Posts Tagged ‘Tom Dwan’
“Durrrr Challenge” continues - Dwan got a marginal win
Tom Dwan kept his promise and the Challenge between Dwan and Daniel “jungleman12″ Cates continued their Challenge yesterday. They played a bit over 2,100 hands and Dwan won marginally.
They have now played almost 10,000 of the total 50,000 hands and Cates leads with 646,000 dollars. Dwan won about 12,000 in yesterday’s session.
The biggest pot of the session, Dwan hits the flop “pretty” good
jungleman12: it seems you win again!
durrrr: might be free to play tonight
durrrr: not sure
jungleman12: gg
Hopefully the Challenge gets some momentum now. You can find more info here.
Source: Pokerista.net
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Tom Dwan and Daniel Cates chat about the “Durrrr Challenge”
Last night Tom “durrrr” Dwan and Daniel “jungleman12″ Cates had a chat about the ongoing “Durrrr Challenge” which has been on break for almost two months now.
“Jungleman12″ is in a $658,000 lead at the moment, when 7,660 of the total 50,000 hands have been played
Dwan told Cates that he is surprised how busy he has been lately and he promises some hands to be played on Friday:
durrrr: should b able to play a bit in a little over a day
durrrr: been busy sry
jungleman12: ok
jungleman12: 1 sec ill go on aim
durrrr: k in td games so ill b slow
jungleman12: td games?
durrrr: triple draw
jungleman12: oh
durrrr: but ya… didnt xpect to be busy
durrrr: obv
jungleman12: kk
durrrr: im on aim now
durrrr: talk there i guess
durrrr: but ya… didnt xpect to be busy
durrrr: obv
jungleman12: kk
durrrr: im on aim now
durrrr: talk there i guess
jungleman12: k
Let’s see if the Challenge continues then. Last time when Dwan promised to continue the Challenge he left to Macau to play live cash.
Source: Pokerista.net
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Marcello Marigliano gets on the luck express, wins $240,000
Tags: Tom Dwan
Macau Poker Cash Games Wrap Up; Tom Dwan Wins Big
The high-stakes cash games in Macau that featured many of poker’s biggest names have apparently wrapped up for the time being, and now questions are swirling around the final results. While a handful of media members and staff did their best to report from inside the Starworld Casino, the higher-ups made sure to keep most of the information, including some of the players’ names, confidential.
Speculation within the community has Tom “durrrr” Dwan winning as much as US $9 million against Chinese businessmen during the week-long action. None of the figures, however, have been confirmed.
For those who haven’t heard about the incredible action taking place at Macau, here’s a brief summary: During the final stages of the Asian Poker Tour (APT) Main Event, some of the world’s top poker players, including Dwan, Phil Ivey, and John Juanda, joined the regular high-stakes game in Macau with millions of dollars on the table.
APT tournament director Matt Savage broke the news of the game to poker forum TwoPlusTwo and, with the help of Poker King Club Marketing Director Stella Yeh, APT Chairman Tom Hall, and a few other sources inside the casino, was able to provide as much information regarding the game as possible in accordance with casino rules.
Playing short-handed with blinds as high as HKD $5,000/10,000, Juanda, Dwan, and Chau Giang were reportedly the big winners, while Ivey traveled back to the US “ahead an unknown amount,” according to Savage. Most of the pros left town after several long sessions, but Dwan accepted a challenge to play a Shanghai businessman for stakes higher than the casino had ever seen.
During the weekend, Yeh said Dwan originally bought in for around US $2.5 million against his opponent and proceeded to play heads-up No Limit Hold’em with blinds at HKD $30,000/60,000 (approximately US $4,000/$8,000). That’s around 10 times the stakes Dwan normally plays on Full Tilt Poker.
Reports from the inside had Dwan losing the first session by HK $20 million (US $2.58 million), but he was able to bounce back in the second marathon session. TwoPlusTwo poster “MacauPro” was providing the forum with numbers from the game and said Dwan finished up HK $68 million (US $8.76 million) in the second heads-up session. However, Dwan’s friend and former roommate David “raptor517″ Benefield responded by saying, “fwiw, Tom is still down in HU.”
Dwan supposedly won close to US $2 million in the earlier short-handed games, bringing his total winnings to an estimated US $8 million to $9 million for the trip. Depending on who you talk to, though, those numbers could be poles apart.
Savage posted some final thoughts on TwoPlusTwo Monday morning: “The game broke last night after a mammoth near 48-hour session where it started 5-6 handed, was HU for a while and then others joined again at the end. The game would have broken today anyway, as some of the principals are going out of town for a week, we expect it to resume in a week or so. Ivey and Durrrr both ended up overall for the trip and sure will be looking forward to an invite back. Dwan expected to relax in Asia for a few days before heading back to the US.”
Should the action resume in Macau, Poker News Daily will continue to provide updates. Stay tuned.
Another Winning Weekend for Hansen
Hansen once again booked a few marathon sessions on Full Tilt Poker this weekend and by the time the dust had settled, he was up a total of $280k.
The Great Dane played Pot-Limit Omaha at varying stakes throughout the weekend and took on some extremely tough competition in harrington25, luckexpress10, DrugsOrMe and Ashton “ASHMAN103” Griffin.
He managed to rake several huge $80,000+ pots against DrugsOrMe and luckexpress10, which definitely did not hurt his cause.
Hansen is now down $1.1 million this year and for the first time since July has a shot at slipping below the $1 million loss mark.
Fellow Team Full Tilt pro Patrik Antonius also logged a successful weekend taking over $100k from IHateJuice in Limit Hold’em and around $80k from Dan “jungleman12” Cates in $300/$600 HA.
IHateJuice, harrington25, Erik “DIN_FRU” Sagstrom all lost considerable stacks of cash this weekend.
Finally the epic live cash games in Macau seem to finally be subsiding (check our blog later today for more information) so Phil Ivey and Tom Dwan may once again hit the virtual tables over the next couple weeks.
Here’s a look at a few big hands between Hansen and ASHMAN this weekend. For more information check our online stats section.
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Devastating Week for Ziigmund
Sahamies only played 957 hands this week in varying stakes of Pot-Limit Omaha but still managed to play several disastrous sessions against opponents like Brian Hastings, Phil Ivey and Dan “jungleman12” Cates.
The recent downswing is becoming the worst on record for the aggressive Finn.
At the start of 2010, Sahamies jumped out to a $2.3 million profit. He is now down $1.8 million on the year and has lost nearly $3 million since the start of October.
Even Sahamies admitted on his Facebook page that he’s on the sickest downswing of his life and will likely take a break from poker.
Sahamies did have some company in the losing department, however, as cadillac1944 lost $368k and Sauce1234 dropped $280k this week.
Even Dan “jungleman12” Cates recorded a rare week loss as he burned through $250k. Despite his loss, Cates remains the biggest winner in 2010 with $4.6 million.
URnotINdanger2 was the week’s biggest winner with $336k added to his online roll. Arbianight also had a good week posting $331k in profit, as did skjervoy, who won $292k.
Gus Hansen continued his strong play as of late by winning $264k. Getting even by the end of the year is looking like a legitimate possibility for the Great Dane who is currently down $1.1 million.
Meanwhile in Macau, the multi-million dollar game that includes Phil Ivey, Tom Dwan, Chai Giang and John Juanda continues to amaze railbirds around the globe.
According to this thread on twoplustwo poker forum, Dwan is still entrenched in a huge $HK10k/$HK20k match against a Chinese businessman.
For more information about the online games check our online poker stats section.
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Tom “durrrr” Dwan in a million euros downswing in Macau
The wild cash games in Macau are on! Some local businessman challenged Tom Dwan in a heads-up match and they’re now playing it. It seems that Dwan is already down about a million at the moment.
The heads-up is played with €940/€1880 blinds and Dwan is believed to have lost about a million so far. Dwan is actually losing in Macau - and it seems that he is not moving fron the tables anywhere soon.
The heads-up started with Dwan’s huge loss, even though he managed to win it all back, he is back down in a €940k hole.
Some people are telling that Dwan is considering moving to Macau, just because there’s so awesome cash games, but others believe that he wouldn’t get enough action from the amateurs.
The Chinese businessmen love to play against Dwan though, because the businessmen like to play really loose - just like Dwan. Phil Ivey on the other hand is not their favorite as he is too tight player.
There’s some facts we know about the Dwan’s opponents: he has been playing in Macau for few years and is down there about 9,4 million euros! He is nowhere near bankrupt yet, and the match against Dwan can turn out to be lucrative.
Even though Dwan’s opponent has been losing in Macau, playing agaisnt him is not easy, because people are telling that he is hyper-aggressive and likes to overbet, just like “Isildur1″.
Let there be variance, said the poker gods.
Source: Pokerista.net, BallerMagazine
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Skjervøy Explodes for $367k
The CardRunners instructor recorded 1,417 hands in varying stakes of Pot-Limit Omaha and essentially dominated everyone that was willing to take him on including Arbianight, Brian Hastings and DrugsOrMe.
Skjervøy was particularly effective against Arbianight and won more than $100k in a heads-up battle.
In total Torbergsen won $367k yesterday, which made him easily the biggest winner of the day.
Torbergsen has quietly put together one of the best overall records in 2010. The Norwegian has earned nearly $3 million this year and CardRunners’ decision to sign him as an instructor looks better and better every day.
Some of the other big winners on the evening included luckexpress10 who won $146k, Gus Hansen who took down $140k and Urindanger with $114k.
Hansen continued his relentless drive to get even in 2010 and is now down only $1.7 million after being down $3.6 million in mid-October.
Yesterday wasn’t as kind to davin77 who dropped $212k, Brian Hastings who lost $165k and URnotINdanger2 who went $145k into the red.
Meanwhile the incredible live high stakes action with Tom Dwan, Phil Ivey and Chau Giang, which you can learn more about in this TwoPlusTwo thread, continues to rage in Macau.
The latest rumor is that a wealthy businessman has agreed to play Tom Dwan at $HK10k/$HK20k heads-up No-Limit provided Dwan show his cards after every hand. Apparently Dwan is stuck $HK10 million.
For more information about the high stakes online games check out our online poker stats section.
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Tom Dwan, Chau Giang, John Juanda Win Big in Macau Cash Games
The Asian Poker Tour (APT) Macau Festival wrapped up on Monday with 18 year old Zhang Dan Peng winning the Main Event for HKD $1.68 million (US $215,000). But the biggest story surrounding the series was the side action that developed after some of the big-name pros busted out of the tournament and created one of the largest cash games Macau has ever seen.
The nosebleed game at Starworld’s Poker King Club, which has been taking place regularly for more than a year, mostly consists of businessmen from China and Macau who have converted their gambling passion from baccarat to poker. With several pros in town for the APT event, the regulars welcomed the chance to play against some of poker’s top superstars like Tom Dwan, Phil Ivey, John Juanda, and Chau Giang.
APT tournament director Matt Savage was the first to break the news about the game in a thread on TwoPlusTwo: “Despite the light turnout at the Asian Poker Tour Macau, the cash games are some of the biggest in history as Tom Dwan, Phil Ivey, Chau Giang, and John Juanda are playing HKD $5,000-10,000 with some Chinese businessmen. The game plays much bigger and there was about $40 million on the table last night when I saw the game.”
Savage continued, “Tom Dwan made it through day one in the HKD $5K main event, but only came downstairs to play one hand, 10-4 offsuit, in an attempt to bust and get back to the cash game, but instead he doubled up and asked me to call him as soon as he was under 20 BBs. We are down to 35 players and paying 18.”
Dwan was eliminated from the tournament in 25th place and the cash game paused while the players moved from the Hard Rock Casino to Starworld. Dwan quickly got involved in a big pot with Ivey, as the two Full Tilt Poker pros faced off in a pre-flop raising war that ended with Dwan’s pocket sevens besting Ivey’s ace-ten for a HDK $4 million pot. It is assumed that Dwan and Ivey shared a piece of each other for the game, making the loss more sustainable for Ivey. Dwan also reportedly won a pot worth somewhere between HDK $16-20 million after a three-way all-in in which his ace-king came out a winner against pocket queens and pockets tens.
The biggest pot so far, though, came between Giang and a Chinese businessman. According to the Marketing Director at the Poker King Club, the game was No Limit Hold’em HKD $10,000/$20,000 blinds with a $10,000 ante. With a HKD $40,000 straddle in front of him, the Chinese player raised to $100,000 with ace-jack and Giang re-raised to HKD $500,000 with pocket aces. His opponent called and the two players saw a flop of J-J-10, giving the businessman trip jacks. Giang check-called a bet of HKD $1.2 million and the turn brought an ace, giving both players a full house. Giang checked his aces-full, and the businessman moved all-in for HKD $9 million. Giang called, creating a pot worth more than HKD $20 million. The river was a three and Giang scooped the massive bounty.
APT Chairman Tom Hall, who won close to US $1 million during four sessions in the game and reported some of the happenings shortly after they took place, posted some of the game’s results on TwoPlusTwo: “For (Monday’s) session, Phil is up HKD $15m (almost $2m USD), Tom up HKD $4m, table regulars up HKD $2m, Chau up HKD $300k, Johnny Chan down HKD $800k, John Juanda down HKD $1.5m (but up big for the week overall and has left town for a trip), and two Beijing visitors down HKD $10m each. Currently, the main game is four-handed with Phil, Tom, and two regulars playing HKD $10/20k. Second game features Jeff Lisandro, Ted Forrest, and others playing either HKD $2k/4k or $5k/10k.”
Overall, Ivey is around even for the week (minus sports betting losses, which were substantial). Like Juanda, Dwan and Giang are big winners, while the visitors from Beijing have taken a beating.
Hall also posted a quote from Poker King Room manager Winfred Yu, who has been on the sidelines throughout the week, but shared on Tuesday, “The game was regulars only last night (plus Uncle Chau Giang) and usual Asian visitors with Phil and Durrrr getting some sleep. Visitors dropped HKD $30 million last night, regulars won most of it with Chau picking up a nice win too. Second table played a mix of HKD $100/200 Limit and $200/400 No Limit with Jeff Lisandro, Ted Forrest amongst the players.”
Yu also mentioned that Dwan had accepted a challenge from a Beijing businessman, who was reportedly en route to the casino at the time of writing. The blinds will be HKD$50,000/100,000 – the largest blinds ever played at the Poker King Club. Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest updates from Macau.
Macau cash games: local player challenges Tom Dwan into an epic heads up match
Even though the “Durrrr Challenge’s” are now on hold, Tom Dwan is having one serious heads up challenge in Macau. Some local highroller has challenged Dwan into a heads up match and he will buy-in for $2,6M to $3,9 million!
“Good morning Asia”, Dwan says with a huge grin in his face
“Game was regulars only last night (plus Uncle Chau “La Key U” Giang) and usual Asian visitors with Phil and Durrr getting some sleep. Visitors dropped HK$30m last night, regulars won most of it with Chau picking up a nice win too. Second table played a mix of 100/200 limit and 200/400 no limit with jeff Lisandro, Ted Forrest amongst the players.
The exciting stuff - Durrrr has been challenged to a heads up session tonight by a local player who is bringing HK$20-30m. A Durrrr Challenge x 5 in size. More info will be posted ahead of tonight!!!”, 2+2 forum user “Tom Hall” keeps us updated.
Sounds like there’s some really epic news coming up from Macau soon!
Source: Pokerista.net, 2+2
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Macau cash games: local player challenges Tom Dwan into an epic heads up match
More info from Macau: Ivey wins big, Ted Forrest and Jeff Lisandro join the game
Matt Savage’s thread about Macau’s huge cash games has gained great interest on 2+2 forums. Now the user “Tom Hall” shares some insider information about the games. Matt Savage confirms the reliability of “Tom Hall” as he plays in the same ring sometimes.
There’s even a picture from the game. Tom Dwan grinding
“Tom Hall” begins his message by saying that he is the one who invited Tom Dwan and Phil Ivey to play the APT Macau Main Event and the big cash games.
He then continues to tell that the game is somewhat private, but the Chinese businessmen love the challenge and are more than happy to play against the top poker professionals, then he adds “the days of Brian Rast just turning up and winning a few million US$ are definitely over.”
Few notes from the “Tom Hall’s” 2+2 message:
- All the businessmen are somehow related to the gaming business and they found poker two years ago. Some of them are really good, while some are really bad.
- They (the businessmen) like the action, so they love to play against players like Tom Dwan. They don’t like tight players and have agreed to raise the stakes to get more action.
- They want to play against players who buy-in with their own money, not staked money.
- The biggest pot from the past days have been around 1,5 million euros.
- One of the players is known as “All-In” and like his nickname suggests, his play style is really entertaining.
- The session lengths are legendary. They might last for 20-30 hours, then they’ll have a six hour break and then the game is up again. These sessions last for 5-6 days straight.
- One of the players won’t move from his seat at all - not even to toilet, not to get something to eat or drink, he won’t even change his posture. He just takes a look at his hole cards and plays for 8 hours straight.
Sounds really juicy. The latest news is that Phil Ivey made a $2 million winning session!
Dwan and Ivey are playing against two locals in the main game, while Jeff Lisandro and Ted Forrest are playing at an another smaller stakes table.
Source: Pokerista.net, 2+2
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More info from Macau: Ivey wins big, Ted Forrest and Jeff Lisandro join the game
Wild rumor: Tom Dwan has won $1,7 million from Chinese businessmen
There’s some wild cash game action going on in Macau. Matt Savage, who directs APT Macau Tournament, has been leaking some information about the cash games running there. Tom Dwan, Phil Ivey, Chau Giang and John Juanda have been playing against some Chinese businessmen with some insane NL Hold’em with £940/$1880 blinds.
The games have been running whole weekend and Savage informed the 2+2 forum readers with the following message: “The latest hearsay is the Durr is now 1.7 million USD winner and that Ivey has gotten back to even. I think if they continue to win they WILL NOT be invited back IMO.”
No wonder “durrrr” hasn’t been interested in continuing the Challenges.
Source: Pokerista.net, 2+2
You just read Poker News from HighStakesNews.com
Wild rumor: Tom Dwan has won $1,7 million from Chinese businessmen
Brian Hastings to Appear on Poker After Dark PLO Cash Game
CardRunners instructor Brian Hastings announced on his blog late last week that he will be making his first televised poker appearance on NBC’s “Poker After Dark.” Hastings said that he will join fellow Full Tilt Red Pros Phil Ivey and Tom Dwan as well as high-stakes regular Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond in a $300/$600 Pot Limit Omaha game with a minimum buy-in of $100,000. Hastings wrote the blog while en route to Las Vegas for the taping of the show.
“The reason I am flying to Vegas is that I am going to be on ‘Poker After Dark,’” an elated Hastings wrote. “This will be my first televised poker appearance and I am very excited. Lana (CardRunners Marketing Director) worked very hard to get me on the show and called me Friday afternoon to let me know about it. It totally caught me off-guard, especially since I have a big assignment due Tuesday for my architecture class, but I quickly decided that I was in, got an extension on the assignment, and now here I am flying cross-country.”
Patrik Antonius, Sam Farha, Brandon Adams, and Jared “harrington25″ Bleznick could also be playing in the game according to Hastings, making for what should be an exciting week of televised poker. Hastings, just 22, hasn’t yet made a name for himself on the live circuit, but the Cornell University student is renowned for winning the most money in a single day in online poker history. In December of last year, Hastings stepped up to the plate to face Swedish phenom “Isildur1” at the $500/$1,000 Pot Limit Omaha heads-up tables on Full Tilt Poker. Five hours later, Hastings had taken around $4 million from the Swede and gained instant fame within the poker community.
Now, Hastings gets his shot at another big game, this time a six-max format under the bright lights of “Poker After Dark.” “We will be taping tomorrow (Monday) and although unfortunately I will not be able to disclose results before the show airs, I will fill you in with the details that I can provide when I know them,” Hastings said. “I do know that the episodes will air sometime in 2011, although I’m not sure when yet.”
This will mark the first set of episodes in the history of the show that offer a game other than No Limit Hold’em. Pot Limit Omaha has increased in popularity online in recent years, much of that due to the intense action at the nosebleed stakes among players like Hastings, Dwan, Galfond, Bleznick, Daniel “jungleman12” Cates, and the rest of the high-limit players on Full Tilt Poker. All of the aforementioned pros are among the biggest Pot Limit Omaha winners on the site since the results started being tracked by HighStakesDB.
Season 7 of “Poker After Dark” is being filmed at Aria after spending the first six seasons at the South Point Casino and the Golden Nugget. Season 6 began airing in January and featured poker pros like Howard Lederer, Phil Hellmuth, Mike Matusow, Annette Obrestad, Antonio Esfandiari, Annie Duke, Eli Elezra, Erick Lindgren, Antonius, David “Viffer” Peat, Chris Ferguson, Jennifer Harman, and Dwan. The show airs nightly at 2:05am ET.
Daniel “jungleman12? Cates is unstoppable
Daniel “jungleman12″ Cates is totally unbeatable on Full Tilt Poker’s high stakes games at the moment. He has made some great profit in the recent days from Pot-Limit Omaha, even though his main game is NL Hold’em.
Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies and Cates went heads up at some $200/$400 PLO tables and Ziigmund lost a bit over 100,000 dollars to Cates
Cates has won about 333,000 dollars during the last 24 hours. He has now won 4,9 million dollars this year, which is about a million more of what Tom Dwan ($3,95M) has won.
Most of Cates’ winnings came from Rami “Arbianight” Boukai, who lost $350,000 in the latest session.
“Arbianight” and “jungleman12″ in a $209k pot
Cates has some insane graph this year:
Let’s see when Cates and Dwan continues their Challenge, as Cates is running really hot at the moment.
Source: Pokerista.net, HSDB
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King of the Jungle: Cates Wins $333k
Cates recorded over 3,000 hands of $100/$200 Heads-Up PLO against Arbianight and absolutely dominated, raking in several pots worth nearly $100k each.
Thanks to last night’s victory, Cates has now made $4.89 million in 2010, which makes him by far the biggest winner of the year.
Cates has been remarkably consistent this year and never once dipped into the red.
Considering the jungleman12 account only appeared on Full Tilt in late 2009, Cates has one of the most impressive graphs ever, essentially going from $0 to $4.8 million in the span of 11 months.
It seems one of the only ways Cates could possibly relinquish his title as the biggest winner of 2010 is if he started playing miserably in the durrrr Challenge 2 but even that seems unlikely as he’s dominated Tom Dwan thus far.
Former 2 Months, 2 Million star Dani “Anksky451” Stern made a rare appearance on the high stakes tables last night winning a total of $196k.
Stern has barely played high stakes this year but is now sitting on a decent $235k profit in 2010.
Arbianight was easily the biggest loser last night going $337k in the hole but was joined by IReadYrSoul who dropped $144k.
Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies also found time to lose another $102k. Sahamies current downswing is threatening to become his worst on record as he’s now down over $1.36 million for the year.
Meanwhile Tom Dwan and Phil Ivey were once again absent from the high stakes online games but there appears to be a good reason for that. Tournament director Matt Savage claims the pair are playing high stakes games in China right now with millions of dollars being won and lost.
Here’s a look at the biggest hand on Full Tilt last night. For more information check our online poker stats section.
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Ziigmund Battered for $490k
In his defense, Sahamies feared no one as he played over 1,000 hands against sharks such as Phil Ivey, Dan “jungleman12” Cates and Brian Hastings.
Unfortunately for Sahamies, every aforementioned player was able to rake a huge sum from the Finn.
Ivey and Hastings were both victorious at the $200/$400 Six-Max PLO tables where Ziigmund lost $190k.
Sahamies found no relief in heads-up play either, as Cates absolutely smashed him for over $270k.
After the session finally concluded, Sahamies found himself down $1.2 million in 2010. It’s the first time this year Ziigmund been down more than $1 million and he’s going to need a huge comeback if he wants to get even before the year concludes.
It was a very different story for jungleman12 who finished his session up a total of $384k.
Cates is starting to pull away as the biggest winner of 2010 with $4.6 million. Tom Dwan is second with $3.9 million and Phil Ivey is third with $3.2 million.
Speaking of Ivey, the Team Full Tilt Pro finally made an appearance at the high stakes online tables after a brief hiatus.
He didn’t show any signs of rust as he destroyed his competition and raked $174k in a scant 48 hands.
Other big winners included Brian Hastings with $214k in profit, harrington25 with $95k and Gus Hansen with $83k.
Joining Sahamies in the losing column were DrugsOrMe (-$229k), DIN_FRU (-$74k) and Niki Jedlicka (-$64k).
Here's a collection of the biggest hands from last night. For more information check our online poker stats section.
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The Nightly Turbo: Durrrr’s Latest Blog, World Poker Tour Set to Begin in Florida, and More
Tags: Tom Dwan
URnotINdanger2 Rules Weekend
Palmer played 1,874 hands and was a big winner in a $500/$1,000 PLO Heads-Up game against Gus Hansen but also won a considerable amount in a $200/$400 Six Max PLO game against harrington25, Arbianight and trex313.
To say there’s some variance in Palmer’s game would be an understatement as he’s gone into the red and then bounced back at least seven separate times this year.
At one point this year URnotINdanger2 was down $428k but after this weekend he’s now up $441.
Dan “jungleman12” Cates, a close friend of Palmer, also had a fantastic weekend winning nearly $200k. He only played 256 hands of heads-up PLO but that was all it took for the durrrr Challenge II competitor to earn a nice profit.
Prior to the last week, Tom Dwan and Cates had been neck and neck for the biggest online winner of 2010 but now it appears Cates is pulling away.
Cates is now up to $4.3 million, easily passing Dwan, who has been idle this week and sits with $3.9 million on the year.
Arbianight was the other big winner of the weekend pulling in a total of $248k.
Meanwhile luckexpress10 chugged his way to $158k in losses this weekend. FinnishNightmre was close behind with $156k in losses.
Other donators included superbaldas who dropped $136k and Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies who last $124k.
Ziigmund has had some huge problems online lately and has essentially nose-dived in the last three weeks. He’s now down $878k in 2010.
Here’s a look at some of the biggest hands from this weekend. For more information check our online poker stats section.
Visit www.pokerlistings.com
Brian Hastings plays in Poker After Dark on next season
Brian Hastings is a familiar name in nosebleed games. He crushed “Isildur1″ and has been making steady wins throughout the years he has been playing on Full Tilt. Now he updated his blog where he speaks about filming Poker After Dark. It’s his first TV performance and he seems to be really excited.
Hastings reveals that the PAD game will be $300/$600 Pot-Limit Omaha with antes and minimum buy-in will be $100k. Other players on the table will be Phil Ivey, Tom Dwan, Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond. And it looks like that Patrik Antonius, Sammy Farha and Brandon Adams will be visiting the table as well.
It is the first time that we’ll see Omaha cash game played on PAD. New episodes will be aired “at some time next year”, and we’re really eager to see them.
Source: Pokerista.net, Cardrunners
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2010 WSOP Main Event: A Life Changing November
Of course, there's the matter of an $8,944,138 first place prize - the kind of money that would have an impact on just about anyone, save those in Bill Gates' and Warren Buffett's tax bracket.
But major sponsorship deals, a rather intense media glare and poker-celebrity status also await the winner of the game's most coveted title.
There's little doubt, no matter who is crowned poker's World Champion inside the Penn & Teller theatre at the Rio this weekend, his life is going to change.
But for Soi Nguyen, the only true amateur at a final table full of pros, the impact could be even greater.
"That much money and all that attention would change a lot of things for me," he said. "It would be unbelievable."
Becoming the first Italian to win the Main Event would certainly make Filippo Candio a hero back home.
But the 26-year-old is taking a philosophical approach to things.
"I think that the November Nine can't change my life too much because money is very important, but its not the only thing," he said.
"Money can help me, money can give me happiness, I can buy six Ferraris and maybe five mansions, so the November Nine is a great opportunity for a poker player's career, but you have to stay focussed because sometimes glory and money can make people crazy.
"I'm 26, OK, I'm young, but not very young and I know that being in the November Nine can only help me have a great life."
Professional poker players in the online world, November Niners Jonathan Duhamel, John Dolan, John Racener and Jason Senti would all take the next step towards poker superstardom with a win.
But for a group that grinds online every day and already plays some of the biggest live tournaments on the planet, the question of how much their daily lives would change with a WSOP Main Event bracelet around their wrists is not an easy one to answer.
"I don't think I'll live any differently," said Cheong. "I'll have a lot of money in the bank to pad my bankroll and I won't have to worry about things like flying to London and playing the World Series of Poker Europe and just buying into high-roller events. But other than that it won't change my life much."
The reign of poker's World Champion always seems to include countless interview requests and a scrutiny the likes of which most players not named Tom Dwan or Phil Ivey won't have experienced before.
But Racener says for the online pro, it comes with the territory.
"This is what I wanted," he said. "I wanted to make the biggest final table in history and this is what comes along with it, so of course I'm happy."
Already a star with $9.6 million in career tournament earnings, a World Series of Poker bracelet and two WPT titles, Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi might be the only one in the group used to that kind of spotlight.
But even Mizrachi admits a win on poker's biggest stage, which would also make him the game's all-time leading money winner, will have a significant impact on his life.
"I believe it will," he said. "Everybody wants to win the Main Event. Talk to me November 7th or 8th and I'll tell you what it feels like if I do."
A veteran pro who has proven himself in some of poker's biggest events might be comfortable speaking about what might be come Monday, but players like Canadian Matt Jarvis, who have had success before but nothing comparable to a WSOP Main Event win, seem a little happier waiting to see what happens first.
"I don't want to count my chickens before they're hatched," he said.
"This really is a once in a lifetime type thing. This is the biggest tournament of the year, with ESPN and everything going on, there's so much hype. It's pretty amazing this situation I'm in right now."
The final nine will resume play at 12 p.m. PT tomorrow.
They will play down to the final two and come back to to play heads-up for the title beginning at 8 p.m. PT Nov. 8.
The PokerListings live reporting team will also be on hand throughout the final table providing unprecedented behind the scenes access including live updates, photos, videos and bust-out interviews.
Tune in to PokerListings' WSOP Live Updates beginning at 12 p.m. PT Nov. 6 to follow the action.
Visit www.pokerlistings.com
Hansen Continues to Crush
Last night Hansen logged onto Full Tilt looking for action and immediately found a willing competitor in constant rival Di “Urindanger” Dang.
The pair opened several tables of heads-up $200/$400 and $500/$1,000 Pot-Limit Omaha and proceeded to play nearly 2,000 hands.
Hansen essentially beat Urindanger up over the span of the session and eventually finished up $447k.
In the last two weeks Hansen has raked in over $1.3 million and is showing no signs of slowing down. Although the Great Dane is still down $2.2 million this year, he’s doing much better then when he was down $3.6 million at the start of the month.
Meanwhile Urindanger, who has yet to dip into the red this year, is holding on with a $612k profit in 2010.
In other high stakes news last night Luukie21 managed to win $161k, which was his best result in the last few days.
Other winners included bixiu ($78k), EazyPeazy ($75k), rumprammer ($69k), Shawn Buchanan ($53k) and jungleman12 ($43k).
Tom Dwan finally played a session last night but for some reason it wasn’t a durrrr Challenge II one against jungleman12. Dwan ended up losing $62k over 95 hands.
Dwan was joined in the losing category by Vaga_Lion (-$93k), sbrugby (-$77k), LokoisBack (-$57k) and Markus Golser (-$52k.
Here’s a collection of the biggest hands last night. Be sure to check out our online poker stats section for more information.
Visit PokerListings.com
7th season of High Stakes Poker coming right up!
Great news for all poker fans! The 7th season of High Stakes Poker has been confirmed by GSN. The coming season will be shot on 18th to 20th of November.
There hasn’t been any kind of confirmed player list yet, but the rumors run wild as always. The poker fans are expecting to see players like Patrik Antonius, Phil Ivey, Tom Dwan and Daniel Negreanu at the table.
The 6th season of HSN was filmed at the Golden Nugget Casino, but GSN hasn’t confirmed if the new season will be shot there again. Let’s see what GSN is bringing out for the new season. There was some ups and some downs during the last season, but mostly it was guaranteed entertainment. If we can make a wish here at the HighStakesNews.com, please. for a change bring some new and upcoming players to the table.
There were some changes in the GSN board after the 4th season of HSN and there were even rumors that HSN was canceled. Luckily for the fans, the best poker show is here to stay. Yes!
You just read Poker News from HighStakesNews.com
CardRunners Releases 2,000th Poker Training Video
On Friday, Brian “Stinger” Hastings released a video entitled “Million Dollar Bankrolls” on the popular poker training site CardRunners. Amazingly, it was the 2,000th video produced by CardRunners, which was founded five years ago and continues to establish itself as a market leader.
It’s fitting that Hastings would be the brains behind the milestone video. He was a former CardRunners student turned instructor and currently is a Red Pro on Full Tilt Poker along with a handful of other CardRunners personalities. Hastings commented in a press release distributed by CardRunners on Friday, “From the time I joined as a member five years ago, CardRunners has provided a valuable resource to the poker community. I’m really proud of the 2,000th video and that I’m able to carry on the tradition of delivering top-notch content to members.”
The 2,000th video was filmed on Full Tilt and features Hastings squaring off against several familiar names in the high-stakes poker world. Those you’ll see on the 2,000th video include 2009 World Series of Poker Main Event November Niner Phil Ivey, Power Poker front man Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies, and high-stakes regular “Urindanger.” The name of the game is Pot Limit Omaha.
In the days leading up to Hastings’ production of the 2,000th video, CardRunners Video Challenge winner “Nikachu” released his very first piece. According to the CardRunners website, his video “focuses on the number one leak of SSNL players, pre-flop aggression. Playing two tables of $100NL on Full Tilt, this video is a must-see for struggling players – and yes, there are bunnies.” On Tuesday, floating, aggression, and bluffing took center stage as part of a video created by “Marshall28,” while “Schneids” discussed poker’s meta-game.
Also this week at CardRunners, “MasterLJ” returned from a yearlong hiatus to play against a former student on two $200NL tables. It was apprentice versus master in this epic “Star Wars”-like showdown, which came to life on Thursday. Today, highly successful online poker pro “mement_mori” breaks down proper bubble play. “mement_mori” plays a variety of mid-stakes tournaments in the process, including the $50 Turbo, Fifty-Fifty, and $77 Turbo. In addition, he “discusses the different dynamics of each structure and how to react and adapt accordingly,” according to the CardRunners website.
On Sunday, the promotional week will wrap up with “Braminc” diving into the wonderful world of Rush Poker sit and gos on Full Tilt. CardRunners explains, “Rush Poker isn’t just changing the cash games, and ‘Braminc’ is here to show his approach to the Rush Sit and Gos. In the video, he plays an $11 and a $4 Rush SNG and talks about his strategy and how to adjust as the games get deeper.”
CardRunners’ fleet of instructors and bloggers includes Poker News Daily strategy author John “JimmyLegs” Wray, former PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Main Event champ Ryan “Daut44” Daut, and Durrrr Challenge competitor Dan “JungleMan12” Cates. Speaking of Cates, there has been no action in the second round of the Tom Dwan Million Dollar Challenge since October 5th, when Dwan shaved Cates’ lead by $31,000. Cates leads by over $650,000 overall after 7,600 hands, with 50,000 required for completion. Cates is the second opponent in the Durrrr Challenge after Full Tilt Poker pro Patrik Antonius, whose match with Dwan is still ongoing.
Full Tilt players can earn free memberships at CardRunners through Truly Free Poker Training. A total of 5,500 Full Tilt Points, or FTPs, equates to one month of CardRunners training and partial memberships are also available. No FTPs are deducted from a player’s Full Tilt account; rather, they serve as a way to keep track of their progress at the table.
Visit CardRunners to view the site’s 2,000th poker training video.
Tags: 2009, full tilt poker, Online Poker, Patrik Antonius, Phil Ivey, pokerstars, Tom Dwan, tournament, WSOP
Ziigmund Nabs $151k
The last few weeks have been particularly rough for Sahamies who has lost more than $1 million in October alone but that didn’t stop him from logging onto Full Tilt for some PLO action.
Ziigmund did most of his damage at a $200/$400 Six-Max PLO table that included Arbianight, harrington25, URnotINdanger2 and Lay Key U.
In the span of just 141 hands, Sahamies raked $81k from his seasoned competition.
After finishing there, Sahamies went on to post substantial victories against Sauce1234 and DrugsOrMe before calling it a night.
In total Sahamies played 1,041 hands and won $151k. Despite his win last night, Ziigmund is still down $240k this year but knowing his swings he could be up $1 million by the end of the month.
Arbianight was the ultimate victim last night dropping a total of $215k at the online tables. A large portion of Arbianight’s losses were sustained against Ziigmund.
Meanwhile FakeSky (+$73k), La Key U (+$68k), JKwizzle (+$47k) and FinnishNightmare (+$32k) were the biggest winners on the evening.
On the other hand Harrington25 (-$65k), DrugsOrMe (-$38k) and bixiu (-$36k) were down considerably.
Phil Ivey and Tom Dwan have both been absent from the online tables for much of the week and, as a result, the high stakes games were less action-packed than normal.
Here’s a collection of the biggest hands last night. Be sure to check out our online poker stats section for more information.
Visit PokerListings.com
Isildur1 set for sponsorship deal?
November Niner John Racener Joins ESPN Inside Deal
On this week’s installment of the ESPN.com poker news show “Inside Deal,” World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event November Niner John Racener made the trek to Bristol. Racener will own the fourth largest stack when play resumes in Las Vegas next month at 19.1 million.
Day 7 of the Main Event aired on ESPN this week as part of the network’s continuing coverage of the $10,000 buy-in tournament. Racener explained his mindset on Day 7: “When I get this deep, I just take it orbit by orbit. I’m playing 10 hands at a time and trying to pick up one or two hands during it. If I can do that consistently up until there’s 10 left and keep my stack in the top 10, I’ll be in the top 10.” Racener started and ended the day near the top of the leaderboard.
Day 7 of the Main Event was actually the 12th day of play in the annual tournament, which emanates from the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. Racener, however, didn’t appear to be affected by the grueling structure: “The money is so big now and that’s all I’m thinking about; exhaustion’s not even in my head [and there’s] no anxiety and no nervousness. I’m just trying to think about if I can win that $9 million [and] how excited I will be.”
Also making a deep run in the Main Event and finishing 410th was “Inside Deal” co-host and Poker News Daily Guest Columnist Bernard Lee, who explained the lay of the land on the seventh day of play: “This is a stage where players are definitely tightening up. The play is slowing down and everyone now realizes that if they get through two-thirds of the remaining players, they’re going to more than triple their money.”
November Niners Racener, Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi, and John Dolan all hail from Florida, a state that recently saw its limits on live poker tournaments lifted. On Mizrachi, Racener told “Inside Deal” viewers, “I have mixed emotions. He’s a good friend of mine and I like seeing him do well. He’s a good player, so I am happy he’s there, but at the same time, I hope he gets a place below me. If I win, I hope he can be second.” Mizrachi took down the $50,000 Poker Player’s Championship for $1.6 million this year and can grab a piece of the WSOP Player of the Year title with a Main Event bracelet.
Also discussed on the 20-minute edition of “Inside Deal” were ESPN.com’s poker rankings, dubbed “The Nuts.” Poker News Daily’s Dan Cypra votes for “The Nuts” each month and in September, Phil Ivey, Mizrachi, Jason Mercier, Tom Dwan, and Daniel Alaei represented the top five.
Who will be moving up in October? ESPN.com Poker Editor Andrew Feldman prognosticated, “Out of these five, Jason Mercier is going to be the only player who is going to move up. Mercier won a WCOOP event for $435,000, beating a field of over 3,000 players in two days for an unbelievable run. Then, he goes on the live felt and takes third in an Eight Game mix.” Mercier’s Eight Game final table came during the PokerStars European Poker Tour (EPT) stop in London and was good for $30,000.
The bottom half of September’s top 10 features Alexander Kostritsyn, Eric Baldwin, Patrik Antonius, Sorel Mizzi, and 2008 WSOP Europe Main Event champ John Juanda. On Juanda, Lee boasted, “John Juanda has had a tremendous career. $11 million in career earnings, four WSOP bracelets, and 55 [WSOP] cashes, which is top 10 overall. The list goes on and on… John Juanda I see moving up and he could start moving into the top five if he keeps it up over the next couple of months.”
Other players who could crack the top 10 when October’s rankings are released include recent World Poker Tour (WPT) champ Dwyte Pilgrim, Tom Marchese, and five-time bracelet winner Jeffrey Lisandro. Racener made a case for Lisandro entering the top 10 of “The Nuts” this month: “He knows all eight games really well and he’s always deep in all these events. Once he makes final tables, he usually finishes the deal.”
Catch “Inside Deal” on ESPN.com every week. New episodes are released on Tuesdays.
Tags: 2008, european, Patrik Antonius, Phil Ivey, poker player, pokerstars, Tom Dwan, tournament, vegas, WSOP
Hansen Gets Revenge on Urindanger
Last night Hansen recorded 304 hands of heads-up $500/$1,000 Cap PLO against Urindanger on Full Tilt and for once he was the one with the hammer.
After pummeling Urindanger for several hours Hansen finished with an extra $239k in his online bankroll.
The Great Dane didn’t end his night there, however, as he moved on to playing Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies at $2,000/$4,000 Omaha Hi-Lo. Hansen has said several times that Omaha-8 is likely his best game and it certainly showed against Ziigmund.
Hansen won $120,940 from the aggressive Finn in approximately 200 hands.
After a few more smaller scores had been added to the mix Hansen finished his night up a total of $425k.
Hansen is still the biggest loser of the year with $3.2 million missing from his bankroll in 2010 but if he can keep up the pace of winning $400k a day it would take him only a week to get even.
The tables were actually fairly quiet last night as big guns Tom Dwan, Phil Ivey and Patrik Antonius were all absent but there were a few players who made decent scores.
Scandi Erik “DIN_FRU” Sagstrom raked $83k, grillarock won $50k and Brian Hastings took down $30k.
Ziigmund was the biggest loser of the evening dropping $170k. bixiu (-$140k), Urindanger (-$100k) and Jani Vilmunen (-$68k) also lost sizable amounts of cash.
Here’s a collection of the biggest hands from last night. Be sure to check out our online poker stats section for more information.
Visit PokerListings.com
October 8 – PND Weekly Update
PND presents our weekly news update of all the top poker headlines for the week of October 4th through the 8th.
Hello, I’m Sean Gibson and welcome to the Poker News Daily Weekly Update!
On Monday night, 23 year-old Brit David Vamplew took down the European Poker Tour’s London Main Event for 900,000 Pounds, which works out to nearly one and a half million dollars. And for extra bragging rights, he defeated Full Tilt Poker pro John Juanda, who cashed for the second straight year. Juanda was chip leader during most of the final table, but Vamplew managed to cripple him through several hands. The decisive hand had Juanda all in pre-flop with King-Deuce suited and knocked out by Vamplew’s Ace-Three. Prior to Monday, Vamplew’s largest live cash was a meager … SIX thousand dollars. Well done, David!
The eighteenth edition of the Full Tilt Online Poker Series, or FTOPS, will kick off on November 10th. Once again, Full Tilt Poker will host 34 FTOPS tournaments, culminating in a six hundred and forty-dollar buy-in Main Event on November twenty-first that will shell out at least three million dollars. All told, Full Tilt is guaranteeing over nineteen million dollars in this installment of FTOPS. During FTOPS seventeen, which ran throughout the month of August, over 4,500 players turned out for the kickoff event, creating a prize pool approaching one million bucks. Brent Roberts was the champion of the first tournament and pulled down one hundred and sixty four thousand dollars.
Today, UB.com poker pro Joe Sebok rappelled down fifty-one stories at the Masquerade Tower at the Rio Las Vegas to raise money for Special Olympics Nevada. The Over the Edge fundraiser allows participants to rappel fifty-one stories in exchange for raising a minimum of one thousand dollars for charity. Another poker celebrity who showed interest in the cause is adult star and UB celebrity Samantha Ryan. This year, the Over the Edge event has raised nearly forty thousand dollars.
Bodog announced that it has signed an advertising deal with the LA Galaxy of Major League Soccer, led by world recognized superstars David Beckham and Landon Donovan. The agreement gives Bodog.net additional exposure through ad placements on the LA Galaxy’s stadium. Ed Pownall, Global PR Director at BodogBrand.com, declared:
“Both the LA Galaxy and Bodog brands are recognized around the globe, making this partnership not only mutually beneficial, but a perfect synergy across the United States and beyond.”
The Galaxy are in their 15th season in the MLS and coming off a runner-up finish in the two thousand and nine MLS Cup, losing on penalty kicks to Real Salt Lake.
WELL – Want a Caribbean poker holiday? Ya, who wouldn’t! Each Sunday this month, Doyle’s Room will be awarding valuable prize packages for the Punta Cana Poker Classic, which will be held at the Hard Rock Cafe and Casino in the Dominican Republic. The Classic will take place Wednesday, November tenth through Sunday, November fourteenth in the popular resort city on the eastern tip of the Caribbean nation. Doyle Brunson WILL be there, as will many of the site’s top pros.
After a pretty poor run at the EPT London, Tom Dwan is back in style. According to HighStakesDB.com, Dwan hit the tables against Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies on Sunday night at Full Tilt Poker. They were playing at the nosebleed stakes of five hundred – one thousand Pot Limit Omaha. Sahamies dropped a grand total of over one point two MILLION dollars in roughly one thousand hands against Dwan. Counting his action against “Ziigmund” and other play, “durrrr” finished off the night with over one and a half million dollars in profit.
Well, these were the top poker headlines this week. Don’t miss us next Friday for another executive recap of the week in Poker. I’m Sean Gibson and all of us at Poker News Daily wish you a great poker week!
Tags: bodog, charity, Doyle Brunson, european, full tilt poker, Online Poker, poker player, Tom Dwan, tournament, usa, vegas
Bad Week: Hansen Loses $1.5 Million
It was one of the worst weeks on record for the renowned Danish poker pro. Hansen played an astounding 8,844 hands this week, even more than Tom Dwan.
Hansen’s real troubles began on Monday when he played epic heads-up sessions of $500/$1,000 against DrugsOrMe, Urindanger and skjervoy.
Playing that trio was a decision the new WSOP-bracelet holder would regret as he lost over $850k to them, including $503k to DrugsOrMe alone.
The losses continued to pile up throughout the week and, at the time this article was published, Hansen was down $1.5 million in seven days. The Great Dane is now down $3.6 million in 2010, which makes him far and away the biggest loser this year.
Hansen’s tremendous losses weren’t the only story this week as Isildur1 returned to the high stakes table in earnest and Tom Dwan re-established himself as the biggest winner in 2010.
Isildur1 might be wishing that he delayed his return as the account lost $193k playing $100/$200 No-Limit Hold’em against various opponents.
On the other hand Dwan had a very solid week that was seriously boosted by winning $1.4 million last weekend. Dwan lost some of that haul throughout the week but he still finished up $1 million.
Dwan’s 2010 couldn’t be more different than Hansen’s as durrrr has raked over $4 million and is the biggest winner this year.
Dwan also recorded some hands in the durrrr Challenge II against Dan “jungleman12” Cates but the sessions were very small and durrrr only won $32k.
Some of the other notable winners this week included Scandinavian Andreas “skjervoy” Torbergsen (+$735k), DrugsOrMe (+$627k), Patrik Antonius (+$405k) and jungleman12 (+$331k).
Hansen had plenty of company in the loser’s column with Ilari (Ziigmund) Sahamies (-$799k), WastedPotential (-$455k) and David Oppenheim (-$331k) all losing large sums.
Here’s a collection of the biggest hands from the week. Be sure to check out our online poker stats section for more information.
Visit PokerListings.com
Durrrr Challenge Returns for Short Session
If only for a few minutes, the Tom Dwan Million Dollar Challenge returned on Monday night. A brief 258-hand session was played over the course of 20 minutes, with Dwan cutting into the lead of Dan “JungleMan12” Cates by $31,000. Dwan and Cates have now played 7,660 hands of the 50,000 required for completion and Cates owns a $657,000 lead.
The second incarnation of the Durrrr Challenge is taking place across $200/$400 No Limit Hold’em tables at Full Tilt Poker. A total of six sessions have been played so far and the pair has bet over $46 million combined. Cates has won about 60% of the hands played and has largely dominated his fellow young gun in the high-stakes prop bet.
In one of the largest pots of Monday’s brief session, Dwan raised to $1,200 before the flop with 8-2 of hearts and Cates 3bet to $4,000. Dwan called behind and the flop came 6-A-Q rainbow. Cates led out for $4,400 and Dwan popped it to $11,700. Cates called the extra $7,300 and the turn was the three of hearts, putting two of the suit on the board. Both players hit the brakes and checked and the river was the king of hearts, filling Dwan’s flush. Dwan shoved all-in after Cates checked and “JungleMan12” called. The pot of $90,000 was pushed to Dwan and Cates’ cards were not exposed during the hand.
In another major hand, Dwan raised to $1,200 pre-flop with K-8 of spades and Cates made the price of poker $3,600. Dwan called and the flop fell 10-9-J, giving Dwan an open-ended straight draw. Cates bet $4,200 and Dwan just called behind to bring the four of diamonds on the turn. Cates fired out a bet of about two-thirds of the pot, or $9,600, and Dwan called. The river brought in Dwan’s king-high straight when a queen hit and Cates checked. Dwan shoved for $17,000 and Cates called. The pot was worth $69,000.
We’d be amiss if we didn’t recap a hand in which Cates called “Time” and, in the process, seemingly slow-played the nuts. There’s never a dull moment in the Durrrr Challenge. In the hand, we saw our usual raises pre-flop and the first three cards came 5-8-10. Cates, holding 6-7 for a two-way straight draw, led out for $4,400 and Dwan called. A four on the turn filled Cates’ straight and both players clicked “Check.”
On the river, Cates requested time when a king hit before finally electing to bet $12,400. Whether requesting time was a slow-roll or was genuinely due to needing a few extra seconds is not known, but Dwan called Cates’ river bet and promptly mucked. Cates raked in the $41,000 pot, but ended the session down $31,000 after 20 minutes and 258 hands.
If you’re not familiar with the Durrrr Challenge, Dwan and Cates are facing off in 50,000 hands of $200/$400 No Limit Hold’em (and you thought your local $2/$5 game was big). After the 50,000th hand, if Dwan is up by $1 or more, Cates will hand over $500,000. If Cates is up by at least $1, Dwan will fork over $1.5 million after giving any challenger 3:1 odds. In either case, the victor keeps the spoils of the 50,000 hands, potentially resulting in a rich payday.
Dwan has been sparring with fellow Full Tilt Poker pro Patrik Antonius since early 2009 in $200/$400 Pot Limit Omaha. Dwan is up over $2 million in that challenge, with about 10,000 hands required for completion. The play between Dwan and Antonius has been spotty at best and, in fact, no action has occurred in two months.
Visit our sister site, DurrrrChallenge.com, for full details on the Tom Dwan Million Dollar Challenge.
