After a three-month respite, the Durrrr Challenge returned in recent days. Tom “durrrr” Dwan and Patrik Antonius have battled for nearly 40,000 hands and, with a $460,000 windfall early Tuesday morning, Dwan leads by over $2 million. One begins to wonder whether the first version of the Durrrr Challenge, which has stretched for a year-and-a-half, is all but over.
Dwan scooped the five largest pots of Tuesday’s session to forge a massive $2.1 million lead over Antonius. Dwan has won 20,700 of the 39,436 hands played so far, with 50,000 needed in order to determine a winner. At the end of the challenge, which began in early 2009, if Dwan is up by $1, Antonius will owe $500,000. If Antonius is up by $1, Dwan will shell out $1.5 million, as the youngster laid 3:1 odds. In either case, the winner will keep the spoils of the 50,000 hands played and receive eternal bragging rights.
Here are a few stats on the Million Dollar Challenge between Dwan and Antonius that will blow your socks off. First, the duo has bet a total of $342 million, larger than the GDP of several countries. A total of 64 sessions have been played, meaning that about $5 million has been laid out per session. The total playing time is one minute short of five days and six hours, or more than three standard 40-hour work weeks. That’s a lot of time on the felts!
Meanwhile, Dwan is already looking ahead to his next opponent in the Durrrr Challenge. Possibly getting bored with the snail’s pace of play against Antonius, Dwan has solicited CardRunners instructor Jungleman12 to be his next adversary, although officials from the host site, Full Tilt Poker, have not released any announcement. In a blog post on CardRunners submitted on the final day of July, Jungleman12 ended with, “Regarding the Durrrr Challenge, it’s going down.”
In a recent issue of Bluff Magazine, Dwan noted that former CardRunners pro Brian Townsend would be his next adversary. However, the New Jersey native later recanted his comments on TwoPlusTwo. Then, Townsend left CardRunners and relinquished his Red Pro status at Full Tilt.
Meanwhile, the popular poker forum has been abuzz with members laying down bets on the yet-to-be-solidified encounter between Dwan and Jungleman12. Poster Adam87 questioned the legitimacy of the new challenger: “Anyone have any idea/rumor when they’re gonna start? Tom said he wanted done by WSOPE – well that’s a month and a bit, should be very soon?”
The 2010 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Europe schedule gets underway on September 14th with the first of five events. According to a spokesperson from Full Tilt, where Dwan and Antonius are sponsored pros, many of the site’s “big names” are traveling in Europe for various live tournaments and television tapings. Consequently, one wonders whether a new challenge would even be possible given the time constraints.
Prior to their play on August 1st and again on August 3rd, Dwan and Antonius had not tangled for 90 days. Instead, the pair was focused intently on the 2010 WSOP, which emanated from the Rio in Las Vegas, and high-stakes cash games around town. Dwan, with a rumored millions of dollars in bracelet bets on the line, fell to Simon Watt heads-up in a $1,500 No Limit Hold’em event. Antonius cashed in the Main Event, his first in the money finish in a WSOP tournament in two years.
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