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.
