The durrrr Poker Duel Begins
Written by Renee K | Tuesday, February 17th, 2009
Patrik Antonius will be the first one to take up Tom “durrrr” Dwan on his challenge. Four online tables have been set up for the heads up event at Full Tilt Poker because the challenge states that four tables have to be played simultaneously. The other conditions are that the stakes will be $200/$400. The challenger gets to choose the game from Pot-Limit Omaha or Texas Hold’em or a mixture of the two. Antonius has chosen Pot Limit Omaha. 50,000 hands will be played.
The confidence that Dwan now exudes after his brilliant performances last year can be seen from the fact that he has given 3 to 1 odds to the challenger. This means that if the challenger is ahead after 50,000 hands he gets to keep what he has won plus gets $1.5 million from Dwan. If he is behind then he pays only $0.5 million. But Dwan gets to keep the winnings and he is hoping they will be substantial. The beauty of this set up is that the winner gets $1.5 million or $0.5 million as the case may be even if he is only $1 up at the end of the match.
On the other hand the rebuy structure is so framed that a player may go broke trying to win. Clearly high stakes online poker is being redefined.
David Benyamine, Phil Ivey and Patrik Antonius have accepted the challenge. Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond has not. But that is because Dwan excluded him from the challenge. Galfond is one player that Dwan is afraid of. Ivey announced his acceptance on PokerRoadRadio with Barry Greenstein. On the show Greenstein remarked that he had expected Dwan to exclude Ivey rather than Galfond because in his opinion Ivey is the best heads up player. Maybe he said that because Ivey was his guest at that time. Greenstein also pointed out that Dwan’s edge comes from the four table stipulation.
Ivey for example usually plays only two tables at a time and very rarely three. Ivey confirmed this was so. But he added that 50,000 hands are a lot. It would give him time to adjust to playing at four tables. He really took up the challenge because the 3 to 1 odds were attractive. Also he thinks that he has got Dwan figured out because he has been playing with him a lot of late.
The event is surely generating side bets among poker fans. And most of them would be going Dwan’s way. This year as of now Dwan is heading the list of winners in online cash games with $1.7 million already in his pocket. Ivey and Antonius are the biggest losers with losses of $0.6 million and $0.3 million respectively. Benyamine is not in the top ten on either list.
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· Written by Renee K · Filed Under Poker Gossip · Comments Off
