'durrrr Challenge' Update: Swingy Session Switches Lead to Antonius

March 27 2009, Nicole Gordon

One hour into Thursday morning's session of the 'durrrr Challenge', Tom Dwan found himself on a serious heater. After booking wins in his last two meetings with Patrik Antonius in their 50,000 hand, $200/400 pot-limit Omaha match, Dwan finally started to open up a significant lead on his opponent. Within forty minutes of sitting down, he captured four pots worth over $70,000 apiece, putting him over $250,000 ahead of Antonius for the life of the challenge. However, as is often the case in pot-limit Omaha, all of that profit… and then some… rapidly bled out of his stack just as quickly as he got it in there. Antonius went on a rush in the second half of the match, completely wiping out Dwan's gains and leaving things nearly even again. With the $92,021 he took off Dwan in this, the tenth official session in the "durrrr" Challenge, Antonius is now in the black to the tune of $23,467 after 7,093 total hands.

At last, a pattern may be emerging when it comes to the timing and frequency of the challenge sessions--this is the third time in nearly as many days that Antonius and Dwan have met up in the near-dawn hours of Eastern Daylight Time, each session lasting between 90 minutes and two hours.

Dwan felted Antonius on "durrrr Challenge "Table 2 only minutes after play began. Antonius opened for $1,200, Dwan made it $3,600 to go, and Antonius called. Dwan bet out $4,800 on the flop and Antonius smooth-called. The on the turn earned a check from Dwan and a $16,800 bet from Antonius. Dwan, though, came over the top for a pot-sized raise to $50,400, setting Antonius all in. The Finn called the $16,000 he had behind, holding for a pair of aces and a gutshot royal flush draw while Dwan revealed for top two pair. However, Antonius missed all of his outs on the river, the landing to give the $82,398 pot to Dwan.

Ten minutes later, Dwan claimed two more back-to-back monsterpottens. In the first, all the money went in on a flop. Antonius was unfortunate enough to have flopped the bottom end of the straight and a flush redraw with while Dwan flopped the nut straight and a higher flush draw with . The on the river sealed things up for Dwan and he dragged the $79,594 pot. Shortly thereafter, on a different table, they were all in on a flop, Dwan with for top set and Antonius with for middle pair and an open-ended straight draw. The turn was the , the river was the , and Dwan's hand held, good for the second-largest pot of the session at $97,591.

The see-saw started tipping the other way, however, when Antonius took down this key hand. Dwan raised to $1,200 on the button and Antonius called from the big blind. The flop came down , Antonius checking the action to Dwan, who bet $1,750. Antonius fired back with a raise to $7,650 only to be reraised to $16,900. Antonius re-potted to $53,100, setting Dwan all in and he called off the $33,195 he had behind. Antonius had hit top set with but Dwan, with , had flopped an ace-high flush. Antonius needed to pair the board, and he got there when the came on the turn. The was the inconsequential river card and Antonius was back on track after scooping that $102,589 pot.

Soon afterward, Dwan found himself on the losing end of another costly set vs. two pair showdown, Antonius flopping a set of fives to Dwan's aces up in a $71,200 pot. After being forced to fold to pot-sized bets from Antonius on the river in two subsequent pots, Dwan decided to nip his tilt in the bud and call it a night.

durrrr: i think im done for now
durrrr: too tilted
Patrik Antonius: k

The session exemplified the swings inherent within pot-limit Omaha. These two are professionals of the highest caliber and still managed to experience a five buy-in swing in each direction within less than 90 minutes.

Stay tuned as PokerNews continues to closely follow the "durrrr" Challenge.

Editor's Note: Nicole Gordon's continuing reports on the "durrrr Challenge" highlight PokerNews.com's coverage of the latest in online poker. To railbird the "durrrr Challenge" yourself, open up an account at Full Tilt poker today.

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