Posts Tagged ‘Tom Dwan’
Phil Ivey Finishes 2010 Atop ESPN The Nuts Rankings for December
We might all be putting our new 2011 calendars on the refrigerator, but let’s not put 2010 in our rearview mirror just yet. ESPN.com’s “The Nuts” poker player rankings for December 2010 were released on New Year’s Eve and showed that the more things change, the more they stay the same.
Before we get to the rankings, let’s quickly explain ESPN’s methodology. Unlike rankings by some poker sites, there is no mathematical formula used in “The Nuts.” Rather, it is a simple poll by a panel of ten members of the poker media, including our very own Dan Cypra. The panel attempts to rank the top ten poker players of the moment based on both tournament and cash game results, live and online. It is an inexact science, of course, but that is part of what makes it fun.
The voting panel includes ESPN.com’s poker crew of Andrew Feldman, Gary Wise, and Bernard Lee (who is also a Guest Columnist for Poker News Daily), Bluff Magazine Editor-in-Chief Lance Bradley and Senior Writer Jessica Welman, ESPNDeportes.com Poker Editor Nahuel Ponce, PokerRoad’s Court Harrington, PokerNews Editor-in-Chief Matthew Parvis and Tournament Reporter Don Peters, and Cypra.
Nine of the top ten players remained the same in December, although some of the order has changed. Phil Ivey remained in the top spot, a position that should really be renamed “Ivey’s Room.” He received eight first place votes from the ten-member panel. Jason Mercier received the other two first place votes, one coming from Cypra, cementing himself in the second position once again.
The two biggest jumps were by Tom Marchese and Vanessa Selbst, both of whom rose three spots. Marchese climbed from #6 to #3, while Selbst was elevated to the fifth spot from eighth. Marchese had an incredible 2010, his first year on the live tournament circuit. In live tournaments alone, he won over $2 million.
Marchese exploded onto the scene with a final table at the Borgata in January and followed that up with a win on the North American Poker Tour (NAPT) in February. He had three other big-time cashes last year, including final tables in the High Roller Event at the European Poker Tour (EPT) Grand Final, the $10,000 Pot Limit Hold’em Championship at the World Series of Poker (WSOP), and the championship event of the World Poker Tour‘s (WPT) World Poker Finals, all of which contributed to winning CardPlayer’s 2010 Player of the Year award.
Selbst, who won her first and only WSOP bracelet in 2008, had two huge wins in 2010. The first was in the Main Event of the NAPT Mohegan Sun in April for $750,000, while the second came in September in the Main Event of the Partouche Poker Tour in Cannes, France, where she won over $1.8 million.
The one new member of “The Nuts” was last month’s “Bubble Boy,” Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi. The 2010 Bluff Magazine Player of Year placed ninth at the WPT Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic en route to a $1.9 million year in live tournaments. With Mizzi’s rise into the top ten, Alexander Kostritsyn dropped out.
As an example of how fluid things can be in the poker world, half of the top ten at the end of 2010 was different than at the beginning of the year. Daniel Negreanu took the biggest tumble out of the rankings, as he occupied the second spot in January. The other four poker players – Bertrand “Elky” Grospellier, Daniel Alaei, Yevgeniy “Jovial Gent” Timoshenko, and Barry Greenstein – were ranked seven through ten. Patrik Antonius came close to falling out of the rankings, finishing the year at #10 after starting out at #3.
The entire list of the ESPN’s “The Nuts” is as follows:
1. Phil Ivey
2. Jason Mercier
3. Tom Marchese
4. Tom Dwan
5. Vanessa Selbst
6. John Juanda
7. Michael Mizrachi
8. Eric Baldwin
9. Sorel Mizzi
10. Patrik Antonius
“The Nuts” is published at the end of every month in the poker section of ESPN.com.
Tags: 2008, 2010, 2011, aced, Barry Greenstein, Daniel Negreanu, Doyle Brunson, european, Patrik Antonius, Phil Ivey, poker player, Tom Dwan, tournament, WSOP
The “durrrr Challenge”: Cates Extends Lead With $319K Winning Session
Tags: Tom Dwan
Poker After Dark’s 7th Season premiered yesterday - Who will win $600K?
Poker After Dark’s 7th Season started up on NBC yesterday. The new Season starts with a big bang when there’s a 6-handed $100K buy-in Freezeout - winner takes all.
The participants for this amazing Freezeout are Phil Ivey, Tom Dwan, Phil Galfond, Huck Seed, Erick Lindgren and John Juanda. The poker fans will get their sweet treat right away!
Watch the lates episode HERE.
What makes PAD interesting this season is that there will be PLO cash game week as well. You can check out theair dates here.
Source: Pokerista.net
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Poker After Dark’s 7th Season premiered yesterday - Who will win $600K?
Tom Dwan loses $320,000 to jungleman12 in durrrr challenge
Tom Dwan made huge losses in the “Durrrr Challenge” - Cates wins almost $320K
Tom Dwan’s good results against Daniel “jungleman12″ Cates were just flushed away. Dwan played 2,918 hands against Cates and managed to lost a bit over $319K.
Dwan is now down about $820,000 in the Challenge when there’s 17K hands left to play.
The Challenge is nowhere near its end and we’ll see if Dwan can turn it in his favor. If Cates wins, he keeps the wins and an additional 1,5 million dollars from the win.
You can read more information about the Challenge from the official site.
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Tom Dwan made huge losses in the “Durrrr Challenge” - Cates wins almost $320K
Top Online Poker Winners and Losers of 2010
Whether it was the durrrr Challenge II on Full Tilt or the new Isildur1 SuperStar Showdown on PokerStars there always seemed to be intriguing action of one kind or another on the go.
From the emergence of relative newcomer Dan “jungleman12” Cates to the continued success of established pros like Tom “durrrr” Dwan, Phil Ivey and Patrik Antonius there were numerous plotlines to the high stakes games this year.
We’ll start by celebrating the five biggest online poker success stories of 2010 before taking a hard look at the five biggest disappointments of the year.
Top 5 Biggest Winners of 2010
5. Di “Urindanger” Dang: $2.2 million
Although Di “Urindanger” Dang tends to fly under the radar when compared to some of his more illustrious colleagues he’s remarkably consistent.
Since he started playing the high stakes games on Full Tilt in 2007, Dang has never recorded a losing year. 2010 was no exception.
Dang did suffer through a few losing months in late spring but he came around in August and by December was up to $2.2 million.
Yet another good Christmas for the Dang household.
4. Phil Ivey: $3 million
Phil Ivey usually plays far less hands than his online opponents but he always manages to rank as one of the top five winners.
This year Ivey wasn’t particularly active until mid-April, when he went on a $2 million heater. After logging notable victories against Ashton “ASHMAN103” Griffin and Patrik Antonius, Ivey vacated the online tables from May to late August.
In August Ivey got right back to business and quickly peaked at $3.8 million in profit.
Although Ivey coasted for the rest of the year and didn’t play any huge sessions, he still finished with a very respectable $3 million.
3. Tom “durrrr” Dwan: $3.6 million
It was yet another strong year for the poker prodigy originally from Edison, New Jersey.
Once again Tom Dwan was king when it came to volume, playing a total of 296,725 hands in 2010.
The year got off to a rocking start for Dwan and by mid-spring he peaked at an astounding $6.6 million. Unfortunately for Dwan he would come back down to earth over the rest of the year.
Dwan’s biggest obstacle was Dan “jungleman12” Cates. Dwan simply couldn’t solve Cates and lost more than $600k so far in the durrrr Challenge II.
At any rate, Dwan fared far better this year compared to 2009 when he ran into a hot Isildur1 and lost millions.
2. Andreas “Skjervoy” Torbergsen: $3.7 million
Perhaps the biggest surprise of this list is a Norwegian by the name of Andreas Torbergsen.
Torbergsen, who plays with his hometown of Skjervoy as his handle, signed with CardRunners this summer and went on to become one of the biggest winners in the high stakes online games this year.
Torbergsen was essentially at $0 in August but by the end of December was up $3.7 million. It helped he won $1 million in a 24-hour period in September and recorded several $500k sessions.
It remains to be seen whether Torbergsen will remain a fixture of the high stakes online poker scene.
1. Dan “jungleman12” Cates: $5.5 million
What more can be said about Dan “jungleman12” Cate’s dominance this year?
Three years ago Cates was flipping burgers but in 2010 he was playing the biggest online games in the world and hardly ever losing.
Cates dominated Tom Dwan in the durrrr Challenge II but also found time to take on anyone else who wanted a piece. His graph reads looks like an escalator (going up, of course). He won hundreds of thousands playing PLO (which he’s still learning).
Although some members of the online community cried variance, Cates was a consistent winner for the entire year.
At any rate, Cates now finds himself in an elite group of year-end winners that includes Patrik Antonius ($8.9 million in 2009), Phil Ivey ($7.3 million in 2008) and Niki Jedlicka ($3.1 million in 2007).
To put it simply: 2010 belonged to Cates.
Top 5 Biggest Losers of 2010
5. Brian “sbrugby” Townsend: – $1.5 million
Brian Townsend had a fantastic 2009 winning $2.4 million to become one of the biggest winners of the year.
2010 wasn’t quite as kind to the former CardRunners instructor.
Although Townsend didn’t use the sbrugby account until summer (more on that later), he didn’t waste any time donating stacks of cash online.
From June to October, Townsend lost $1.6 million and never really recovered, opting to sit out the last couple months of 2010.
Check below for even more on Townsend’s disastrous 2010.
4. Gus Hansen: -$1.6 million
You’d think losing $1.6 million would make for a pretty bad year but it could have been a lot worse for Gus Hansen.
The Great Dane actually got off to a hot start in 2010 and was up $2.3 million after the first couple of months.
Like many high stakes pros, Hansen took a break from the tables during the WSOP but was still up nearly $1 million.
It was during late summer that problems started to arise for the Team Full Tilt member. From July to October, Hansen lost $4 million, the biggest downswing of the year.
Hansen would hit rock bottom in mid-October going down to -$3.6 million.
Fortunately for Hansen he was able to put a steady string of wins together to finish the year at only -$1.6 million. Not the worst year for the recent WSOP bracelet winner.
3. cadillac1944: -$1.8 million
cadillac1944 is the only player on our list who has yet to be identified.
The online account first appeared in late August and that’s about when the losing began.
cadillac1944 quickly dropped down to -$677k by September with big losses against Urindanger and DrugsOrMe.
By November cadillac1944 was down -$1.53 million and finally hit -$1.8 million in early December.
The cadillac1944 account became inactive in mid-December and it’s anyone’s guess as to whether we’ll ever see it in use again.
2. Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies: -$2 milliion
Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies, one of the original kings of swing, was up to his old tricks in 2010 with a “win a million, lose a million” mentality.
Sahamies started the year by winning $2 million in spring but then lost $2.6 million over the summer.
The fall looked promising for Ziigmund as he quickly swung his way up to $1.48 million in profit.
Unfortunately for Ziigmund October was a turning point and the Finnish pro went on what he has called the greatest downswing of his career.
Over the next few months Sahamies dropped down to -$2 million with victories few and far between.
2010 was easily Ziigmund’s worst year playing high stakes online poker.
1. Brian Townsend: -$2.5 million
Brian Townsend’s 2010 was so terrible that he made this list twice.
As bad as the game went for Townsend on his “sbrugby” account, it was far, far worse on his red pro “Brian Townsend” account.
Townsend was in bad shape from the very beginning as he quickly lost $300k in early January.
The losses just continued to escalate for Townsend and by May he was down $2.5 million.
It was then Townsend made the decision to leave CardRunners, ditch his red pro account and go back to being sbrugby on Full Tilt.
It didn’t seem to make a difference as Townsend lost another $1.5 million.
If you take both accounts into consideration, Townsend lost a grand total of $4 million this year.
No one suffered more than Townsend in 2010.Visit www.pokerlistings.com
Tags: 2008, 2009, 2010, Gus Hansen, high stakes, Online Poker, Patrik Antonius, Phil Ivey, pokerstars, Tom Dwan, usa, WSOP
Poker News in Brief: Dec. 27, 2010- Jan. 2, 2011
That meant a few of poker's smaller stories may have slipped through the cracks.
Fortunately, we caught them and compiled them in our weekly Poker News in Brief feature below.
This week, Poker After Dark returns, the World Cup captains are named, UB goes back to Montreal and more.
Poker After Dark Returns
The new season of POKER PROductions' Poker After Dark returns to NBC this week.
POKER PROductions inked an agreement with NBC Universal extending the late-night poker show through 2014 in 2010 and the seventh season, filmed at the new Aria Resort and Casino at the City Center complex in Las Vegas, begins airing Jan. 3.
This season will feature more cash games than ever before. Most will be no-limit hold'em, but two weeks will also be devoted to Pot-Limit Omaha with a lineup that should impress fans.
Names like Mike Matusow, Chris Ferguson, Michael Mizrachi, Phil Hellmuth, Antonio Esfandiari, Annette Obrestad, Eli Elezra, Phil Galfond, Phil Ivey, Tom Dwan, Patrik Antonius, and David Oppenheim will all appear this season.
There will only be three weeks following the traditional Freezout format this season, including this week's "Big Heat," a $100,000 buy-in event featuring John Juanda, Erick Lindgren, Huckleberry Seed, Ivey, Dwan, and Galfond.
Leeann Tweeden will once again serve as the show's host with Ali Nejad providing commentary.
Fifty50 Sit & Go's
PokerStars has launched a new online poker Sit & Go format called Fifty50.
Although the tournaments end when half of the entrants have been eliminated, Fifty50's differ from the Double or Nothing format in that half of the prize pool gets split between the winning players equally and the other half is awarded based on chip counts.
Fifty50 events are currently running at the $10 level, but will soon be available at many different stakes.
World Cup of Poker Captains Named
The identities of the team captains for the seventh annual World Cup of Poker have been announced.
Last year, Chinese Taipei took the title. This year it will be Argentina, the Philippines, the United Kingdom, Spain, Slovakia, Italy, France, Ukraine and the United States battling it out for a $100,000 first prize at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure.
Slovakia’s team will be led by Team PokerStars Pro’s newest member Dag Palovic. EPT San Remo winner Liv Boeree will lead the UK team while Argentina’s captain is back-to-back LAPT champ Nacho Barbero.
2009 APT champion Neil Arce will lead the team from the Philippines while the Spain squad will be headed up by Team PokerStars Pro Juan Manuel Pastor.
Luca Pagano leads Italy and Arnaud Mattern will captain the team from France.
And Finally, Vanessa Selbst will lead the USA while EPT Kiev runner-up Alexander Dovzhenko captains the Ukrainian side.
The action gets underway in the Bahamas Jan 14.
UB Returns to Poker Pro Canada Classic
For the second straight year, UB will be sending over twenty players to compete in the running of Montreal's biggest poker event, the Poker Pro Canada Classic.
The $1500+150 buy-in No Limit Hold 'em event runs Jan. 27-30, 2011 at the Four Aces Poker Club.
UB is running a series of super satellites and freerolls Jan. 2-16 giving players a chance to win a $2500 prize package that includes a seat plus $850 for travel expenses.
300-plus players and prize pool of $500,000 is expected in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Visit www.pokerlistings.com
Tags: 2009, 2010, 2011, Canada, freeroll, no-limit, Online Poker, Patrik Antonius, Phil Hellmuth, Phil Ivey, poker show, pokerstars, spain, Tom Dwan, tournament, usa, vegas
Delay for Durrrr Challenge?
Top Ten Stories of 2010: #6, Dwan Almost Bankrupts Poker’s Elite
2011 World Series of Poker Begins May 31st
According to a press release sent on Wednesday afternoon, the 2011 World Series of Poker (WSOP) will begin on May 31st, one day after the Memorial Day holiday in the United States, and run for 50 days. The final table of the Main Event will be determined on July 19th, at which point the $10,000 buy-in tournament will once again be paused until November.
Despite constant rumors to the contrary, the 2011 WSOP will be held at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. If you don’t believe me, I’ll go ahead and quote the press release for you: “The event, as has been its norm since 2005, will continue to be held in the Convention Center of the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.” Caesars Entertainment has been rumored to be shopping the Rio, located on Flamingo Boulevard off the famed Las Vegas Strip, but so far no deals have come to fruition.
The only tournament whose dates were laid out this week was the Main Event, which will begin on July 7th and include four starting days. In 2010, Jonathan Duhamel became its first Canadian Main Event champ ever after defeating John Racener heads-up. Three-handed, Duhamel was gifted 80% of the chips in play after Joseph Cheong 6bet all-in before the flop with A-7 when Duhamel held pocket queens. The pocket pair held, Duhamel doubled up, and Cheong was ousted several hands later.
The dates for the preliminary events have not yet been announced, but a full schedule will likely come to life in January. The 2010 version played out at the Rio between May 28th and July 17th, with heads-up play in the Main Event beginning on November 8th. The slate contained 57 tournaments including an all-new $50,000 Poker Player’s Championship won by Full Tilt Poker pro Michael Mizrachi.
Other 2010 bracelet winners included British pro Praz Bansi, Men “The Master” Nguyen, Tex Barch, Dutch Boyd, Gavin Smith, WSOP Player of the Year Frank Kassela, and Phil Ivey, who collected bracelet number eight. Ivey took down a $3,000 buy-in HORSE event for $329,000, outlasting a final table that included math whiz Bill Chen, John Juanda, Jeffrey Lisandro, David Baker, and PokerStars pro Chad Brown.
One of the highlights from last year for Poker News Daily was following the high-stakes bracelet bets of Tom Dwan, who nearly won a $1,500 No Limit Hold’em tournament, but fell heads-up to Australian Simon Watt. Dwan reportedly had millions of dollars in bracelet bets on the line, but ultimately came up short. Consequently, Mike Matusow told Watt following his win, “Thank you for saving us all millions of dollars! How does it feel to be every high-stakes gambler’s hero? They’re gonna, like, put you on the wall in Bobby’s Room.” Dwan took home $381,000.
In an important change from 2010, the 2011 WSOP will feature “hard stop times.” After 10 levels of play on any given day, the action will automatically come to a halt. The same WSOP press release explained that the number of players remaining in the tournament when 10 levels were completed was irrelevant: “Once 10 levels have been completed, remaining players will have their chips bagged and tagged and return the next day to continue on in the tournament. Regardless of how many players remain in a tournament, hard stop times will be enforced after 10 levels of play.”
We’ll have the latest WSOP headlines for you right here on Poker News Daily.
Tags: 2010, 2011, Australia, canadian, full tilt poker, gamble, Phil Ivey, poker player, pokerstars, Tom Dwan, tournament, vegas, WSOP
Video Vault: Tom “Durrrr” Dwan
Tags: Tom Dwan
Tom Dwan Wins $63,000 in Durrrr Challenge, Dan Cates Up $500,000
It’s been a busy week in the Durrrr Challenge. Shortly after Poker News Daily published an article recapping Wednesday’s encounter on the felts, Tom “durrrr” Dwan and Dan “JungleMan12” Cates began playing in earnest once again, this time logging another 1,214 hands.
The session featured wild swings, with Dwan at one point cutting the overall challenge deficit to just $200,000. However, Cates rebounded down the stretch in part by scooping a $210,000 pot and Dwan ended up profiting $63,000. Now, Cates leads by $500,000 in the second installment of the Durrrr Challenge and 14,190 hands have been played. Fourteen sessions have been held since the Challenge began covering a little over 24 hours of real time.
You didn’t think we’d mention that there was a $210,000 pot and then not talk about it, did you? Dwan raised before the flop to $1,200 and Cates came over the top to $5,200. Dwan wasn’t content to call and instead raised to $14,500. Cates obliged and the flop came 9-3-6 with two spades. Cates check-called a bet of $17,800 from Dwan and the turn brought the five of diamonds.
Cates checked when the five hit and Dwan shoved his $166,000 stack into the middle. Cates, sitting on $72,000, called all-in and flipped up 8-7 for the nuts. Dwan showed 9-5 for two pair and, as has become customary, the river was run twice. A four and a deuce secured both halves of the pot for Cates.
The second largest hand of the session clocked in at $189,000. In it, Cates raised to $800 before the flop and Dwan 3bet to $2,400. Cates 4bet to $7,200 and Dwan called to see a flop of 5-9-4. Dwan checked, Cates led out for $7,200, and Dwan called, bringing a six on the turn.
The action slowed down, as both players checked, and the river was an ace. Dwan checked, Cates fired out $23,600 in chips, and Dwan shoved over the top for $80,000. Cates called and Dwan tabled pocket fours for a set. His challenger promptly mucked and Dwan scooped the second largest pot of the two-hour afternoon session.
Thursday’s battle resulted in five of the 10 largest pots in the Challenge, including three that lapped $150,000. Amazingly, Cates has taken down all but three of the top 10 largest pots overall and five of the top seven. Cates has also been dominant in the number of hands won, scooping 8,265 of the 14,190 played so far, or 58%. Meanwhile, Dwan has won 5,826 pots, or 42%. Dwan and Cates have bet over $92 million total at the $200/$400 No Limit Hold’em tables on Full Tilt Poker.
Also during the Challenge, Dwan commented via Twitter that he was tilted beyond belief and his frustrations took him two Tweets to convey: “Just had one of the most tilting hands of my life happen. Was playing JungleMan in the Challenge and my internet cut out, so I checked behind… the nuts in a spot where he would’ve 100% called with two pair for $34,683 more. Sooooooooooo tilted.” Cates did not post on Twitter during Thursday’s session.
The Cates versus Dwan Durrrr Challenge began in August amid much fanfare, with many believing that the duo could complete the requisite 50,000 hands by the start of the 2010 World Series of Poker in September. However, that did not come to fruition. An abundance of traveling and nosebleed live cash games in Europe and Asia appear to be partly to blame.
Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest from the Durrrr Challenge.
durrrr Challenge 2: Dwan Strikes Again
Dwan and Cates hit the $200/$400 No-Limit Hold’em tables last night and burned through 1,214 hands in a couple hours.
It was a wild session that saw numerous pots over $100k get thrown back and forth and at one point Dwan was ahead by $354k, dangerously close to getting even in the overall challenge.
Fortunately for jungleman12 he mounted a serious comeback and won the biggest pot of the session when he turned a straight against Dwan’s turned two-pair. Cates got his chips in the middle and ended up winning the $210k monster pot.
Near the end of the session Dwan’s internet cut out in a hand where he held the nut-flush against jungleman12’s two-pair.
Dwan was forced to check it down and felt that he missed a major opportunity causing some fireworks between the two opponents in the chatbox. Initially durrrr lamented his bad fortune, then this happened:
“jungleman12: i thought it was pretty cool” “durrrr: nice douchebag comment ty” “jungleman12: joking obv” “durrrr: pretty off timing” “durrrr: to joke”
When the session finally ended Dwan found himself up $63,362, which helps alleviate his losses in the overall challenge to $503k.
Other than the durrrr Challenge 2 it was a slow night for high stakes online action. ShutTheClubDown was the night’s biggest winner taking down $119k. IReadYrSoul won $31k and Gus Hansen took down $18k putting them in the top five.
ORLOVSKIY was the biggest loser dropping $76k. luckexpress10 (-$43k), O Fortuna PLS (-$31k) and Ziigmund (-$23k) were also in the losing column.
Below are a couple interesting hands from the latest durrrr Challenge 2 session. For more information check our online poker stats section.
durrrr Challenge 2 by the numbers:
92,531,724: Total amount wagered 9,800,000: Times “Poker Face” by Lady Gaga has been purchased online 500,783: Amount jungleman12 is ahead 14,190: Hands played 24: Hours recorded 14: Sessions played 1: Times durrrr has checked down a nut-flush
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Durrrr Challenge Rolls On, Tom Dwan Cuts into Lead
On Wednesday morning, the poker world awoke to play in the ongoing Tom Dwan Million Dollar Challenge. The second incarnation of the “Durrrr Challenge” features Dwan battling against Dan “JungleMan12” Cates in 50,000 hands of No Limit Hold’em. On Wednesday, Cates cut into Dwan’s lead. Now, Cates is up by $564,000 after 12,976 hands. Visit our sister site, DurrrrChallenge.com, for a full recap.
Wednesday saw over 1,400 hands played in the early morning hours. When the smoke cleared, Dwan raked in about $9,000 in profit, leaving Cates with a $564,400 lead with the challenge one-quarter of the way through. Dwan and Cates have bet an amazing $82 million over the course of the first 13,000 hands and played 13 sessions totaling 22 hours of real time.
In one of the largest pots of the most recent session, Dwan raised to $1,200 pre-flop and Cates 3bet to $3,600. Dwan called and the flop came 2-9-4 with two hearts. Despite the seemingly benign flop, fireworks went off, as Cates led out for $3,600 and Dwan pushed all-in over the top for $26,000. Cates called and tabled pocket queens for an overpair, while Dwan showed 10-5 of hearts for a flush draw.
The turn and river were dealt twice. The first board included the nine of spades on the turn and ace of diamonds on the river, giving $30,000, or half of the pot, to Cates. The ace of clubs and 10 of clubs fell on the second board and Cates scooped the entire $60,000 pot after no heart came to the rescue.
In another hand, Cates raised to $800 pre-flop and Dwan pushed the action to $2,400. Cates called and the flop came 10-3-9 with two hearts. Dwan fired out a bet of $3,200 and Cates came along to see a black nine on the turn. Dwan bet out $8,600 and Cates called time to decide his action. The challenger ultimately called and the river brought the three of diamonds.
Dwan checked and Cates wisely checked behind. Dwan, who had tried to slow-play his hand on the river, showed pocket nines for quads, while Cates mucked. The pot was worth $28,000 and helped Dwan continue to cut into Cates’ early lead in the second running of the Million Dollar Challenge.
Dwan has come out on top in the last two Durrrr Challenge sessions. In the action on December 8th, Dwan pulled down $172,000 in profit, giving him nearly $200,000 for the last two sessions combined. Dwan had jumped out to the early lead in the Durrrr Challenge, but lost it by the 2,000th hand. Since then, Cates has been on a tear and was at one point up by over $800,000.
Six days ago, Cates was seemingly on a roll, chirping to his followers on Twitter, “I may or may not have revolutionized poker today – I quadruple range merged. More forthcoming.” Then, on December 14th, he admitted, “Played all night, some vs Patrik Antonius, and ended up losing. Not happy with how I played.” Dwan, meanwhile, reported that nourishment may have been the cause of his hot run in Wednesday’s Durrrr Challenge session: “Just had some tasty duck, now gonna play JungleMan in 30min or so.”
Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest from the Tom Dwan Million Dollar Challenge.
Tom Dwan wins small vs. Daniel Cates in the durrrr challenge
Tags: Tom Dwan
Howard Lederer Busts on Poker After Dark: Charity in Mind
This week, players with a love for charity are being featured on the NBC series “Poker After Dark.” Dubbed “Charity in Mind,” the six-man sit and go’s opening session on Monday featured plenty of discussion centered on fundraising. The table was stacked with 10 World Series of Poker bracelets and each player was given 20,000 in chips.
Full Tilt Poker pro Howard Lederer was the first casualty of the week. Jennifer Harman raised to 500 before the flop with A-4 of spades and Lederer 3bet to 1,800 with A-K, including the king of clubs. Former MIT Blackjack Team member Andy Bloch made it 5,600 with pocket kings and Harman got out of the way.
Lederer tanked before moving all-in and Bloch thought for about three minutes before making the call with cowboys. The table was surprised that it had taken Bloch that long to call with the premium pocket pair and the flop came 4-4-8 with two clubs, no help to Lederer. A third club on the turn gave “The Professor” a flush draw, but a red five on the river sealed his exit from the $20,000 buy-in sit and go.
Bloch continued to roll. After Harman raised before the flop to 850 with J-5 of clubs, Bloch came along with 7-6 and the flop and came 7-Q-9. Harman led out for 1,250 with air and Bloch called with a pair of sevens to see a deuce on the turn. Both players knocked the table and the river was a nine. Once again, the action went check-check and Bloch scooped the 4,200-chip pot. He was at 45,000, or more than double the starting stack.
Harman bleeding chips was a theme throughout Monday’s kickoff episode. She raised to 800 with pocket tens and Chris Ferguson made the call with pocket aces. The flop came A-2-4, giving Ferguson top set, and “Jesus” checked. Harman put in a continuation bet of 1,100 and Ferguson obliged. Both players checked a deuce on the turn and the river was a 10. Ferguson once again checked, Harman bet 2,600 with a boat, and Ferguson check-raised to a healthy 7,000 with a higher full house. Harman made the call, shipping the pot worth 17,950 to Ferguson in a cooler.
In the last major pot of the night, UB.com pro Annie Duke, whose main charitable work involves Ante Up for Africa, raised to 1,050 before the flop with A-3 and Ferguson made the call with A-Q. The action flop came A-A-7, giving both players trips, but Ferguson held the lead with a queen kicker. Ferguson checked, Duke bet 1,325, and Ferguson came over the top to 3,500. Duke called and the turn was a jack.
Ferguson led out for 6,000 when the hook hit and Duke came along to a three on the river, giving Duke a full house. Now behind in the hand after the three-outer, Ferguson bet 10,575 and Duke called all-in for her “Poker After Dark” tournament life. She raked in a pot worth over 42,000 and the credits rolled for the night. Also at the table, but quiet during Monday’s episode, was Phil Gordon.
“Charity in Mind” marks the final new “Poker After Dark” week of 2010. Catch one-hour episodes all this week at 2:05am ET on NBC. Leeann Tweeden serves as the host of the poker franchise, while Ali Nejad provides commentary.
In the new year, John Juanda, Erick Lindgren, Phil Galfond, Huck Seed, Tom Dwan, and Phil Ivey will participate in a week-long $100,000 sit and go starting on January 3rd. Check your local listings for more information.
December 19th – Weekly Update
Welcome back to the Poker News Daily Weekly update where we highlight the biggest stories in the world of poker. I’m your host, Sean Gibson, and let’s get to the news.
Well, It’s shaping up to be an interesting last few days of the current Congressional session for members of the online poker community. On Tuesday, Politico published an article revealing that U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid was attempting to add a bill legalizing online poker to the measure extending tax cuts.
Politico confirmed Reid’s desires with Senator Orrin Hatch. Senator Jon Kyl, one of the masterminds of the original UIGEA, would not allow the plan to come to fruition. Kyl told Politico,
“[There is] zero chance – no chance whatsoever that would be part of the tax deal. I don’t think it would be the right thing to do.”
We’ll keep you posted on this constantly changing story.
Nearly leading the tournament wire-to-wire, Antonio Esfandiari took down the Five Diamond World Poker Classic, a stop on the World Poker Tour. Esfandiari, a Victory Poker pro, banked eight hundred seventy thousand dollars for his efforts. The tournament can be seen as part of Season Nine of the WPT on Fox Sports Net next year.
Esfandiari edged out fellow Victory Poker pro Andrew Robl heads-up when “The Magician’s” King Jack held against Robl’s Queen Ten on the final hand. Here’s how the final group of six cashed out in the ten thousand dollar buy-in tournament:
1. Antonio Esfandiari – $870,124
2. Andrew “good2cu” Robl – $549,003
3. Vanessa Rousso – $358,964
4. John Racener – $232,271
5. Kirk Morrison – $168,924
6. Ted Lawson – $126,693
Earlier this week, PokerStars took the unexpected step of signing Isildur1. The Swede gained fame by multi-tabling against the world’s best players including Phil Ivey, Patrik Antonius, and Tom Dwan. The signing is atypical for PokerStars, which usually aims to ink established pros who have had a ton of television face time. This time around, they’ve gone with a player without an identity who has yet to play on TV.
As part of his sponsorship deal, Isildur1 will be taking part in high-stakes heads-up SuperStar Showdown matches exclusively played at PokerStars. These matches are feature a format of twenty five hundred hands at stakes no lower than fifty, one hundred. The official word from PokerStars is that these SuperStar Showdown matches will be played either as No Limit Hold’em or Pot Limit Omaha.
Poker News Daily polled the online poker industry to see what reaction several pros had to Isildur1’s signing. CardRunners founder Taylor Caby had this to say:
“I’m definitely excited to see Isildur1 back in the spotlight. As a poker fan, I’ve enjoyed watching him play and I’ll be on the rail when he starts playing again.”
Jay Rosenkrantz, founder of DeucesCracked said:
“Seems like a good move for PokerStars, creating a bit of a distraction too amidst all these legislative happenings. Watching Isildur1 play nosebleeds was better entertainment than anything on television and if they can create that kind of spectacle again, I’m sure it will be a good thing for their business and for poker.”
Unleashed Poker is handing out presents to all of its players this holiday season. Players on the site will have the opportunity to earn numerous prizes as part of Unleashed Poker’s Christmas Giveaways. From now until December Twenty-First, players can pick up exclusive Unleashed Poker swag along with high-end electronics. For those partial to Apple products, iPod Shuffles, iPod Touches, and iPads will be given away.
Players on the virtual felts at Unleashed Poker will earn Frequent Player Points, which can be used for the Christmas Giveaway prizes. Unleashed Poker will give out one FPP for each dollar raked at the tables and every prize has an associated FPP level. Unleashed Poker makes its home on the USA-friendly Cake Poker Network.
Actress Cheryl Hines of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and former World Series of Poker Main Event champ Joe Cada will host the third annual All In For Cerebral Palsy celebrity charity poker tournament at the Venetian’s poker room on Saturday. Proceeds from the event will benefit the One Step Closer Foundation, a non-profit organization whose main goal is to ease the lives of those who suffer from cerebral palsy through financial freedom and social acceptance.
The No Limit Hold’em charity tournament will have a five hundred forty dollar buy-in with unlimited two hundred dollar rebuys for ninety minutes. Half of the prize pool will go for the tournament’s payouts, with the other half going to the foundation. There will also be sports and Hollywood memorabilia available through auctions and an after-party with free drinks courtesy of the One Step Closer Foundation. Players can register at the Venetian Poker Room cage until the end of the rebuy period.
Finally, Full Tilt Poker released a software update on Monday that addressed many of its customers’ requests. Among the new features to the software were an “Auto Add-On” button for rebuys and a “Quick Fold to Any Bet” option for Rush Poker players.
The “Auto Add-On” button was probably the most asked-for feature that Full Tilt’s software was missing up until this latest upgrade. After PokerStars inserted a clickable “Auto Add-On” box for its rebuy tournaments in June of last year, Full Tilt players requested the same. It took well over a year, but the site came through for its multi-tablers who were frustrated about forgetting to add on after the rebuy hour. Full Tilt happily accepts players from the United States.
Well, that does it for a very busy and exciting week in the world of poker. Be sure to stay tuned in to Poker News Daily for the absolute latest in poker news and be sure to follow us at twitter dot com slash poker news daily. I’m Sean Gibson, thanking you for watching and wishing you a sick run this weekend at the tables!
Tom Dwan Cuts Dan Cates’ Lead to $582,000 in Durrrr Challenge
Tom “durrrr” Dwan and Dan “jungleman12” Cates put in a long session on Wednesday, as the two high-stakes stars logged more than 1,400 hands of $200/$400 No Limit Hold’em, moving them past 11,000 hands of the 50,000-hand Durrrr Challenge. Dwan, who entered the day down $755,000 through about 10,000 hands, managed to cut his opponent’s lead by $172,000 despite losing the five biggest pots of the session.
The largest pot of the day went to Cates, who dealt a $169,000 cooler to Dwan early Wednesday morning. With Cates playing a stack of nearly $85,000 and Dwan having him covered, Dwan raised to $1,200 pre-flop and Cates called to see a flop of Ks-8s-5c. Cates checked and Dwan fired a bet of $2,000. Cates check-raised to $7,000 and Dwan put in a 3bet to $19,600. Cates raised again, this time to $42,200, and Dwan moved all-in. Cates called off his remaining stack and tabled 8c-8h for middle set, with Dwan drawing thin with Kh-5h for two pair. The duo decided to run the turn and river twice, and Cates won both to scoop the enormous pot.
Cates won another massive pot worth $124,778 by hitting a four-outer on the river. Cates min-raised pre-flop to $800 and Dwan called to see a flop of Ad-6s-2h. Dwan checked, Cates made a continuation bet of $1,200, and Dwan check-raised to $4,400. Cates took some time before deciding to call. The turn brought the Jh and Dwan slowed down by check-calling a bet of $7,400. The 5c landed on the river and the chips went flying. Dwan checked, Cates bet $21,000, Dwan moved all-in, and Cates quickly called. Dwan’s Ah-5h (two pair) came up short, as Cates revealed 4d-3c for a rivered straight.
Dwan’s biggest win came later on in the match and certainly helped him maintain momentum. Dwan had the button and raised to $1,200 pre-flop. Cates 3bet to $4,400 and Dwan called. On the 7s-7c-2s flop, Cates led out for $4,400 and Dwan raised to $11,900. Cates moved all-in, having Dwan covered, and Dwan called off his remaining $35,500 with Ts-Th; he was in great shape against the 9h-9s of Cates. They decided to run it twice, with the first board filling out 3s-8c to lock up half the pot for Dwan. The second board came 7d-Jc to give Dwan the entire $103,600 pot.
Dwan finished the day up $172,000, surely a relief considering he hadn’t booked a big win against Cates in months. The session ended with Dwan typing the following in the chat box:
durrrr: “foods”
durrrr: “might shower after”
durrrr: “but still shouldn’t b too long”
jungleman12: “good bye”
Dwan and Cates have played nearly 20 hours over the course of 11 sessions, with Cates currently leading by $582,788. Meanwhile, Dwan’s first Durrrr Challenge against Patrik Antonius is at a standstill, with Dwan leading by more than $2 million through 39,000 hands. Dwan and Antonius haven’t played since August 3rd.
With no set schedule in place, Dwan and Cates could fire up another session at any point, so stay tuned to Poker News Daily and our sister site, DurrrrChallenge.com, for the latest updates.
Tom Dwan pulls back $180,000 from jungleman12
Tags: Tom Dwan
Isildur1 Wins $287k on PokerStars
The new Team PokerStars Pro, who is rumored to be Viktor Blom, played a marathon 14-hour session of $25/$50 where he took on all takers.
Among Isildur1’s opponents were Ashton “theASHMAN103” Griffin, Scott “urnotindangr” Palmer, Brian “$tinger 88” Hastings making the game very reminiscent of nosebleed Full Tilt tables.
The virtual rail was buzzing with Isildur1 fans and the stage certainly seems to be set for the first of Isildur1’s 2,500 hand SuperStar Challenges, which will begin on Dec. 19.
Meanwhile on Full Tilt, Di “Urindanger” Dang took advantage of a relatively slow day by winning $180k in the $300/$600 PLO Six-Max games.
Tom Dwan was right behind Dang, winning $174k in 1,579 hands. Although Dan “jungleman12” Cates was also online yesterday, the pair did not resume the durrrr Challenge 2 and Cates lost $211k in 1,479 hands.
The other big winner of the evening on Full Tilt was URnotINdanger2 who won $97k.
It appears Gus Hansen will have to wait another day before dipping below the $1 million loss mark as he lost $282k last night.
Also in the losing column were luckexpress10 (-$211k), tuff_fish (-$63k), Nick Shulman (-$49k) and Sauce1234 (-$31k).
For more information about last night’s action check our online poker stats section.
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durrrr Challenge 2: Dwan Strikes for $172k
Dwan and Dan “jungleman12” Cates seem to have a recently developed an interest in playing more and last night they logged on and played $200/$400 No-Limit Hold’em for 1,440 hands.
There were technically two sessions played and Dwan absolutely crushed the first one for $195k.
Cates made a small comeback in the second session and posted a small win of $23,736k meaning Dwan finished his day with a $172k victory.
It was the first victory for Dwan in the durrrr Challenge 2 in months and it helped alleviate his overall losses to $585k.
jungleman12 appeared to be losing his cool with Dwan after the Team Full Tilt pro took a series of breaks near the end of the session.
Cates quit completely after this transpired in the chatbox:
“durrrr: foods” “durrrr: might shower after” “durrrr: but still shouldn’t b too long” “jungleman12: good bye” “durrrr: huh”
It was an all-around good day for Tom Dwan who also won $357k in the PLO games to finish up a total of $462k on the day. That puts Dwan on $3.4 million in 2010. Good enough to make him the third biggest winner this year.
Unfortunately for Dwan, the player in second place is skjervoy with $3.8 million. skjervoy a big winner last night pulling in $311k.
Gus Hansen also had a very strong night winning $196k. Hansen is once again within striking distance of dipping below the $1 million loss mark.
The biggest losers last night included cadillac1944 who dropped $529k, URnotINdanger2 who lost $342k and KobeYard85 who donated $275k.
Check below for a look at a few interesting hands from the durrrr Challenge 2 session last night or check our online poker stats section for more information.
durrrr Challenge 2 by the numbers:
70,645,640: Total amount wagered 17,200,000: Cost of a loaded 2010 LearJet 85 582,788: Amount jungleman12 is ahead 169,590: Biggest pot raked last night 38,431: Hands remaining 19: Hours logged 11: Sessions played 1: Times jungleman12 asked how long Dwan would be on break in “real minutes not durrrr minutes.”
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durrrr Challenge 2: jungleman12 adds $110k
This time around Cates was able to rake $110k from the Team Full Tilt pro in 346 hands of $200/$400 No-Limit Hold’em.
Dwan had been slowly clawing his way out of the hole with several small victories but last night’s session essentially erased all his work.
Cates had the fortune of pulling in two pots worth over $50k each, which helped tip the scales in his favor.
The entire session took less than an hour and Dwan implied that he had been playing for over 15 hours when he finally called it a night.
In other high stakes online news last night, Gus Hansen managed to put in an impressive performance winning $172k in the $300/$600 Six-Max PLO games. Despite some positive steps over the last few weeks, Hansen is still down $1.4 million on the year.
FinnishNightmre (+$115k), luckexpress10 (+$71k), ronnyr37617 (+$67k) were also amongst the biggest winners last night.
Meanwhile gamblegambel (-$229k), DrugsOrMe (-$137k), OMGClayAiken (-$75k), Sauce1234 (-$71k) and David Benefield (-$54k) were all in the losing column.
Check below for some of the best hands between durrrr and jungleman12 last night or check our online poker stats section for more information.
durrrr Challenge 2 by the numbers:
60,288,086: Total amount wagered 60,000,000: Cost of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s new chateau in France 755,612: Amount jungleman12 is ahead 10,129: Hands played 6,161: Hands jungleman12 has won 16: Hours logged 9: Sessions recorded 4: Months since the challenge started 1: $1.5 million bonus for jungleman12 if he finishes ahead of Tom Dwan
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High-Stakes Phenom Isildur1 Signs With PokerStars
The online high-stakes star, who took the poker world by storm last fall playing seven of the ten largest pots in online poker history with the likes of Phil Ivey, Tom Dwan and Patrik Antonius, including the first two worth over one million dollars, is now a Team PokerStars Pro.
While widely rumored to be Viktor Blom, he has still yet to publicly reveal his identity. PokerStars now says he will do so in the very near future.
“I chose to join PokerStars because it's the biggest site and it will be an exciting challenge," Isildur1 said. "It means a great deal to be playing in a team alongside players such as Daniel Negreanu, Dario Minieri and Johnny Lodden.
“My goals now are to improve my live game for some upcoming events, continue to focus on Heads-Up No-Limit Hold’em, but also try to develop my Pot-Limit Omaha game.”
In an attempt to prove he is the top heads-up cash game player on the planet, Isildur1 will be playing a series of high stakes heads-up matches on PokerStars.
The SuperStar Showdown format consists of a single session of 2,500 hands at no lower than $50/$100.
The first match will begin at 6 p.m. ET Dec. 19 with the opponent to be named in the coming days.
"It’s not every day that a player like Isildur1 comes along," said fellow Team PokerStars Pro Daniel Negreanu. "If you look up the definition of the term ‘phenom’ you'll see a picture of his face.
"When he is playing, the poker world takes notice. Hate to overuse the poker term ‘sick’ but Isildur’s No-Limit Hold'em game is just that – sick!
"Few people step up to the plate against him, but the ones who have, universally have respect for his raw talent.”
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Urindanger Puts on $300k Clinic
It took the older Dang brother only 91 hands to ship his six-figure paycheck. The majority of his winnings came from cadillac1944 in heads-up $500/$1,000 PLO.
Dang, who sometimes receives criticism for tight play and nitty table selection, has developed a reputation for consistency and this year is no exception. He’s currently up $1.4 million in 2010.
Dang has yet to record a losing year on Full Tilt.
Meanwhile cadillac1944 has been an absolute maniac this week winning over $800k from Tom Dwan, then losing close to a million the next day then winning a small amount the day after that.
As it stands now cadillac1944 is down $1.1 million and will need a big push to get even by the end of the year.
The second big session of the night included Patrik Antonius and Scott “URnotINdanger2” Palmer going at it in $500/$1,000 No-Limit Hold’em.
Antonius has been hot lately but it was URnotINdanger2 got the best of him in the session winning just over $280k.
Other big winners of the night included LokoisBack with $163k, skjervoy with $124k and Gus Hansen with $95k.
In the losing column were Phil Ivey (-$112k), harrington25 (-$103k) and Ingenious89 (-$52k).
For more information on the games check out our online poker stats section.
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Tom Dwan headed back to Macau?
According to some rumors, Tom Dwan has flewn back to Macau and is going to continue their epic nosebleed games with some Chinese businessmen.
2+2 user “asianpokerfacts” wrote a brief report for the 2+2 fans that Dwan has arrived to Macau. “Asianpokerfact” seems like a reliable source as he lives in Macau and looks like he personally knows Matt Savage and Tom Hall (who were the major source for information last time the games were on in Macau).
“Asianpokerfacts’s” messages have been added to the “Nosebleed Cash Games in Macau (Cliff Notes Version)” thread, where only the 2+2 forum moderators can write.
Well, we’ll hear about the games sooner or later. At the moment Dwan is waiting for some play company on Full Tilt Poker. He is sitting at a few $500/$1000 PLO heads up tables and is probably waiting “cadillac1944″ to arrive.
Source: Pokerista.net, 2+2
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IHateJuice Beats Ivey, Antonius for $255k
The still unidentified online player took on Full Tilt icons Phil Ivey and Patrik Antonius at heads-up $2,000/$4,000 Limit Hold’em last night and came out on top in both matches.
IHateJuice played 381 hands against Antonius and raked $142k from the Finn and then added 117 hands against Ivey where he won $111k.
After beating Ivey IHateJuice really got the railbirds buzzing with this statement in the chatbox:
“IHateJuice: btw... can u do me a favor and ask FTP for 3k6k tables?” “Phil Ivey: u wanna break me faster?”
IHateJuice went on to say that he thought Antonius wanted to play higher, upon which Ivey mentioned he’d like to see them play $5k/$10k. The pair eventually logged off without settling anything but there's a chance there will be some higher states Limit tables on Full Tilt in the next few days.
Other big winners from last night included Arbianight who took down $183k, DrugsOrMe who picked up $139k and recent upstart ronnyr37617 who won $75k.
Meanwhile Antonius was technically the biggest loser going $229k into the red.
cadillac1944, who had that massive win against Tom Dwan two nights ago, donated $203k back to the online tables.
Dan “jungleman12” Cates, who seems to have cooled off a bit recently, also lost $118k.
Finally Gus Hansen couldn’t get anything going last night and lost a relatively minor – by his standards – $70k.
For information about the biggest high stakes online games be sure to check out our online poker stats section.
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Tom Dwan loses $740k to cadillac1944 in huge PLO match
“Cadillac1944? crushes Tom Dwan - Wins $740K
Tom “durrrr” Dwan and the German player “cadillac1944″ finished up their really wild and long $500/$1000 PLO heads-up match on Full Tilt Poker just a few moments ago.
They had a really epic match as they played almost eight hours non-stop. The pots kept growing up and the play got wilder and wilder, but in the end it was Dwan who had had lost 740,000 dollars to “cadillac1944″. Dwan has now lost about $900K in the last 24 hours!
All-in on river, “cadillac1944″ takes the pot ($508K) with full house:
Even though Dwanmade huge losses today, he is still ip over $3 million dollars on Full Tilt this year. “cadillac1944″ cut his losses a bit, but is still down about 900,000 dollars.
Let’s hope they’re going to continue their heads-up match soon as it was really great action packed poker all-around.
Source: Pokerista.net, HSDB
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durrrr Challenge 2: We Have Action
The pair made up for lost time by logging 2,120 hands of $200/$400 No-Limit Hold’em on Saturday.
Although jungleman12 jumped to an early lead going up just over $200k, Dwan would storm back and eventually peaked being up $91k.
Despite both players’ efforts, neither would finish the session with a significant win. Dwan won a paltry $13,000 which means he is now down $646k after 9,783 hands.
Neither player mentioned when the challenge will resume but railbirds are hoping they won’t have to wait nearly two months again.
Although the durrrr Challenge 2 proved to be anticlimactic, there was still some intense action on Full Tilt this weekend.
Di “Urindanger” Dang, who’s been lukewarm lately, made up for lost time by absolutely destroying his competition to take down $655k over the last few days.
Meanwhile David Benefield had one of the worst days of his career losing $608k on Saturday. Benefield lost $368k to Patrik Antonius in $500/$1,000 Cap PLO and the rest in a series of $200/$400 Six-Max games.
IHateJuice (+$354k), Arbianight ($277k) and DrugsOrMe ($231k) were all amongst the biggest winners this weekend while davin77 (-$274k) and GooGie MonA (-$174k) recorded some terrible sessions.
Ziigmund couldn’t stay away from the tables and added -$170k to his well-publicized losses this year.
For more information check our online poker stats section.
durrrr Challenge 2 by the numbers:
58,125,811: Total amount wagered
9,000,000: Tom Dwan’s rumored winnings in Macau in the local currency
645,667: Amount jungleman12 is ahead
9,783: Total hands played
2,120: Hands played this weekend
53: Days since the last durrrr Challenge 2 session
15: Hours logged
8: Total sessions
3: Times Tom Dwan has Tweeted about eating goose.
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Durrrr Challenge Returns, Tom Dwan Wins $47,000
After a nearly two-month break, the Durrrr Challenge between Tom “durrrr” Dwan and Dan “JungleMan12” Cates returned on Friday. Two sessions were held, the first of which totaled 1,354 hands and saw Cates win $35,000. Then, an 80-minute session saw 769 hands played. During the second encounter, Dwan cut into Cates’ lead by $47,000. Cates now leads by $645,000 overall.
Three hands during the second session passed $80,000 and Dwan took down two of them, contributing to his late surge in the second installment of the Durrrr Challenge. The largest pot of the night clocked in at $88,000. In it, Cates raised to $800 before the flop and Dwan boosted the price of poker to $2,400. Then, Cates 4bet to $4,400 and Dwan made the call to see a flop of Q-5-2 with two spades.
Dwan checked the flop and Cates fired out a bet of $2,800. Dwan called to build a pot of $14,400 heading to the turn, which was a red seven. Dwan once again checked, letting Cates take control of the action, and Dwan’s challenger led out for $8,400. Dwan called and the river was the three of diamonds. Dwan checked for a third time and Cates pushed all-in for $28,000. Dwan called and flipped over 7-5 for two pair, sevens and fives, while Cates showed a bluff with K-6 for king-high.
As you might expect, posters on online poker forums like TwoPlusTwo were quite elated to see that the Durrrr Challenge had finally returned. On the 80-minute encounter last night, one TwoPlusTwo member wrote, “I think Durrrr isn’t adjusting well against JungleMan12 and is hoping shorter sessions will limit the damage. Every time he has played a long session, JungleMan12 has dominated him.”
Cates has won 5,967 of the 9,783 hands played so far for a brisk 61% success rate. To that end, one poster questioned Dwan’s potential lack of aggression: “Does it seem crazy to anyone else that JungleMan12 is winning so many more hands than Tom? I realize it’s not a big sample and that there’s variance at work, but the gap is gigantic. Especially for a player like Tom Dwan, who I always thought thrived on taking down more pots than his opponents. Doesn’t seem like a good sign for him that JungleMan12 is out-Durrrring Durrrr.”
When the challenge first began in late August, Dwan and Cates discussed the possibility of fulfilling the 50,000-hand challenge by the start of the 2010 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Europe in September. However, WSOP Europe, high-stakes cash games in Macau, and a considerable amount of travel by Dwan and Cates have limited the time for each player at the felts.
Cates had been at the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City playing a tournament prior to Friday’s resumption of the Challenge. He then posted, “Durrrr Challenge now between me and @tom_dwan.” Prior to Atlantic City, other activities for Cates included seeing Vinny Favorito’s comedy show at the Flamingo in Las Vegas and traveling to Orlando and New Orleans. Dwan was last seen playing in nosebleed cash games in Macau along with players like Phil Ivey and Chau Giang.
Amazingly, Cates has won the four largest pots in the challenge against Dwan and six of the 10 largest overall. Three pots at the $200/$400 No Limit Hold’em tables have eclipsed $150,000 and eight have been larger than $125,000. Visit our sister site, DurrrrChallenge.com, for all of the latest news from the Tom Dwan Million Dollar Challenge.