Monthly Archives: May 2009
Patrik Antonius Suffering from Back Problems?
In case you missed the official World Series of Poker (WSOP) coverage of the $1,000 buy-in Stimulus Special No Limit Hold’em tournament, Maya Gellar revealed to tournament officials why her significant other was a no-show to the event. She explained that Patrik Antonius’ back is “hurt and he’s waiting for the cash games at the Bellagio.” The quote is taken from the official WSOP live coverage. Around the same time, play resumed in the Tom Dwan Million Dollar Challenge, with the contest officially surpassing the 15,000 hand mark. We hope that Antonius can recover in time for the 2009 WSOP Main Event, which begins on July 3rd with the first of four starting days. With 16 hour sessions the norm in that event, back problems could pose a significant problem. The Main Event does not play down to its final table until July 15th. Health issues or not, Antonius faced… Read More »
Last One In, First One Out
In the world of inventory management, “Last In, First Out” is abbreviated “LIFO.” In the world of $40,000 buy-in No Limit Hold’em tournaments, it’s called a “Durrrr.” Tom “durrrr” Dwan, one-half of the ongoing Million Dollar Challenge, lasted nearly two levels in the high-stakes live tournament at the World Series of Poker (WSOP), busting just before the first break after showing up late. The official WSOP coverage hadn’t quite gotten to page two when Dwan and David “The Dragon” Pham tangled in Durrrr’s final pot. After a flop of 8-5-3, Dwan check-called a bet of 8,200 from Pham. The turn came the deuce of diamonds, putting two diamonds and two clubs on the board. Then, the action really heated up. Pham bet 28,000, Dwan pushed for 54,000, and Pham made the call with Dwan’s tournament life on the line. Pham turned over pocket kings, while Dwan showed pocket sixes. Needing… Read More »
NBA Finals? No. WSOP? No. Challenge Play? Yup.
durrrr made a brief appearance for the $40K World Series of Poker Event yesterday, but busted early from the event after showing up nearly an hour after play began. He seems to have found plenty to do until the next WSOP event he plays though. He and Antonius were on the Challenge tables from around 8:30PM ET until shortly after 11:30PM. During much of that time, durrrr also played Phil Ivey, who busted from the $40K just an hour or two ago himself, on two $500/$1,000 heads-up PLO tables. Antonius pulled out to a lead early in the session, but durrrr took down a massive pot around 10:15 to cut his losses to around $40K. At one point durrrr was up around $10K, but he ended the evening down $23,233.50 while Patrik picked up $23,053, increasing his total lead to $447,684. Considering durrrr was as down over $100K during the… Read More »
DC Takes Center Stage on NHUPC
Recently during NBC’s coverage of the National Heads-Up Poker Championship, Tom “durrrr” Dwan battled against Phil Hellmuth. The two hit the felts at the featured table and a discussion of the Million Dollar Challenge between Dwan and Patrik Antonius quickly ensued. Let’s recap the action for you in case you missed it. Hellmuth opened the conversation by asking, “So right now you’re playing Patrik?” Dwan responded, “We should be able to finish in a few weeks if there are no good games. We’ve had different schedules and there have been so many games. I think Ivey’s next in line, but I’m not sure. I just sit there and post and see who comes.” National Heads-Up Poker Championship commentator Aji Nejad then explained the Durrrr Challenge to viewers. The heads-up tournament played out at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas in March. Nearly three months later, Dwan and Antonius have yet to… Read More »
Does Aggression Really Pay?
It’s hard to believe that the Tom Dwan Million Dollar Challenge is actually about to pass the 15,000 hand mark. Remember, Dwan and Patrik Antonius are playing to 50,000 hands, with $1.5 million going to Antonius from Dwan if the youngster goes down in flames. Durrrr’s aggression has been the talk of the town during this contest. Whether it will help him or hurt him in digging out of his current $400,000 deficit is currently up in the air. Let’s recap a hand from the May 20th session to see whether aggression really does pay off. In the hand in question, Dwan began with a 2:1 edge in stack size. Antonius made it $1,200 pre-flop, Dwan raised to $3,600, and Antonius called the extra $2,400. The flop came 4-7-9. Durrrr bet $4,800 into the $7,200 pot, Antonius bumped the price of poker to $21,600, Dwan bet enough to put his… Read More »
The 15k Hand Milestone
If you are a railbird of the high stakes games at FTP you’ll know that durrrr has had better days at the tables. So far this year his downswings have been in the millions of dollars, but since his skill in poker is outstanding he has managed to control the downswings before going broke. In the past days he has managed to earn around two million dollars so I think it’s safe to say that he is not broke like many people say. The durrrr challenge saw some action at the tables with a small session that logged 693 hands and Patrik Antonius extended his lead to $424 631. They are about to reach the 15 thousand hand milestone that will close our prediction contest. The durrrr challenge will continue until they reach 50K hands, that’s when a winner will be declared. It would be nice to see another durrrr… Read More »
What Does Patrik Antonius Have?
During the May 12th installment of the Tom Dwan Million Dollar Challenge, we saw one of the first sizable pots that did not involve an all-in after the flop. Instead, a bet and call on the river shipped $120,000 to Tom “durrrr” Dwan; Patrik Antonius did us the honor of mucking. We’d like to invite you sit down with DurrrrChallenge.com as we investigate what hand Antonius held. Antonius made it $1,200 pre-flop, Dwan pushed the action to $3,600, and Antonius called. The flop came 6-J-7 with two spades and Dwan led out for $4,800. Antonius made the call and the turn came the nine of diamonds. Dwan check-called a $14,400 bet from his opponent and the river brought the king of spades. Dwan bet $37,200 and Antonius just called. The youngster flipped up 3h Ts As Ac for the nut flush, while Antonius mucked, leaving us all wondering what he… Read More »
Hand Analysis from Tuesday’s Session
The Durrrr Challenge resumed for a very quick 300+ hand session on Tuesday night that saw Tom Dwan finally cut into Patrik Antonius and the big giant pile of “durrrr cash” that he’s won over the course of the challenge thus far. It seems that these shove situations where Dwan was getting the worse of it might have finally turned in his favor and he might have wisened up and not started shoving all in with every draw he flopped. Patrik Checks His Boat on the River Full Tilt Poker $200/$400 Pot Limit Omaha Hi – 2 players durrrr (BB): $90995.50 Patrik Antonius (BTN/SB): $68996.00 Pre Flop: ($600.00) Patrik Antonius raises to $1200, durrrr calls $800 Flop: ($2400.00) Js Ts 2h (2 players) durrrr bets $2000, Patrik Antonius calls $2000 Turn: ($6400.00) 2d (2 players) durrrr bets $5400, Patrik Antonius requests TIME, Patrik Antonius calls $5400 River: ($17200.00) 2c (2… Read More »
Tuesday Session Recap
Patrik and durrrr put in a short session last night that lasted from 11PM ET until right around midnight. Over that short period they logged 310 hands and durrrr was able to book a much-needed win to compensate for some of the big losses he suffered in the May 4th session. Patrik still holds the overall lead with $391,704 in total profit, but it was durrrr who walked away the winner yesterday. He managed to take $96,358 off Antonius yesterday thanks to some solid play and big pots that went his way. 13,556 of the 50,000 Challenge hands are now in the books and the deadline for our prediction contest is right around the corner. Get yours in before it is too late! It remains to be seen when or if the Challenge will come to an end, especially with the World Series of Poker just around the corner, but… Read More »
Against the Odds: The Last Two Weeks
Challenge action screeched to a halt after last week’s session when Patrik picked up over $300K in just over an hour. Since then, durrrr has busied himself with some heads-up matches with Gus Hansen, Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies and Phil Ivey. Two days after his worst Challenge session to date, durrrr took an impressive $1 million off of Hansen in PLO, but he lost a good chunk of his winnings back this past Sunday after a long day at the tables. Since durrrr seems more occupied with other high stakes action than with the Challenge, let’s take advantage of this pause in play and break down the odds from a couple of hands from the past two sessions in this latest installment of Against the Odds: Rivered Straight for $101K Full Tilt Poker $200/$400 Pot Limit Omaha Hi – 2 players durrrr (BTN/SB): $139491.50 Patrik Antonius (BB): $50500.00 Pre Flop: ($600.00)… Read More »
