Monthly Archives: March 2009
Ex-PokerStars Exec Dan Goldman on the Million Dollar Challenge
While there’s a lull in the Million Dollar Challenge, we found time to catch up with ex-PokerStars executive Dan Goldman to talk about the allure of the contest for the rest of the industry. In addition to helping create the world’s largest online poker site, Goldman has also been involved with Duplicate Poker and Fleet Street Games. He knows what it takes to create a wildly successful promotional effort. Goldman told DurrrrChallenge.com, “Events like the Million Dollar Challenge are good for the business because they directly promote poker and provide players with something to aspire to in the same way that the World Series of Poker and World Poker Tour do.” In essence, it’s about onlookers wondering whether they have what it takes to compete against Tom Dwan and Patrik Antonius in high-stakes Pot Limit Omaha or No Limit Hold’em. Other recent industry side events in poker have included a… Read More »
Inside look at Tom Dwan’s Game
Recently, DurrrrChallenge.com sat down with Scott “dorinvandy” Dorin, who won a $10,000 buy-in No Limit Hold’em event during the 2008 PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) for over $600,000. Dorin has battled against Tom “durrrr” Dwan in a live $100/$200 No Limit game in Las Vegas and gave us the inside scoop on the young guns’ success. Dorin commented, “When I played with durrrr, it was in a live full ring game, which is quite a bit different than heads-up online. He couldn’t really get out of line at the table, but he was certainly way more creative than anyone else. I think he is ahead of the curve in terms of creativity. It seems like he starts trends and new ways to counter certain plays and then everyone else picks up on them.” In essence, Dwan is the trend-setter in the industry. He’s been highly praised by his… Read More »
Maybe we need another prediction contest
We are seriously considering making an additional prediction contest to guess the number of hands durrrr and Patrik will play. Or maybe the day they will officially announce they’re quitting the contest. Either one could be interesting. Even though we REALLY want to see this whole thing play out for obvious reasons, it’s looking less and less likely every day that our first prediction contest will even be valid. Remember, the total hand count of the current match needs to break 30,000 for it to become valid. We haven’t even closed the guessing yet! (that’ll happen at 15,000 hands). Anyway, like you, we’re starting to get impatient with the players. While we know that the goal of this challenge is not to entertain the poker world, it would be nice for them to finish what they said that would finish. Let’s hope it happens…
Chris Wallace (Fox) Describes Basic Omaha Strategy
We asked one of the top pros in the world of online poker, Chris “Fox” Wallace, to share with us some of the ins and outs of Omaha. Tom “durrrr” Dwan and Patrik Antonius are currently battling it out in Omaha, so let’s check out some of the quirks of the popular poker game. DurrrrChallenge.com: How does Omaha compare to Texas Hold’em, which many of our readers are familiar with? Wallace: Omaha high is a simple game in most cases. It’s easy to know where you’re at. The draws are so big that you can play aggressively. It’s an easy game because you have a lot of information. You know if your opponent has something most of the time. When you’re playing heads-up like Dwan and Antonius are, there is some bluffing involved. You can become pot-committed quicker because the draws are bigger and people play more aggressively. DC: Is… Read More »
Against the Odds: Big Hands from Sunday
It may have only lasted 50 minutes with just a small ($9,000) profit for Patrik Antonius, but the Challenge’s early Sunday session did have a few monster pots and big suck outs. Let’s take a closer look at two of the biggest hands of the day. The first one was a hefty suck-out in durrrr’s favor while the second was the only $100K plus pot of the day that helped to put Patrik up on the day: durrrr rivers a straight for $63K Full Tilt Poker $200/$400 Pot Limit Omaha Hi – 2 players durrrr (BTN/SB): $48399.50 Patrik Antonius (BB): $31600.00 Pre Flop: ($600.00) durrrr raises to $1200, Patrik Antonius raises to $3600, durrrr calls $2400 Flop: ($7200.00) 3h 5d 6h (2 players) Patrik Antonius checks, durrrr bets $4800, Patrik Antonius raises to $21600, durrrr raises to $44799.50 all in, Patrik Antonius calls $6400 all in Turn: ($63200.00) Ks (2… Read More »
Analysis from Sunday’s Session
Midstakes NL player Sean Gibson is back to analyze hands as Patrik Antonius and Tom Dwan played some hands this past Sunday (March 1st). Gibson breaks down two of the hands and possible meta-game from this short session. durrrr adds another one – $72k pot Full Tilt Poker $200/$400 Pot Limit Omaha Hi – 2 players durrrr (BB): $83598.50 Patrik Antonius (BTN/SB): $36399.50 Pre Flop: ($600.00) Patrik Antonius raises to $1200, durrrr calls $800 Flop: ($2400.00) As Js Kh (2 players) durrrr checks, Patrik Antonius bets $2400, durrrr raises to $6700, Patrik Antonius calls $4300 Turn: ($15800.00) 8h (2 players) durrrr bets $15800, Patrik Antonius raises to $28499.50 all in, durrrr calls $12699.50 River: ($72799.00) Ks (2 players – 1 is all in) Final Pot: $72799.00 durrrr shows 3s Ac 4h Ad (a full house, Aces full of Kings) Patrik Antonius shows Qh Th Kc 8c (a full house, Kings… Read More »
Dwan Impresses on High Stakes Poker
The fifth season of GSN’s “High Stakes Poker” kicked off on Sunday night at 9:00pm ET. The show featured a battle between poker’s elite and the industry’s young guns, led by Tom “durrrr” Dwan. Seated to Dwan’s left during the first of 13 one hour episodes was David Benyamine, one of his three opponents in the Million Dollar Challenge. Dwan’s loose style and willingness to see flops led to the following comments from others at the table during the show’s debut: Doyle Brunson: “He has more gamble than any of the other players. It reminds me of how I played back when I was his age.” Eli Elezra: “He comes with more game. Between Dwan and Sahamies, they’re somewhere in the top five.” Daniel Negreanu: “Durrrr is very capable. It’s tough to steal pots.” Stay tuned to durrrrchallenge.com for the latest from Tom Dwan’s quest for poker immortality.
Finally! We have a little action
Granted, durrrr and Patrik only put in 226 hands in a little action on Sunday. But that’s better than zero, right? Overall Patrik managed to pull back about $9.5k of durrrr’s lead thereby putting him at down around $140k for the challenge thus far. There were only four reasonably big pots played over the course of the session early Sunday morning. Check back with durrrrchallenge.com for updates on any future action. Also, don’t forget to enter our prediction contest before Patrik and durrrr get to 15,000 totals hands. durrrr takes the first decent pot – $63k pot Full Tilt Poker $200/$400 Pot Limit Omaha Hi – 2 players durrrr (BTN/SB): $48399.50 Patrik Antonius (BB): $31600.00 Pre Flop: ($600.00) durrrr raises to $1200, Patrik Antonius raises to $3600, durrrr calls $2400 Flop: ($7200.00) 3h 5d 6h (2 players) Patrik Antonius checks, durrrr bets $4800, Patrik Antonius raises to $21600, durrrr raises… Read More »
Borrrrrrrrring
Pretty much nothing has been going on challenge-wise the last few days. The eight “durrrr Challenge” tables on Full Tilt Poker have remained empty and the poker world has been wondering “will this challenge EVER finish”? In fact, some are even wondering if it’s over less than 4,000 hands into an expected 150,000 hands (assuming all three players who accepted the challenge managed to finish it out). We believe that the challenge will restart sometime this week. We think that it’s been a combination of online funding problems, scheduling conflicts and downswing mindsets that have caused the challenge delay. Obviously all of those sorts of problems can be dealt with. Anyway, the most-exciting durrrrchallenge.com-related thing that has been going on is the Prediction Contest that we’re running. In case you missed it, we’re giving away thousands of dollars in a total freeroll. No entry fee, no intrusive signup process, just… Read More »
