Welcome To The Tom Dwan Durrrr Challenge Blog

Welcome to the Durrrr Challenge Blog - your number #1 source of news, views, links and information on the Tom Dwan Full Tilt Poker Durrrr Challenge.

We have divided this blog into 4 main areas for ease of navigation:

1) Latest Standings In The Durrrr Challenge: In blog format (below this sticky) post we will update the freshest news, hands and video replays from Tom Dwan's epic challenge. The very top post will give you the latest challenge score in quick-view format.

2) Durrrr Challenge Information: Player Bios, the history of the challenge and news (and rumors!) on future challengers can he found here.

3) Durrrr Challenge Links: We are happy to bring you links to the very best resources and information on the web these are listed on the right and also with details here.

4) Full Tilt Poker Tom Dwan Information: Watch the challenge as it happens at the home of the pros, Full Tilt Poker - referral code TD600 will get you a cool 100% bonus on your first deposit (up to $600 max). Click now to see the Durrrr Challenge tables for yourself at Full Tilt Poker

Durrrr Challenge 10 Months On...

2009 started off with a big buzz over the Durrrr Challenge, it had potential to become the story of the year with an impressive line-up of challengers including Ivey all waiting for their chance.

10 Months have now passed and we are half way through the 1st challenge, the swings have been small, the participants quiet on the subject and quite frankly the poker-world has moved on to other things.... as much as I enjoyed bringing you this blog and updating the latest views as well as news on the subject it is time to move on... the challenge is no longer worthy of a blog!

Instead readers can keep up to date on the dedicated Full Tilt Poker Durrrr Challenge Page - (click the 'News & Promos' link then scroll to the bottom section for the Durrrr Challenge page) which gives you the latest scores and a nice graph of the results too.

If things suddenly hot up I'll come back and post - until then GL at the tables!!

Mark

Small Session And Some Small Change For Dwan!

A small session of 458 hands on the 4th, and while the $26,431 won by Tom Dwan is a nice wad of money for most of us - in the context of both the challenge and the millionaire lifestyles of both players this really is chump change.

In fact let us look back over the 23,197 hands played so far, noting that there have been decent swings (most notably during the WSOP) - yet the players are as close to even as you could imagine. Taking this thought one step further here, what if this was a true reflection of the balance of skill between Dwan and Antonius? Seems a reasonable assumption when you consider that these players are at the top of their games...

... well, if the edge is not there we have to start questioning why Dwan offered 3/1 on the challenge! Oh yeah, action, publicity and a chance to write a small chapter in the tomes of poker history - if you can afford it then why not!

So, here is the latest session details + the current status of the match:

Session 4th Sept

Hands Played: 458
Tom Dwan + $26,431


Total Hands Played 23,197

Tom Dwan - ($39,287.00)
Patrik Antonius +$34,143.00

Stay tuned for all the latest news, views and information on the Durrr Challenge!

Antonius Retakes The Lead

Another installment of the Durrrr Challenge yesterday saw Patrik Antonius retake a small lead for the first time since his devastating run back at the end of June. After 1.241 hands Patrik was $415,311.50 better off taking him into the black to the tune of $76,104.00 - not bad at all for a few hours work

Delays, and the general slow pace of getting through the challenge have caused many commentators on blogs and forums to ask whether the challenge has lived up to expectations or has turned into a bit of a let down.

Of course, the very act of keeping a blog on the subject means I am biased... however I am tending to agree that the pace really needs to pick up if the challenge has any hope of surviving. If each challenge takes 9 or 10 months then we will see peaks of interest at the start and end of each new opponent's 50k hands... and a slow dwindling of interest in between. If the pace could pick up to 5k to 7k hands a week then maybe things will be different - we will just have to see.

ok, here are the current numbers:

Tom 'Durrrr' Dwan: -($81,112.50)
Patrik Antonius: $76,104.00

Session Length: 1241 Hands
Total Hands Played: 22,683

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Antonius Fights Back In 24th August Durrrr Challenge Session

A long awaited resumption in the Durrrr Challenge took place August 24th, with Antonius the victor to the tune of some $392,000 - significantly reducing his defecit in the match to a 'mere' $338,933.00.

The session was a lasted just under 800 hands and actually saw a biggest pot of $223,591.50 (won by Dwan). This brings the total hands played to 21,442 (thats the first leg of the challenge 42.8% complete with the year almost 65% complete!!).

Here are the total win / loss statistics as they stand on the Morning of August the 25th:

- Tom Dwan + 334,199.00
- Patrik Antonius - ($338,933.00)

Total Hands Played = 21,442

Stay tuned for (hopefully!) more action in the coming days!

Challenge On!

After 2 approximately 2 months of waiting the durrrr challenge is running again!

As I write it is Antonius in the lead for this session, though as regular readers know one hand can swing things dramatically one way or the other.

Will bring an update of the session as soon as it is over. In the meantime you can watch it live - simply follow our instructions on how to find the tables below.

Where Are The Durrrr Challenge Tables At Full Tilt Poker?


After downloading the software and logging in you should click on the 'Ring Games' 'filter at the top of the screen next the 'Omaha Hi' option ( 2nd one down). This brings up a list of the available Omaha Hi tables sorted by stakes, with the highest ($500 / $1000) stakes first.

You only need to scroll down a little - to the $200 / $400 blinds to see 8 special Durrrr Challenge tables... when the challenge is underway they will show 2 players - simply click on a table and you get to watch for yourself!Check out now Full Tilt Poker for yourself now and watch the Tom Dwan Durrrr challenge live as it happens- remember referral / bonus code TD600 for your 100% bonus up to $600.

Back soon!

No Action - But We'll Keep You Updated

No action for a long time in the Durrrr Challenge... making a quick post here for two reasons. Firstly, to let readers know that the action is not there - rather than us forgetting to update about it.

Secondly to let anyone who is considering leading the 'challenge main gain - PLO - a shot. We just updated our 'Omaha Planet' site with a new look, new articles and even an e-book which focuses on the transition from Holdem to Omaha... we believe this is now the single biggest quality Omaha resource anywhere - you can check it out at Pot-Limit Omaha Planet.

We'll update you on the challenge just as soon as there is some new action!

Mammoth Session Nets Durrrr More Than 3/4ths Of A Million!

This is better, just how we imagined that the challenge would be when it started in the cold winter months! 4527 hands saw some massive swings, pots bigger than the entire variance in the challenge to date... and ultimately resulted in Tom Dwan wiping out his small defecit and turning this into a positive balance of $726,546.50.... Antonius losing $731,108.00 with the difference being the rake for greedy f-ers Full Tilt Poker.

A couple of observations from watching the challenge today. First was the appearance that Dwan has figured Antonius on paired boards... anecdotal only without a big database of hands to unpick, but Durrrr acted fast and aggressively on almost every paired board that appeared, taking down what appeared to be more than his fair share.

Secondly, while the cards will of course even out over time, there were some monster pots decided by rivers for both players - for example one of the biggest pots of the session saw Dwan rivering trip kings (to repeat, works for both players). Strange how 1 hand could have such an effect in the short run.

So, here are the scores as of 19th June:

Hands Played 20, 647

Tom Dwan: + $726,546.50
Patrik Antonius - $731,108.00

Hopefully the momentum of the challenge will remain - in the meantime why not check out Rakeback-Planet for the best available Full Tilt Rakeback + The VIP service you would expect from the Planet brand.

Patrik Antonius Interview With Poker News

In the absense of any challenge action we bring you an interview video from Poker News with Patrik Antonius... not the best interview ever, but hey, we all have our ups and downs in life - maybe this explains the seemingly strange plays in the last challenge session??




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Big Comeback Challenge Session Sees Dwan Close The Gap!

Action again last night, as our challengers find themselves 'between tournaments' at this years World Series. Big news for fans of Tom Dwan too... after 786 aggressive heads-up hands on PLO his challenge deficit is now down to a (comparitively) tiny $38,124.00 with Antonius up just $34,594.50 (the difference is the greedy Full Tilt rake!).

What was interesting about yesterday's session is that many commentators seemed to think that Antonius was 'not quite right' in some of the plays he made. This included flat calling river bets when he had just a few $1000 left in his stack (one would expect a push for those last few $ in a massive pot) and also the abrupt way in which the challenge ended.

Every player is entitled to an off-day - we will see in the next session how Antonius reacts to losing his comfortable $411k lead. Meanwhile, fans of Durrrr are vocal once again, the match is wide open and with just 16, 124 of the 50,000 hands played it really is open.

Here are the current scores:

Hands Played: 16,124

Tom Dwan: (38,124)
Patrik Antonius: + $34,594.50

Difference in the latest session - Dwan + $376,237 (minus rake)

Remember to check back soon for all the latest Durrrr Challenge info in easy to scan format.

Short Session Sees Dwan Claw Back $36.5k

A very short session last night, of just 215 hands, saw Dwan claw back almost $36.5k to reduce his challenge defecit to $414,535.00... while many fans of the challenge are openingly venting their boredom of frustration on forums and blogs, I'd like to just quickly remind everyone that we were expecting zero action during the world series - and so should be happy that we end up with a small piece of action!

Here is the round-up of the latest numbers (as of the morning of June 10th).

- Tom Dwan: ($414,535.00)
- Patrik Antonius : + $411,191.50

Total hands played = 15,338 (thats 30.676% of the challenge complete)

Hopefully a bigger update from more action next time!

Almost 1000 More Hands - Small Variance Again

Good news - we have seen some Challenge hands played during the world series of poker after all.... after Antonius suggested that this would not be happening in one of his earlier interviews

The bad news (for Tom Dwan at least) is that this low-variance session saw him slip another $23k to bring the total deficit to $451k. While this is small change compared to some of the pots played on Poker After Dark it is becoming increasingly questionable where Dwan's edge is actually supposed to come from... and let us face it, if you are going to offer the world 3/1 as a challenge then you'd better be sure you have an edge of some sort.

Before we list the numbers, a quick comment on the ongoing poll (in the blog sidebar on the right). The more votes we get the proportion of Antoinus fans increases. What is really noticable about this poll is that it was 'Ivey vs None Of Them' at the start... as the challenge gets further it appears that the 'None of Them' has stalled. Our take on it is that it is still early days, Dwan is fearless and a couple of good sessions could see the whole thing back in the balance

Here are the latest numbers

After 15,123 hands
Tom Dwan - ($450,980.50)
Patrik Antonius + $447,684.00
Raked By The Full Tilt Fat-Cats = - $3,296.50c

Here is the raw data for the 6-tables played in the latest session:

Table 1) Dwan +$6,152.50 Antonius -$6,196.50 215 hands
Table 2) Dwan -$104,605.00 Antonius +$104,571.50 164 hands
Table 3) Dwan +$21,824.00 Antonius -$21,852.50 145 hands
Table 4) Dwan -$41,885.00 Antonius +$41,839.00 225 hands
Table 5) Dwan +$15,293.50 Antonius -$15,308.50 67 hands
Table 6) Dwan +$79,986.50 Antonius -$80,000.00 5 hands

874 hands
Dwan -$23,233.50 Antonius +$23,053.00

If the action stops for the WSOP we will bring you news on how Dwan / Antoius get on in those bracelet events - so bookmark the Durrrr Challenge Blog now!