The "durrrr" Challenge: The First 25,000 Hands

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231 days after it began, the "durrrr" Challenge quietly reached its halfway point on Wednesday, as Patrik Antonius and Tom "durrrr" Dwan played the 25,000th hand in their four-table $200/400 pot-limit Omaha challenge match. Dwan was able to build upon the $235,453 lead he opened up during their last meeting on October 1, scooping up another $418,440 to take his total challenge winnings up to $697,532.

Antonius and Dwan got 1,063 hands in during this latest session, which spanned over three hours and fifteen minutes of play. With both players buying in deep-stacked, six-figure pots were commonplace, with five of them cracking the $150,000 mark. Dwan won three of those five pots, including the session's largest, which came in at $194,992. After a pre-flop raising war that put $37,200 in the middle, Dwan led out for $32,400 on the K85 flop. Antonius smooth-called, leaving himself $43,496 behind as the 7 fell on the turn. Dwan bet $108,000 and Antonius called all-in, turning up A987 for two pair and a gutshot straight draw while Dwan had him crushed with KKQJ for top set. The river was the harmless 4 and Dwan took it down, stacking Antonius.

About 75 minutes later, Dwan was able to double through Antonius, collecting over $187,000 in this monsterpotten. After opening for $1,200 from the button, Dwan faced a three-bet to $3,600 from Antonius. "Durrrr" decided to raise it up one more time, making it $10,800 to go, only to have Antonius bump the price of poker to $25,200. Dwan called and they saw a K53 flop. Antonius led out for $61,200 and Dwan called all in for $57,000 and change, his flush draw with A1098 behind Antonius' overpair with AA94. Dwan, hit his flush, however, when the J hit the turn, leaving Antonius drawing dead. The river was the inconsequential 10 and Dwan raked in the $187,360 pot.

With just over half of the 50,000 hands completed, some interesting patterns have emerged.

  • Dwan has won 13,591 of the 25,145 hands played, 2,125 more than Antonius. The average pot size from Dwan's winning hands, however is $2,590, markedly smaller than the $3,009 Antonius pulls in on average.
  • During the first 13,000 hands of the match, neither player pulled out to more than a $172,000 lead. Over the course of the following 12,000 hands, the lead swung around far more dramatically, including a two-month spell where Antonius led Dwan by more than $400,000.
  • Dwan has won eight of the ten largest pots played in the challenge so far, ranging from $255,000 to $408,000.

Here's a few other "durrrr" Challenge fun facts:

Date of first session: Feburary 18, 2009

Total number of sessions: 38

Longest session: June 19, 15 hours/4,523 hands

Shortest session: February 21, 15 minutes/92 hands

Largest pot: $477,555, played on June 19, 2009. Antonius won, having flopped queens full of sixes. Dwan turned sixes full of nines.

Largest amount either player has been ahead: At one point during the epic June 19th session, Dwan held a $1.2 million lead over Antonius.

Month with the most sessions: April (6)

Month with the fewest sessions: July (0)

Patrik Antonius' online cash game winnings since the challenge began: $1,908,207

Tom Dwan's online cash game winnings since the challenge began: $2,229,638

If the second half takes another 231 days, when will this thing finish?: May 28, 2010

Keep it here on PokerNews for continuing updates on the "durrrr" Challenge. Want to watch the action yourself? Download Full Tilt Poker today.

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Nicole Gordon

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