As previously reported, Daniel “jungleman12” Cates called out Tom “durrrr” Dwan on Twitter last week, essentially demanding exigent action on the duo’s prolonged hiatus from the Durrr Challenge. Shortly after, Cates told HighStakesDB.com that everything was set and it seemed that the challenge would, indeed, be continuing sometime in the next few weeks. Now, Cates doesn’t seem so certain.
Dan spoke to PokerListings‘ Thomas Hviid, and the story wasn’t unraveling quite as anticipated. According to Cates, the only reason he called Dwan out in a public forum was because his previous attempts, via private text messages, were met with no response from the hypothetical heads-up poker king.
“He doesn’t really want to play based on his actions,” Cates told Hviid, “so I thought if I called him out on Twitter, he’d feel more pressure to play.” Cates was obviously irritated by the fact that “durrrr” had returned to Full Tilt Poker and was back to his old high stakes cash tables. He considered a public summons to be the most plausible way to insight a response.
In the same token, some might say “jungleman12” is trying to get under Tom Dwan’s impenetrable skin. Dwan also spoke with Poker Listings, and his story was completely different. According to Dwan, he expects his and Cates’ Durrrr Challenge to resume in no time. In fact, Dwan disputed Cates’ claims entirely, stating that he’s been available to continue their Durrrr Challenge, and has made that point clear to his opponent several times.
Despite the contradiction, Daniel maintains that he has yet to get a decisive response, and has even accused “durrrr” of lacking the confidence to carry on. “I think part of him just won’t be convinced that that he’s worse than me,” Cates told Poker Listings. “He seems to think he’s going to lose the challenge.”
Jungleman12 even went so far as to say “Nobody wants to continue when they’re getting crushed.”
The Maryland-raised poker pro does have a point there, at least in terms of leading the challenge. When the two left off their prolific heads-up battle, they hadn’t quite hit the 20,000 hand mark (50,000 hands are required) and Cates was up more than $1.2 million. Should they resume the challenge and finish out all 50,000 hands with Cates leading by as little as $1, Dwan would owe him a whopping $1.5 million, in addition to whatever money he wins throughout the challenge. On the other hand, if Dwan manages a comeback in the final 30,000+ hands, taking a minimum $1 lead to finish, Cates would owe “durrrr” half a million.
It’s hard to say what will happen at this point, because it’s impossible to know who, if anyone, is telling the truth. Perhaps Dwan will get tired of Cates’ verbal thrashings and tell him the challenge is off. After all, when Full Tilt Poker shut down in 2011, it essentially severed the contract between the two. It could just be that Cates’ prattling is merely intended to rattle Dwan’s nerves, while he knows full well Tom intends to continue. Or maybe Cates is right, and Dwan is avoiding a continuation. Whatever the case may be, we can only wait, watch and hope that these two get back to the Durrrr Challenge in short order. I, for one, and likely all of you reading this, would love to see how it pans out.
The only thing we know for sure is the general consensus from poker fans. Cates’ behavior has annoyed the majority of anticipating railbirds, who are now (if not before) in full support of Dwan returning to reclaim the lead and demolish his fellow American poker pro.
