Flashback Friday: The Unfinished Durrrr Challenge Was the Talk of Poker in 2010

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Phil Galfond is currently undertaking his very own heads-up challenge, but in 2010 all eyes in the online poker world got on a different battle– called the Durrrr Obstacle– between Tom Dwan as well as Dan “Jungleman” Cates. The very advertised suit became rather a tease.

Back in 2009, Dwan was arguably the leading high-stakes on-line pro in the world. The Full Tilt Texas hold’em celebrity at the time supplied all arrivals a challenge of $200/$ 400 blinds over 50,000 hands. Nevertheless hands were full, the loser would pay an additional side wager to the champion– Dwan’s $1.5 million to his challenger’s $500,000.

Patrik Antonius was first to handle the challenging online casino poker gamer. He provided it his almost after 40,000 hands and a $2 million loss, he called off the match.

The following player to step up to home plate was Cates. This time around around, “durrrr” had a much more formidable challenger. As well as he clearly wasn’t ready wherefore was about to happen next.

Durrrr Challenge Not Much of a Challenge for Jungleman

When the second Durrrr Challenge began in August 2010, Tom Dwan got on top of the online poker globe. He may have seemed a little bit brash, however that could actually blame him for believing he could beat anyone heads-up? Nevertheless, he was just one of the most successful online pros ever before. Yet sometimes things don’t go as prepared.

The framework in the match versus “Jungleman” resembled Dwan’s competition versus Antonius. The internet texas hold’em super stars would certainly play 50,000 hands of high-stakes no-limit hold ’em cash money video game with a side wager to be paid at the verdict.

Cates leapt bent on an early lead, entirely crushing Dwan’s soul. Simply 7,000 hands right into the match, 43,000 timid of the agreed-upon conclusion, “Jungleman” was up approximately $700,000.

That’s All, Folks

The bad run for “durrrr” continued. With Cates up over $1.2 million in 19,335 hands, Dwan decided it was time to step far from the Durrrr Obstacle. Almost a years later and he still has yet to continue the match.

” Jungleman” maintained his thoughts on Dwan backing out early private for many years. He didn’t publicly slam his challenger. However he eventually stepped forward out of disappointment that “durrrr” declined to either proceed the suit or completely repay the seven-figure acquistion.

Cates provided an upgrade on where both parties stood in 2017.

“He’s been paying me penalties every two months lately,” he said. “He wants me to point out he’s given me something like $700,000 or $800,000 basically in penalties since 2010.”

That six-figure settlement wasn’t enough to satisfy his wishes, nonetheless. Cates to now still wants to someday return to the Durrrr Obstacle, although that appears not likely.

Dwan, who is still a follower favored albeit less preferred than in 2010, has actually taken some warm for stopping early. In a 2017 YouTube video, Doug Polk referred to “durrrr” backing out of his own difficulty as the “largest fraud in the history of poker.” That may be a bit of hyperbole (what’s up, Legendary Poker League?), but lots of others share his sentiments.

It’s currently 2020. We’ve all carried on to the Galfond Obstacle, which is going horrendously for Phil Galfond beforehand. However it sure would behave if Dwan would certainly someday round off the competition he suggested.