one buy-in ($40,000) every 1,000 hands he/she could make $2,000,000 during the bet plus the additional side money. It is very likely this will happen and perhaps one of these players might bust their entire roll in the process. Swings are huge in heads-up play, especially PLO. Ivey stated he would not be surprised if a player would lose their entire roll or have to quit the match somewhere in the middle of it.
Dates for the challenge have not been yet set, however, keep your eyes open on the Full Tilt $200/$400 limits in the near future.