After taking an oh-fer in the action in London over the past few weeks, Tom “durrrr” Dwan made up for it by hitting the cash game tables earlier this week.
According to HighStakesDB.com, Dwan hit the tables against Power Poker front man Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies on Sunday night at Full Tilt Poker. The duo were at the nosebleed stakes of $500/$1,000 Pot Limit Omaha, which has been the battleground for Dwan’s “Durrrr Challenge” sessions. The action on the felt was calm for the first 500 hands before Dwan went on a run for the ages.
In one key hand, after Sahamies had 5bet Dwan to $18,000 pre-flop, the duo got further action going on a 5-8-J board with two hearts. “Ziigmund” bet the $36,000 pot after Dwan checked, only to see “durrrr” come over the top for $144,000. Sahamies moved the remainder of his stack (approximately $190,000) into the center and, after a call from Dwan, tabled his top two pair against Dwan’s open-ended straight and nut flush draws. A four on the turn gave Dwan the edge and, once the river blanked for Sahamies, shipped the $416,000 pot to Dwan.
Things continued badly for the Finnish PLO wizard as the evening wore on. Top two pair would once again bedevil “Ziigmund” as, on a 3-Q-7 board with two spades, the chips once again found the center. This time, however, Dwan would hold the top two, with Sahamies looking for the nut flush draw. With Dwan ahead, they decided to run it twice. On the first run, a second Queen on the turn ended the hand. On the second run, it was a river seven that sealed the deal, giving Dwan a pot in excess of $302,000.
Dwan’s run would continue as he 5bet pre-flop against Sahamies, building a pre-flop pot of $162,000. The flop came monochrome, 4-8-9 of clubs, at which point “durrrr” committed enough chips to put “Ziigmund” all-in. After tabling their cards, Sahamies saw he was drawing dead; his open-ended straight draw was crushed by the flopped nuts of Dwan’s Ace-high flush. Once the formalities of the turn and river were dealt twice, Dwan scooped the nearly $275,000 pot.
All totaled, Sahamies dropped a grand total of over $1.2 million in the roughly 1,000 hands against Dwan. Counting his action against “Ziigmund” and other play, “durrrr” finished off the night with over $1.5 million in profit.
In the “Durrrr Challenge,” Dwan has challenged two of the top online and live pros to take him on in heads-up play. Over a 50,000-hand multi-table battle, the winner is determined, with Dwan collecting $500,000 if he defeats his opponent and paying $1.5 million if his opponent defeats him by even $1. While one segment of the “Durrrr Challenge” seems to be dying a slow death, the second has picked up the slack and caught the eye of online railbirds.
Dwan’s inaugural battle against Patrik Antonius has ground to a halt, with no action since early August. In that battle, Dwan has built up slightly more than a $2 million lead with approximately 80% of the 50,000 hands played. No reason has been given from either camp as to why play has had such a hiatus.
The second version of the Challenge, with Dwan taking on Dan “JungleMan12” Cates, has been quite active of late. The twosome have played about 15% of the required 50,000 hands, with the last action occurring on October 2nd. At this point, “JungleMan12” has been able to stretch out to a $689,000 lead.
