So what’s up with the Durrrr Challenge anyway? In 2011, Tom Dwan was able to take back a little of the $700K lead that Dan “jungleman12” Cates had on him. Cates, who had been doing very well in the first few months of the challenge, lost his edge a bit, giving $172K back to Dwan.
But the most recent session has catapulted Cates even further into the black, putting his profit into the million dollar range; now Cates is up by $1,251,059.
While the first leg of the “durrrr” Challenge between Dwan and Patrik Antonius has been impending for two years now and won’t likely see an end, Cates is rather annoyed that part two of the challenge is lagging, though it’s not over yet. Dwan is stuck on short sessions that never seem to really go anywhere. The last session of 2011 did last a bit longer, and this was actually good for Dwan, getting him the $172K out of the hole, despite some massive pots lost.
Many thought that Dwan had perhaps learned Cates’ playing style and was gaining an edge. But that was not the case.
Thus far, 19,335 of the 50,000 hands that are required to complete the challenge have been fulfilled since the challenge began in August of 2010.
Will part 2 be a repeat of part 1, or will Dwan and Cates actually finish the remaining 30,665 hands still yet to be played? One thing is for sure: if these two do continue, there’s plenty of time for Dwan to take the lead. In fact, there’s plenty of time for Cates and Dwan to pass hundreds of thousands of dollars back and forth, stealing the lead from each other over and over and again, which would make for some great poker, but whether or not this challenge will foresee the same fate as the first is just unknown.
Perhaps the massive lead that Cates has on him will somehow motivate him to carry on. Dwan’s $2 million lead on Antonius seems to have unmotivated him to carry out that challenge, leaving it with an “inactive” status.
