Sep 1 2010

Durrr Challenge Shows Signs of an Upset

written by: James under News Comments: Comments Off

If you still haven’t heard of the “Durrr Challenge,” it is a challenge posted by Tom “durrr” Dwan to any player in the world – with exception to Phil Galfond (aka OMGClayAiken). In simple terms, the challenge is to play 50,000 hands against Dwan over a period of time – the hands do not need to be during the same session. After the 50,000th hand, the player that is ahead receives an additional cash prize. If Dwan is victorious, he receives an additional $500k. However, if the challenger is up even a single dollar, Dwan will pay them a cash prize of $1.5 million. The stakes of all play towards the prize must be a minimum of $200.00/$400.00 and the two players must multi-table with a minimum of four tables at a time. The type of game played can be either Omaha PL or Texas Holdem NL.

When this challenge was first introduced, it created a great deal of buzz about the poker player and the challengers – especially after the first challenger was announced.

When Patrick Antonius became the first player to take on “durrr” in his challenge, many railbirds speculated at the intense action that would commence – Antonius is the same online poker player that frequently runs up against “Isildur1″ in super high stakes play. However, the action quickly turned stale as Dwan took a commanding lead and sessions with the two were few and far between.

However, the most recent challenger, Daniel “jungleman12″ Cates is shaping up to be an exciting challenge – with the underdog Cates in a commanding lead over Dwan. In general, many spectators claim that the two players are an even match. However, Dwan was very quick to dismiss Cates at the commencement of the challenge as being – “cute” for thinking he had a chance. Still, by the end of the first 9 hours of the challenge (the first day of play) Cates had taken a strong lead over Dwan with a $500k edge. With the end of the first day, the two passed about the 10% mark in the challenge and are on their way to the 50,000 hands required for the challenge to end.

This past Monday, the two played once again and Cates was again able to pull ahead for a total lead over Dwan of $692k. As of Monday, they are only about 14% into the challenge. However, the challenge is already looking to be much more exciting than the Antonius challenge – especially if Dwan is able to make a comeback.

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