According to the May 2010 issue of Bluff Magazine, CardRunners instructor Brian Townsend is next in line to take on Tom “durrrr” Dwan in the Million Dollar Challenge. Dwan revealed his next opponent in a feature story as part of an expansive interview. However, he later recanted his comments on TwoPlusTwo much to the dismay of Bluff Magazine staff. Will Townsend be next?
Dwan’s current opponent, fellow Full Tilt Poker pro Patrik Antonius, appears to be growing weary of the Durrrr Challenge. Antonius told Bluff Magazine, “I have to say I am just a little bit tired of playing [against] Tom. That’s also because I’ve had the worst run in my life in poker the last two-and-a-half months. I’ve broken almost every losing record there is. [So] I’m tired of playing anything at the moment, not just the Durrrr Challenge.” There has been a two-and-a-half week pause in action in the online contest, with Dwan and Antonius last taking to the felts on April 30th.
If Townsend were to be Dwan’s next opponent, the prospects of the second incarnation of the Durrrr Challenge finishing at warp speed seem to be high. Dwan explained, “[Two or three months is the timeline] to get it done, and with Brian, it’s possible to get it done even faster. With Brian, there will be days when we’ll probably play 5,000 hands. With Patrik, we didn’t really have any of those days. It’s possible we could get it done in six weeks.”
Major live tournaments, extensive travel, and high-stakes games against Swedish online poker star “Isildur1” contributed to the current Million Dollar Challenge spanning 15 months. Right now, Dwan is up $1.8 million after 38,974 hands, with 50,000 required for completion. Simple math will tell you that Antonius needs to average $167 profit per hand over the 11,000+ remaining in order to break even. Otherwise, he’ll be out $500,000 plus Dwan’s profits over the 50,000 hands.
Now, for the perplexing part. Dwan later posted on TwoPlusTwo that his second opponent would not be Townsend, essentially negating everything he had told the magazine. However, he did not provide any further information and there has not been a post on Dwan’s blog in a month. According to Full Tilt Poker’s website, Phil Ivey and David Benyamine are also in line to play the youngster.
To illustrate how much “Isildur1” has detracted from Dwan’s focus on the Durrrr Challenge and any other endeavors, check out this little nugget of information from Bluff Magazine’s cover story: “Dwan was filming an episode of ‘High Stakes Poker’ on GSN when ‘Isildur1’ first burst onto the scene and started causing headaches. Dwan says he was actually late getting on the set because he was playing six tables at a time with ‘Isildur1’ just offstage.” According to PokerTableRatings.com, Dwan has dropped $4.5 million to “Isildur1” since late last year.
Rest assured that no matter who takes on Dwan, we’ll be here covering it on DurrrrChallenge.com.
