Poker From The Rail
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Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
Fans of the big online poker games were once again drawn to the tables for the durrrr Challenge 2 when Daniel “jungleman12″ Cates sent out a short twitter message saying they were starting up a new session. Before the players could even kick things off the rail was deep with fanboys, media, and the requisite beggars. After six hours of play and nearly 3,000 hands, Cates would put add a huge amount of money to his lead. Dwan’s deficit was hovering around the $100,000 mark for most of the session but lost some critical hands late to put himself another $319,000 in the hole.
There were a few fireworks early as the “small” stacks of $40,000 each were run up to the point where each was fairly deep on all four tables and they settled into the grind. Cates was up early and would extend upwards to a $250,000 lead but Dwan would punch back a few times to pull almost even at one point. Dwan made several obvious adjustments to his game but it seemed to prevent the inevitable. More than 1/3 of the challenge is complete (17,108 of 50,000 hands) and Cates lead has been extended his lead to $820,000 making a tough hill to climb for Dwan.
Table 13 was the hotspot throughout the session. 14 hands topped the $100,000 mark and half of those occurred on Table 13 including the biggest pot of the night. Table 11 was the biggest winner for Cates with him having in excess of $300,000 for the latter parts of the session and alone accounted for $227,000 of his profit on the evening. The session started at 21:30ET and six hours later the damage was done.
Table 10: 514 hands, Cates $79,606
Table 11: 740 hands, Cates $227,000
Table 12: 693 hands, Dwan $58,412
Table 13: 699 hands, Cates $147,236
Table 14: 265 hands, Dwan $77,799
You can find all the relevant facts, replays, and stats on the durrrr Challenge 2 stats page. Here are few of the major hands during the latest session (click the images to enlarge).
5. The fifth biggest pot of the session will be tough to decipher since we don’t know exactly what durrrr was holding but we can always speculate. Cates opened the action with a min-raise on the button and was repopped by Dwan. Cates flat called the 3-bet preflop to see the board run out 4d 3s 2h prompting a $3,200 bet by Dwan into the $4,800 pot. Cates raised to $8,800 was called and Dwan then checked the Ks on the turn. With the pot sitting at $22,400, Cates bet out $17,200 and got another call from Dwan leaving Cates with just $37,294 behind. Those chips went into the middle when Dwan checked the Ace of diamonds on the river.
We won’t know what Dwan was holding but he called the $37,294 (into $94,094) to see Cates show 44 for the flop set and $131,000.
4. The fourth biggest hand stuck to the script preflop. Cates min-raised on the button and saw a flop after Dwan called. 7c 2s 4s flop brought out a few fireworks as Dwan check raised to $4,400 only to see Cates fire another bullet up to $9,200 which was just called. The 6d on the turn made for an interesting looking board that Dwan just check/called Cates $16,800 bet, again leaving a player with less than the pot in front. The 5h prompted Dwan to shove them in with a call from Cates.
Dwan’s TPCK (top pair, crap kicker) added a gutterball on the turn which got there on the river. We have no idea if he was good the entire way but he was able to drag a healthy pot over $144,000.
3. That will be the last huge hand posted where we must theorize on the losing hand, the third biggest hand involves the favored “run it twice” option. Next verse is same as the first as Cates min-raises his button to have Dwan repop from his big blind. This time Cates opts to put in another raise and they created a $11,200 pot preflop, the perfect recipe monster potten. The K 9 2 all heart flop only brought out a mellow $5,400 check/call between the two but the Tc on the turn lit the fuse. A puny $22,000 pot ballooned when Dwan check-raised his entire $67,000 stack.
Cates easily called with his flopped flush leaving Dwan drawing awfully thin to just 4 outs. Even running it twice couldn’t produce the boat suckout for Dwan (rigged!) and Cates added another $156,000 to his total.
2. In order to produce these huge heads up pots the players need to have a metric ton in front and both be relatively close (try explaining that concept to a forum monkey). The second biggest hand started with Cates sitting on just over $100,000 and Dwan on $90,000. My words sound repetitive when I write that Cates began the hand with a min-raise on the button, a raise buy Dwan in the big blind, but just a flat call this time by the “jungleman12″. It was a pretty interesting 8h Qc 7c flop which saw Dwan lead out $3,200. That brought a $8,800 raise from Cates, slightly larger than the pot, and was just called by Dwan. The Kh on the turn made for a straight and flush happy board, Dwan check-called an $18,400 bet from Cates to see the river bring the 3h.
With Dwan holding just a few dollars more than the pot, he opted to check the river and Cates fired his last bullet. It turned out to be a self-inflicted wound as Dwan went running hearts (with a turned gutshot) to beat the Cates flopped 8′s up. “durrrr” pulled back over $180,000 to narrow the numbers on the session.
5. Dwan seemed to spend the entire session grinding his way back into the match only to get popped for another big hand. At one point he had scratched himself within a few thousand of even but never held on. Below is the biggest hand of the session and occurred near the end of the session. Only another 100 hands would be played after this and it accounted for the large majority of Cates final numbers.
Flipping the script, Dwan began with the button and opted for his standard pot size open only to get 3-bet by Cates to $4,800. After Dwan called his raise, they saw a flop which looked a bit like the one above. Qc 8h 6h caused Cates to fire out a bet just a little over half the pot before their friend the King of Hearts appeared on the turn. Dwan once again just flat called a less-than-pot sized bet from Cates and only $54,000 up for grabs. Cates bet $43,600 when the 3d hit the river leaving the same amount behind. Dwan came over the top and we suddenly had ourselves a $216,000 pot.
Dwan may have thought his hand was good on the turn but was instead drawing to one tiny straight flush out on the river. Cates would go on to add nearly $100,000 onto this stack after this hand and pretty much ended any chance of Dwan making up ground this session.
Some other miscellaneous crazy hands:
Unimproved aces hold up at showdown?
Cates shows how to hit your full house outs, twice
Coin flipping for $115,000 and winning different ways
Tags: AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, durrrr, durrrr Challenge, jungleman12, Tom Dwan
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
Big time poker games are unpredictable and rarely run on a schedule as witnessed over the short, volatile history of the durrrr Challenge 2 between Tom Dwan and Dan “jungleman12″ Cates. I missed the session played last week while cruising the friendly skies at 35,000 feet and would have missed this one in Nevernever Land had I not checked twitter before calling it a night. Dwan threw out a casual tweet about another session starting and sent the forum monkey world all a-twitter. Before long they were both loaded up across four tables of $200/$400 Heads Up NLHE tables firing away.
Action began fast with an all-in on the very first hand and there was plenty of action for the railbirds to enjoy. 1,400 hands later Dwan was able to book another small win against Cates to the tune of ~$25,000 but the graph is still firmly planted on the side of “jungleman12″. If the tide hasn’t shifted towards Dwan, he has at least stopped the hemorrhaging that was seen early on. Still over 37,000 left to play in the challenge so plenty of room for both sides to make strides. You can check out the durrrr 2 Challenge Stat page for the current numbers and some hand replays.
Session hands: 1,399
Session winnings: Tom Dwan $24,436
Table 9: 56 hands, Dwan $16,996
Table 10: 311 hands, Dwan $17,974
Table 11: 298 hands, Cates $42,120
Table 12: 266 hands, Dwan $125,366
Table 13: 288 hands, Cates $74,264
Table 14: 58 hands, Cates $11,206
Table 15: 61 hands, Cates $2,004
Table 16: 61 hands, Cates $6,306
Below are some of the big hands which occurred over the session.
Neither wasted any time getting all the chips in the middle, on the very first hand they shipped ‘em in with a good old fashion coin flip. Big Slick off for Cates and two red Queens for Dwan with it run twice. Cates won the first but also lost an out for the second run with the unnecessary rivered trip Kings. The second board ran clean and our first hand was big but anti-climatic.
The action didn’t slow down as they build big pots early for the massive pots later. The very next hand on Table 10 created another $80,000 pot but this time it was not chopped. Cates opened with the standard min-raise on the button which Dwan called to see a 7c 2s 5d flop. A series of raises had both players once again putting everything in the middle but “jungleman12″ was drawing thin even with the run it twice option holding top pair versus the top two of Dwan. Dwan drew first blood.
Table 10 produced one more big hand during the session and a nice cooler in Cates favor. Cates once again min-raised his button then re-raised Dwan’s 3-bet to produce a pot over $12,000. The 7-high flop brought a series of bets getting all the money in with Dwan’s 99 way behind the JJ of Cates. Running it twice did not allow Dwan to hit a two outer and Cates picked up over $114,000.
Table 11 started off fairly innocent but finally produced a huge pot. Dwan started things off with a pot sized raise on the button which Cates called. The flop was Ts 2h 9d and Cates check-raised Dwan’s bet only to see him come back over the top with a 3-bet which Cates just called. The pot was over $37,000 with Dwan having only $29,000 behind, Cates insta-shoved the 8d turn having Dwan covered by nearly $100,000. Dwan called with a decent chance of being ahead holding tens up and the flush draw but was up against Cates bigger two pair. Running the river twice did not help Dwan hit his 3/1 dog and another big hand shipped towards “jungleman12″.
The biggest pot on Table 11 was pushed Dwan’s way but could have been a little bigger. Dwan’s standard pot-sized button raise was called again by Cates ahead of a Jack-high two club flop. Cates check-raised Dwan’s bet according to the script but the turn Ace slowed Dwan down with flat calls on the last two streets. When the cards were tabled we saw Cates missed his club flush draw versus the Kings of Dwan.
Finally, yet another cooler laid at the feet of “jungleman12″ early in play on Table 13. It started off like many other hands with Cates min-raising his button and Dwan hitting the pot button. They took their time getting everything in the middle since both were holding heads up monsters. Cates was looking for a miracle during one of the two runs but couldn’t find anything to help his Queens crack Kings.
Tags: AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, durrrr, durrrr Challenge, jungleman12, Tom Dwan
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
After what seemed like endless delays, the durrrr Challenge 2 picked back up this past Friday between Tom Dwan and Dan “jungleman12″ Cates. Challenge 2 stormed out of the gates at the beginning but hit a string of logistical snags over the last few months including a few small tournaments in Europe (2010 World Series of Poker Europe) as well as some promotional obligations for Dwan. Out of the blue on Friday twitter exploded with exclamations they were at it again. I fired up the old poker engine to rail along with the rest of the world and here is what I witnessed.
The two players faced off across four tables of No Limit Hold’em heads up at $200/$400 blinds. Just over 2,000 hands were played in two different sessions with a short break in between. There were a handful of 6 digit pots but most of them were chopped up courtesy of the “run it twice” option meant to reduce variance but instead providing a ton of “oh well” hands so far. jungleman12 came out ahead in the first, durrrr stormed back in the second to put a tiny dent in the huge lead from late in the summer. Still less than 20% of the 50,000 hands have been played with jungleman12 ahead by nearly $650,000. Below are some of the big hands we saw throughout the day.
You can stay up to date with the results at the durrrr 2 Challenge stats page.
One of the biggest hands left everyone shaking their heads with both players trying to get tricky. jungleman12 was the small blind on the button and fired out a min-raise to 800 only to watch durrrr 3-bet the pot. All pretty standard action until jungleman12 4-bet up to $5,200 generating a flat call from durrrr and building a +$10,000 pot preflop. Things slowed down on the 3h 6s 6d flop with Dwan check calling Cates less than 50% pot bet. The 9s on the turn saw another check-call from Dwan leaving Cates with under $40,000 and the pot just under $50,000. The 3 of clubs hit the river and Dwan once again check-called the less than pot shove from Cates.
When the cards were tabled, all anyone could say was “that was a good flop for your hand“.
The joys of the “run it twice” option were evident in the biggest hand of the session which saw $170,000 sitting in the middle with two cards to come. The action started in a similar fashion to the hand above, Cates min-raising out of the small blind and Dwan popping it up. This time around Cates just called and they saw a Js 5d 8s flop. After a series of raises all the chips ended up in the middle creating a pot just under $170,000. Cates was holding 75s for bottom pair with the flush draw and Dwan was holding two black Kings. It was a virtual coin flip and running it twice produced a split pot. Cates rivered a spade in the first run and airballed the second.
The numbers:
Cards – %win
7s5s – 52.53
KcKd – 47.47
The only hand of the session which was all-in preflop, perhaps the players will have a weird aversion to pocket Kings when playing heads up. They built a $118,000 pot before the board was dealt with Cates all-in with 99 against Dwan’s KK. Running it twice gave the extra shot of binking his two outs which is exactly what happened. I am already prepared for the wingnut conspiracy folks with their doom-switch talk in the comments.
The second biggest pot of the session was once again chopped up between the two players but plenty of action to get us there. The money finally made it’s way to the center on the turn with the board reading Td 5h 9d 3h. Cates having Dwan covered and the pot was just south of $168,000. Cates was ahead with the almighty T8o versus the KQh of Dwan for a flush draw, gut shot straight draw, and two overs. They ran it twice with Dwan rivering the flush on the first run and whiffing the second for another huge, but chopped, pot.
By the end of the two sessions of the day, Dwan managed to pull back just ~$13,000 and is still facing a huge deficient with more than 80% of the challenge remaining. Everyone is waiting for the next big session between these two monsters and things look to be heating back up. The durrrr Challenge 2 stats page has all the information you need and will let you know when they are back running.
Tags: AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, durrrr, durrrr Challenge, jungleman12, Tom Dwan
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
This week’s list is not necessarily a “Top 5″ list as I will barely mention the durrrr Challenge 2 which everyone seems to be following (for good reason) but more a little Hall of Fame action followed by a few videos. The entire list could be composed solely of poker related videos but decided the 2010 Hall of Fame nominees and Jen Harman news worthy of a mention.
Dwan is down nearly $700,000 to Dan “jungleman12″ Cates, most of the top players in the world have taken up their place in Europe, and Blair Hinkle won the WSOP Circuit Event in some place called “Council Bluffs” (appropriate name). Just a few of the things that did not make the list this week.
1. The 2010 Poker Hall of Fame nominees were released and include 4 members of Team Full Tilt.
2. Jennifer Harman will be inducted to the Women in Poker Hall of Fame along with Kathy Liebert and Billie Brown.
3. Tom “durrrr” Dwan joins This Week in Poker to discuss the durrrr Challenge 2 and his WSOP bracelet prop bets.
4. ABC’s Nightline aired a story about online poker that wasn’t 6 minutes of taking pot shots.
5. Phil Ivey spends 3 solid minutes in front of the camera for a proper interview.
Tags: AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, Chris Ferguson, durrrr, durrrr Challenge, Erik Seidel, Jennifer Harman, Phil Ivey
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
Last week I had a conversation with Tom Dwan about the next durrrr Challenge against Dan “jungleman12″ Cates, 24 hours later the poker world exploded as “durrrr versus jungleman12” was officially underway causing a long jam of railbirds and internet fanboys to mob their favorite forums. TwoPlusTwo ran a live thread which is currently over 166 pages (at last count) full of the standard fare but proving the mass interest among the poker fans. We decided to ask one of the poker world’s top writers to give us his take on the latest “durrrr Challenge” between Dwan and Dan “jungleman12″ Cates. ‘Dr. Pauly’ McGuire did not disappoint.
If you get any of your poker information via the internet, you certainly will know Dr. Pauly and his Tao of Poker blog. One of the most widely read poker-related websites throughout the year but especially during the long stretch of the WSOP. He takes his readers behind the scenes to witness things most white-washed “media outlets” are unwilling, or unable, to describe. Dr. Pauly released his novel Lost Vegas this summer during the World Series of Poker and we look forward to bringing you a review in the very near future.
Enjoy Dr. Pauly’s thoughts on “durrrr versus jungleman12″:
Freaky Styley: Durrrr and Jungleman12
By Paul ‘Dr. Pauly’ McGuire
What the hell is a “durrrr” anyway?
My gut told me the word was made up, but a part of me thought that maybe durrrr had origins in dead languages like Latin or Mayan, or perhaps it was the scientific name for a breed of howler monkey. After a thorough internet search, I discovered… nothing. Indeed, durrrr is a word wholly concocted by Tom Dwan. In an interview, he once mentioned that he made up the “durrrr” moniker in an attempt to annoy the hell out of his opponents. He was spot on, because nothing can tilt you more than knowing that you’re losing a few buy-ins to a guy named durrrr, a word that when said aloud resembles the sounds that an incontinent person makes before they defecate themselves.
Dwan had no idea that would be his nickname for life as he rocketed into the spotlight as the most renowned pro since the inception of online poker. I’m sure if Dan “jungleman12” Cates knew that he was going to become the hottest thing in the industry since the introduction of Rush Poker, then he might have selected a different name. From this day forward, we won’t know Cates as anything other than “jungleman12.”
The only origin of “jungleman” that I can think of in popular culture terms is a song from the Red Hot Chili Peppers. In 1985, the Red Hot Chili Peppers released Freaky Styley, their second studio album and the only pure funk-themed album in their storied career. George Clinton, legendary front man of Parliament Funkadelic, produced Freaky Styley, which included a single titled “Jungle Man.” It barely got any radio play and has become a forgotten song in the band’s live repertoire. I’m starting to think that the Red Hot Chili Peppers /Cates connection is a dead end, because Cates was not even born when the song was released 25 years ago. So, the origin of Cates’ “jungleman12” moniker continues to be a mystery.
When Dan Cates dies, his obituary will contain a sentence about how he used to be a professional poker player who once lost over a half a million dollars in a single session to a phantom Scandi named “Isildur1.” Maybe his obit will also note that Cates became the first player to complete the “durrrr Challenge.”
I might be jumping the gun with the “first player to complete” phrase, but through two sessions (one long and the other short) Dwan and Cates completed almost 13% of the 50,000-hand challenge. At that pace, they could finish the challenge in two weeks if they grind out at least six long sessions and a dozen shorter ones. It’s also possible that Dwan finishes his match with Cates and then begins a third challenge with Brian Townsend before his match with Patrik Antonius concludes.
The original challenge that pitted Dwan against Antonius was billed as the greatest heads-up battle since 1951 when Johnny Moss and Nick “The Greek” Dandolos played a marathon match in lobby of The Horseshoe. You had to fly out to Las Vegas and go downtown every day if you wanted to watch those legends play against each other. Only a handful of people were witnesses, which is why it’s been difficult for poker historians to separate fact from fiction in that particular story and determine how much Dandolos lost (estimates suggest $2 to $4 million).
The “durrrr Challenge” is the complete opposite when you toss in modern technology, the easy accessibility of online poker, and amazing advances in tracking software. Every single hand of the challenge is being logged by computer programs and immediately analyzed and scrutinized by stoners who have nothing but free time on their hands. The “durrrr Challenge” is available for anyone to watch by simply downloading Full Tilt Poker’s software. Unlike the Big Game in Las Vegas, you have access to the biggest games online. And the best thing about getting a ring side seat? You don’t have to wear pants or maintain any semblance of sobriety to sweat the action.
In early 2009, people could not stop talking about the “durrrr Challenge.” When it first began, I had friends and family members telling me that they had been up all night sweating the action. But then reality sunk in and everyone realized that the match was not going to end before the World Series of Poker and all indications suggested that this was going to be a long and arduous challenge. Dwan and Antonius lived on different continents and the time difference seemed to conspire against them. Also with the infusion of Isildur1’s action into the nosebleed games, the two sharks decided to feast on Isildur instead of gouging out each others’ eyeballs. Flash forward to 18 months later. The two have yet to pass the 40,000-hand mark and Dwan has a healthy $2 million lead.
The Dwan-Cates matchup had lower expectations already built in after the first “durrrr Challenge” was a dud. Dan “jungleman12” Cates is not a household name (he’s under 21 and has never appeared on a televised program, which makes him virtually non-existent to a large portion of the poker community who are only cognizant of pros that they see on TV). I can understand the perception that the 20-year-old Cates came out of nowhere when he agreed to play Dwan shortly after the WSOP summer session ended in mid-July. Tournament players often draw more coverage than cash game players, and in mainstream poker media terms, Cates was off the radar even though in less than two years, he achieved a rapid rise from small stakes to the biggest games online. Cates wasn’t afraid to take shots with what he called “aggressive bankroll management.” He easily handled the jump in stakes and continued to advance instead of dropping back down. Before he knew it, he put down $500,000 of his own cash in escrow for a chance to win 3-1 on his wager if he could best Dwan over 50,000 hands.
Cates has a Chris Moneymaker “aw shucks” quality about him, which means that the average person at home watching the challenge can relate more to Cates than Dwan’s former opponent – the perfectly chiseled Adonis in Patrik Antonius. The taciturn Finn rarely said anything incendiary at the tables and it’s hard to root for someone as perfect as Antonius. If Hollywood taught us anything, it’s that we’re suckers for an underdog or flawed protagonist. Not that Cates has any obvious flaws, but anyone compared to the godlike Antonius will fall short of the mark. Maybe it’s the fact that Cates is not Antonius and not an established live pro that makes him more appealing to masses.
Cates reminds me of an up and coming rookie on your favorite team that you can’t help but root to do well. I guess we’ll find out if he’s going to be a meteor that illuminates the sky for a short period of time only to disappear into the void, or be a static star burning nightly in horizon.
Tags: AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, Dr. Pauly, durrrr, durrrr Challenge, Guest Posts, jungleman12
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
It was another crazy week around the halls of Full Tilt this week as things kept coming at us one after another. Emails were coming in on a regular basis with news and updates faster than we could keep up. The two biggest stories this week were obviously the latest “durrrr Challenge” as well as the Open Letter to the Commerce Casino but there were other bits that didn’t make the cut. This weekend brings the latest edition of Sit n Go Madness, the Big Little Tournament ($2 buyin, $100,000 prizepool), and non-stop satellites running for MiniFTOPS XVII.
Here are 5 of the top stories that grabbed my attention, details after the jump.
1. “durrrr Challenge 2″ is underway between Tom Dwan and Daniel “jungleman12″ Cates. We have all the details and a short interview with Dwan.
2. Howard Lederer and other top players release an open letter to the Commerce Casino voicing their displeasure over the casino’s stance on HR 2267.
3. Episode 3 of the Doubles Poker Championship airs this weekend on GSN.
4. Full Tilt’s Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi appears on ESPN’s Poker Edge podcast.
5. The Full Tilt Merit Cyprus Classic comes to an end, Gloria Balding and Fillipo Candio take a flying leap.
Tags: AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, durrrr, durrrr Challenge, ESPN, Lacey Jones, Michael Mizrachi, Tom Dwan
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
The poker world became a little more interesting in the spring of 2009 when Tom Dwan announced the “durrrr Challenge”. It was big news when he said he would play anyone (except Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond) for 50,000 hands of $200/$400 heads up PLO or NLHE across four tables. His propostion was $1.5m of his money versus his opponents $500k, whoever was ahead after 50,000 hands would collect the prop bet. There were other restrictions placed on the bet but those are the basic nuts and bolts. Full Tilt’s Patrik Antonius was the first to step up and everyone gathered around the tables in anticpation.
After a slight pause in the action for the 2009 WSOP, a little player named “Isildur1″ soon had everyone’s attention including both Dwan and Antonius. While the “durrrr Challenge” was an entertaining concept, it was far more interesting for the players to climb in levels for a chance to eat some “Swedish fish”. While the nosebleed action has slowed down while “Isildur1″ licks his wounds, other things continued to cause a delay in the action between Dwan and Antonius. Dwan leads the first Challenge with +10,000 hands remaining before it is officially decided and Dwan’s lead sitting over $2,000,000.
Recently word began circulating about other players taking up the challenge versus Dwan with “durrrr” himself indicating in a Bluff article he would be playing Brian Townsend next. Rumors began flying about when/where/who would be the next player to sit down with Dwan. We now have the who and when. Next up with be Daniel “Jungleman12″ Cates and we can expect the games to kick off at any time. The tables are now ready to roll.
I had a chance to sit down for a few minutes with Dwan on Wednesday to get an update and he thought there was a great chance play in the next challenge would begin sometime on Thursday, August 26th.
There are still a few thousand hands remaining againt Patrik Antonius, how do you feel about your play against him?
Patrik’s a really good player and I definitely got pretty lucky versus him overall. I’m happy I’m up so much and obviously I’m a big favorite to win and I hope I do, but he’s still a super good player and there are a few hands left play, I’m not a lock by any means. I felt like I played pretty well and ran pretty well and that’s a good combo.
It was originally reported Brian Townsend would be your next Challenger. Will you be playing both Townsend and Jungleman12 at the same time?
I wanted to work out playing both of them but was busy the last few weeks so I think I’m just going to play Jungleman12 on 6 tables and hopefully crank out a bunch of hands. And then if Townsend wants to play, I can play him then.
Are you playing the same stakes and same level ($200/$400)? (Edit: they are playing NLHE instead of PLO)
Yeah, need to do 4 tables minimum. It’s his choice if he wants to do more, I’ll definitely do up to 6 (tables) and probably do 8. He said he thinks he’ll only want to do 6 so I’m fine with that.
Have you played much against Jungleman12? Any strategy difference between him and Antonius?
No, not too much at all. We played some. I saw somewhere online that it was 15,000 hands or something like that which seems like way more than I remember playing him but maybe. I have some idea how he plays, hopefully I’ll have a better idea in a little bit and a little more money too.
A quick internet search tells me Daniel “Jungleman12″ Cates is an economics student at the University of Maryland. He quickly moved up in stakes until he was soon battling in the biggest games on the site and survived losing ~$600,000 to “Isildur1″. He seems to employ an aggressive style of bankroll management but will play anyone at anytime. Looking over the small sample size of hands, the match seems pretty even on paper.
While the Antonius battle has drug on for over 18 months, Dwan believes the battle versus Jungleman12 will be done quickly with both ready to grind away the hands on as many as 8 tables at a time. Standby for updates and stats.
Edit: Until the official stats page is completed, we are tracking his results here at durrrr Challenge 2: durrrr vs. Jungleman12
You can see who’s online from Team Full Tilt here.
Tags: AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, durrrr, durrrr Challenge, Tom Dwan
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
It’s Shark Week on the Discovery Channel here in the states (I’m too lazy to see if the Discovery Channel and Shark Week are available outside the lower 48) and appropriately enough the huge cash games on Full Tilt Poker began hitting up at the same time. The “durrrr” Challenge resumed after a summer hiatus, Ivey stomped some mud-holes, and other big games were running on a regular basis. The poker sharks have come out to play.
After a short pause for the WSOP, Tom “durrrr” Dwan and Patrik Antonius put a jolt back in their heads up challenge by playing a few hands over the last two days. Antonius came out on the wrong side of both sessions with Dwan taking several huge 6-digit pots yesterday alone. The lead for Dwan has been stretched to over $2,000,000 making Antonius a long shot to come out on top. The Challenge is nearly 80% and just over 10,000 hands remain to be played before someone has to pay off their bet. You can track the Challenge stats, replay hands, and get updates on the “durrrr” Challenge Stats page.
I first noticed things were going to pick up on the big games this week when Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond tweeted on Monday “Making the same mistake I’ve made time and time again… Playing Ivey”. He may have underestimated his chances playing Heads Up $500/$1,000 Pot Limit Omaha ($40,000 cap) because he finished the day taking a decent chunk of cash from Ivey. On the other hand we had several players (Luukie21 and IHateJuice) who would take Galfond’s spot at the table and proceed to dust off over $1,000,000 back to Ivey.
Those were just a few of the games running. Dwan seems to be constantly sitting at empty tables waiting for competitors, at the time of this post he is playing games from$50/$100 HU PLO, $200/$400 6-max PLO, $500/$1,000 HU PLO, and $1,500/$3,000 7-game mix. With several weeks of big-time online poker tournament about to kick off, it seems the cash games may explode at the same time. Railbirds should have the Full Tilt client fired up and keep an eye on the biggest online cash games in existence.
You can find out quickly whether they are playing the “durrrr” Challenge by checking the top of the “durrrr” Challenge stats page and check which of your favorite members of Team Full Tilt are online by clicking on the “Full Tilt See Who’s Online” link.
Tom “durrrr” Dwan Challenge progress chart
Tags: AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, durrrr, durrrr Challenge, OMGClayAiken, Phil Galfond, Phil Ivey, Tom Dwan
Posted by Dave McCarthy | Filed under Bloggers Corner
If you’ve never checked it out, Full Tilt’s Pro Chat Archive has a collection of table chats between the Pros and fans. People ask some strange questions…
Tags: Chris Ferguson, durrrr Challenge, Isildur1, Phil Gordon, Phil Ivey, Tom Dwan
Posted by Dave McCarthy | Filed under Bloggers Corner
In General Poker News:
Phil Ivey and Howard Lederer each donated $30k to attend a fundraiser with President Barack Obama Thursday night at the home of Palms owner George Maloof. No word on whether the two Full Tilt pros were able to convince the President to accept the Irish Poker Open’s invitation to play in their April event.
Tags: Chris Ferguson, durrrr, durrrr Challenge, Full Tilt Poker Academy, Gus Hansen, Howard Lederer, Isildur1, Phil Ivey, Tom Dwan
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