The Million Dollar Challenge between Tom “durrrr” Dwan and Dan “JungleMan12” Cates resumed on Monday, with a midday session that saw Cates widen his lead to $692,000 after 6,820 hands. With the challenge about 13% of the way home, let’s check out some of the highlights from Monday’s play.
In one hand, Cates collected a $122,000 pot holding A-10 of spades on a board reading 5-5-4-A-Q with two diamonds for top pair. Dwan held 8-3 of diamonds for a busted flush draw, but fired out on the river anyway and Cates called all-in.
Also buzz worthy was a hand featuring a chopped pot with Cates’ aces against Dwan’s J-2. The money went into the middle on a board of 7-2-4-J and per the rules of the second Durrrr Challenge, the river was run twice. The first river was a king, ensuring that Dwan would scoop half of the pot, but the second river was an ace, resulting in a chop. The unfortunate hand cost Dwan nearly $50,000 in real money.
Cates scooped a $62,000 pot with the nut flush against Dwan’s “nuclear squadoosh” of nine-high, but Dwan struck back by hitting second set with pocket tens and raking in a $131,000 pot; Cates’ cards were not revealed in the latter hand. Dwan also dragged a $71,000 pot with pocket queens against Cates’ nut flush draw. The turn and river were both run twice, but none of the four cards filled Cates’ flush and Dwan earned the entire pot.
According to Full Tilt Poker’s blog, Cates has won 61% of all pots and has a VPIP (Voluntarily Put Money into the Pot) of 69%. Dwan’s VPIP is slightly lower at 65% and Cates has a win rate of about 25 BB/100. The pair is playing $200/$400 No Limit Hold’em and must hit 50,000 hands before the challenge can conclude.
When Dwan and Cates will play again is anyone’s guess, but Cates had already Twittered his success for the world to see: “Won another $173K, so far up almost $700K in almost 7K hands.” Stay tuned to DurrrrChallenge.com for the latest.
