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#787 – 2009 WSOP #45 – Seen & Heard #13 – Antonius & Dwan Updates and Sightings
Patrik Antonius and Tom Dwan have been keeping a low profile at this World Series of Poker, but I can confirm that they are both here. And, as you can tell from Full Tilt’s improved Durrrr Challenge Page, they have been very busy in their titanic heads-up match.
PATRIK
I haven’t seen Patrik at the Series but I know he’s here. He celebrated with good friend Roland De Wolfe when Roland won his first bracelet last week. My assistant Shauna joined them and, like just about everyone else on Earth, was taken with Antonius. I think she said “he’s beautiful” or “what a dreamboat” or something like that; I really don’t listen to such things.
DURRRR
I haven’t seen Tom either, but I know people who have. Roberto Romanello, with whom I spent some time yesterday for a soon-to-be-posted profile, bounced Dwan from the Heads-Up World Championship last week.
THE CHALLENGE
Considering the deliberate pace of the match so far, you would expect that it might be on hiatus during the World Series. That appeared to be the case for awhile, but the match has been heating up, with several big sessions in the last week or two.
Most important, Durrrr has seized the lead, and in pretty decisive fashion. As you can see from the graph on the Durrrr Challenge page, after Dwan broke to an early lead, Antonius chipped away and then took the lead, increasing it gradually. I had several pros tell me that was the destined outcome of the match: Tom’s aggressiveness would win him a bunch of pots early on and get him action on his big hands, but Patrik’s more solid play and skill at picking up his opponents’ rhythms would gradually turn things his way.
I guess someone forgot to give Tom Dwan the script. Over the last 5,000 hands, there has been a substantial swing in Durrrr’s direction, at one point almost $2 million. After nearly 15,000 hands, Antonius held a lead of approximately $600,000. But now, after 20,647 hands, Dwan has retaken the lead and has won over $700,000. (At one point during Tom’s latest run, his winnings swelled above the $1.2 million mark.)
All but one of their biggest pots occurred during the most recent session, and if they keep bringing biggest stacks into their confrontations, that will continue. And they’re still not even halfway finished with the contest.
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