Durrrr Challenge: Dwan Pulls Nearly Even With Antonius

The Durrrr Challenge resumed for a few hours recently and the pendulum swung in a direction it seemed to have forgotten recently, that is towards Tom “durrrr” Dwan.

Dwan had sustained some heavy losses recently in his million-dollar, 50,000-hand challenge with Patrik Antonius. At his lowest point so far in the contest durrrr was down over USD 600,000, but thanks to a big win in a session Sunday, he’s back to within one good-sized pot of being even with the Finn. The two high-stakes pros logged nearly three hours at the USD 200/USD 400 Pot Limit Omaha tables, and Dwan dominated the proceedings to the tune of a USD 376,597 score. It was one of those days where it seemed that no matter what Antonius did, durrrr found a way to counter.

The biggest pot of the day saw Antonius open on the button for USD 1,200 and Dwan re-raise from the big blind to USD 3,600. The Finn wasted no time raising to USD 10,800, and durrrr called to see a flop of Ad-Jd-2s. Dwan checked, Antonius bet USD 16,400, and Dwan then came back with a check-raise to USD 70,800. Antonius called there, and then called once more for his last USD 33,195 when the turn came the 6d and Dwan set him all-in. Antonius showed Qc-Td-6c-3d for the flush, while Dwan held Jc-Jh-Th-9d for a set of jacks and needed the board to pair. It did just that on the river with the 2d, shipping the second largest pot of the entire challenge so far to Dwan.

Outside of that huge pot, Dwan managed to grab four others worth more than USD 100,000. Two of them saw him hit a straight against Antonius’ three of a kind, and another saw his six-high straight beat Antonius’ wheel straight. Antonius managed to keep durrrr from taking the lead in the challenge when he grabbed a USD 106K pot of his own with a queen-high flush against Dwan’s two pair, aces and queens.

The two competitors have now played 16,124 of the 50,000 hands needed to finish the challenge. Over the course of those hands they have played more than two full days of poker and wagered a total of more than USD 107 million. Despite swings back and forth between the two of more than USD 800,000, Antonius holds a slim lead of USD 34,594.50, meaning it’s still anybody’s game.

durrrr Challenge: Dwan surges back near even

Another 786 hands. Another USD 7 million wagered. Six more pots over USD 100k.

And ultimately almost right back to square one in the durrrr Challenge as Tom Dwan surged back near even Wednesday night, winning over USD 376k and cutting Patrik Antonius' lead after 16k hands to just USD 34,594.

The fans of Patrik Antonius will claim the last session was unfortunate or was an unlucky streak. Tom Dwan fans will describe it as inevitable.

With each session laden with massive pots, it was only a matter of time until another quarter-million-plus profit made the books.

Dwan's profit in this session came mostly from winning all five of the largest pots of the night, worth well over USD 100k.

The largest pot saw the money go all in on the turn, with Antonius's turned flush versus Dwan's flopped set of jacks.

The river paired the board, giving Dwan a full house and the USD 230k pot along with it.

After a night as big as this, and given Dwan's propensity for busting out early at the WSOP these days, it wouldn't be surprising to see some more Challenge action go down tonight.

Check back in the MarketPulse section for hand replays and updates, or log in to Full Tilt and watch the action as it happens.

durrrr Challenge by the numbers:
• 107,475,899: Total amount wagered in the challenge
• 9,000,000: Approximate cost of the original IBM computers
• 376,597: Amount Antonius lost in the latest session
• 40,000: Cost for a night in the Hugh Hefner suite at the Palms
• 34,594: Amount Antonius is ahead
• 16,124: Total hands played so far
• 4,737: Average pot size
• 60: Number of people you needed to run your original IBM computer
• 32: Percentage of challenge completed