In January, 2009, Tom ‘durrrr’ Dwan offered a heads-up challenge to the world: “I’m making this heads-up challenge to the world. Anyone can accept. Four tables, minimum of $200/$400, and I’ll put up $1.5 million to their $500,000. We play 50,000 hands minimum and if they end up a dollar after rake they keep the side money or whatever. So basically, if you and I played and you won a dollar, you would get my $1.5 million and if I won a dollar I would win your $500,000. So I’m giving a million dollars free if anyone thinks they can do it.” Only his close friend Phil Galfond was excluded from the game.
The first to accept the challenge was Patrik Antonius: they started to play in February of the same year. At 39,436 hands, however, the session got stuck. ‘Durrrr’ had at the moment a $2,059,719 profit; while not officially confirmed, it has been rumoured that the challenge had been abandoned finally, Antonius buying himself out.
In early 2010, at the age of 21, Daniel ‘jungleman12’ Cates burst into the top circles of the online high stakes filed and finished the year with $5,503,296 in profits. His strongest game was NLHE, in which he won a total of $3,519,502 that year. He was the next one to undertake the Durrrr Challenge.
Cates and Dwan started to play in August, 2010 but have never made it beyond 19,335 hands. ‘Jungleman12’ gained a $1,251,059 edge and ‘durrrr’ was apparently unable to handle the young prodigy. As a result, Dwan started to keep postponing further hands and Black Friday as well as the revoking of the FTP licence put further obstacles in the way to continue.
Following the closure of FTP, it has been suggested to carry on at PokerStars or live but it was apparent that only ‘jungleman12’ was motivated to do so. ‘Durrrr’ kept finding excuses, including cash games in Macau, but promised to be available later.
In November, 2012, FTP was re-opened and Dwan became a team pro once again, showing increased activity in recent months at the online high stakes tables. Theoretically, not obstacles remained in the way for the two pros to resume the Challenge, with ‘durrrr’ basically having no acceptable excuse at hand. This was also noticed by Cates, who has recently tweeted the following:
“@TomDwan, would you like to continue our challenge instead of playing everybody else at every game on @FullTiltPoker ?”
The poker community reacted instantly and some sort of dialogue has developed since with ‘durrrr’ as well. There are, however, no specific details yet, even though it would be a huge loss of face for Dwan if he retreated.
The Durrrr Challenge 2 statistics so far:
Players: Tom ‘durrrr’ Dwan v. Daniel ‘jungleman12’ Cates
In the lead: Daniel ‘jungleman12’ Cates
Profit: $1,251,059.00
Hands played: 19,335
Hands left: 30,665
Start: August, 2010
The first to accept the challenge was Patrik Antonius: they started to play in February of the same year. At 39,436 hands, however, the session got stuck. ‘Durrrr’ had at the moment a $2,059,719 profit; while not officially confirmed, it has been rumoured that the challenge had been abandoned finally, Antonius buying himself out.
In early 2010, at the age of 21, Daniel ‘jungleman12’ Cates burst into the top circles of the online high stakes filed and finished the year with $5,503,296 in profits. His strongest game was NLHE, in which he won a total of $3,519,502 that year. He was the next one to undertake the Durrrr Challenge.
Cates and Dwan started to play in August, 2010 but have never made it beyond 19,335 hands. ‘Jungleman12’ gained a $1,251,059 edge and ‘durrrr’ was apparently unable to handle the young prodigy. As a result, Dwan started to keep postponing further hands and Black Friday as well as the revoking of the FTP licence put further obstacles in the way to continue.
Following the closure of FTP, it has been suggested to carry on at PokerStars or live but it was apparent that only ‘jungleman12’ was motivated to do so. ‘Durrrr’ kept finding excuses, including cash games in Macau, but promised to be available later.
In November, 2012, FTP was re-opened and Dwan became a team pro once again, showing increased activity in recent months at the online high stakes tables. Theoretically, not obstacles remained in the way for the two pros to resume the Challenge, with ‘durrrr’ basically having no acceptable excuse at hand. This was also noticed by Cates, who has recently tweeted the following:
“@TomDwan, would you like to continue our challenge instead of playing everybody else at every game on @FullTiltPoker ?”
The poker community reacted instantly and some sort of dialogue has developed since with ‘durrrr’ as well. There are, however, no specific details yet, even though it would be a huge loss of face for Dwan if he retreated.
The Durrrr Challenge 2 statistics so far:
Players: Tom ‘durrrr’ Dwan v. Daniel ‘jungleman12’ Cates
In the lead: Daniel ‘jungleman12’ Cates
Profit: $1,251,059.00
Hands played: 19,335
Hands left: 30,665
Start: August, 2010
