The Durrrr Challenge returned to the felts of Full Tilt Poker in recent days, with Tom Dwan and Patrik Antonius battling for nearly 500 hands and a bevy of six-figure pots. DurrrrChallenge.com sat down with PokerXFactor instructor Chris “Fox” Wallace to analyze two of the hands during the sudden burst of activity.
In our first hand, Antonius raised to $1,200 pre-flop with 6c Qh 8s 9h and Dwan made it $3,600 with Ks Th Qd Qs . Antonius pushed the action to $7,200, Dwan made it $21,600, and Antonius called to see a flop of 3d Qc 9c . Dwan bet, Antonius raised enough to put his nemesis all-in, and Dwan called for his stack with a set of queens. Antonius could not improve on his top two pair when the board filled out 2-5 and Dwan scooped a $157,000 pot.
DurrrrChallenge.com: Talk about Antonius’ pre-flop aggression with what seems like a marginal hand.
Chris Wallace: His mistake is the raise to $7,200. There might be some history behind this, but he raises less than the pot. He just raises $3,600 more. He had to type that number in when he bet it, but I think he was just trying to be in control of the hand because he had position. The stacks are really deep here. Two-hundred big blinds is the effective stack, so you can afford to get away with a little more pre-flop.
In addition, Antonius cannot expect Durrrr to have the hand he does because he has a queen and a nine in his own hand and a re-raise pre-flop doesn’t indicate pocket threes. He’s probably expecting Dwan to show a big wrap straight draw.
***
In the next hand we’ll examine (which is similar to the first one), after the standard raising pre-flop, Antonius fired out a bet of $6,000 on a flop of 6c 3h 2s holding 3c 6h 5h Kc for top two pair. Dwan made it $19,200 with 6s 2d 6d Qs for top set and Antonius came over the top for $64,800. Dwan re-raised all-in and Antonius called the extra $4,600. The board filled out 10d 3d, improving Dwan to a boat with sixes full of threes. The pot was worth $146,000.
DurrrrChallenge.com: Does Antonius overplay top two pair on the flop considering the straight possibilities out there?
Chris Wallace: He has some redraws too. He has top two pair, an inside straight draw, and both backdoor flush draws. I’d be fairly excited about this hand as well. You’re not that far behind an opponent with 5-4 if you have top two pair. It might not be a bad idea to call Dwan’s raise to $19,200 and see the turn rather than get so frisky with it, though. These guys are so aggressive that pot control isn’t a big thing for them.
Antonius once again bets less than the size of the pot on the flop ($6,000 into a pot of $7,200) and he might be trying to trap Durrrr all-in, but he has to know that if Durrrr raises the max, when Antonius shoves, Durrrr has to call. He’s setting it up to look weak and get it all-in.
