Sunday afternoon marked the finale of Full Tilt Poker’s Challenge Durrrr promotion, but there was some controversy as to who was the actual winner of the competition.
The Challenge Durrrr promotion was a chance for one of Full Tilt Poker’s players to step up and take on Tom “durrrr” Dwan in a multi-table competition. Over a four-stage qualification process, one player would sit down against Dwan and four-table either No Limit Texas Hold’em or Pot Limit Omaha. For each match won by the challenger, there were different payouts, with $1.5 million going to the amateur if he won all four matches.
The competition began in late February with players earning points through cash games over a two-week time span. The top 750 players then squared off in a series of freeroll tournaments, where the final nine competitors were determined. Those nine then entered the Matrix, playing four sit and gos against each other to determine the ultimate challenger for Dwan.
Controversy seems to have erupted following last weekend’s Matrix tournament, which was eventually won by a Russian player, “svetamillion.” When the final Challenge Durrrr matches were played yesterday, “svetamillion” had been replaced as Dwan’s competition by “inorej,” the second place finisher in the Matrix portion of the competition, with no explanation given by the site.
The change in players opened a discussion on the TwoPlusTwo forums. Over the span of over 130 posts, several possibilities were floated as to why “svetamillion” was denied the chance to take on Dwan.
The originator of the post, “Nofx Fan,” noted that “svetamillion” finished in the bottom third of the cash game segment of the competition before going on to win both the freeroll tournaments and the Matrix event. “Nofx Fan” offered the possible explanation that “svetamillion” had somehow colluded to win the competition.
Another poster, “sdrf,” offered another possible reason for the disqualification, stating, “I’m pretty sure it has to do with multiple accounts or potentially Sveta having a different player play the account.”
Poker News Daily contacted Full Tilt Poker to determine why the player change took place. In a statement, a representative of Full Tilt explained, “I can confirm that the player who got first place in the Matrix portion of the promo was disqualified. I can also say it didn’t have anything to do with the Matrix itself.”
In the finale of the Challenge Durrrr promotion, “inorej” decided to take on Dwan in four tables of Pot Limit Omaha. Within 15 minutes, ‘durrrr’ had vanquished his opponent on two of the tables, leaving “inorej” with the possibility of winning the last two tables for a $50,000 payday. Although it took another hour, Dwan was able to win the final two tables and “inorej” walked away with nothing, although he did pocket money from the earlier segments of the competition.
For his victory at all four tables in the Challenge Durrrr promotion, Dwan and Full Tilt Poker donated $40,000 to relief efforts in Japan following the devastating earthquake and tsunami that occurred earlier this month.
Regarding the controversy brought up on TwoPlusTwo over “svetamillion” being disqualified, Dwan himself commented, “Curious about the back story – 1st I’m hearing of this.”
