"Heard that Dwan and Jungleman's 'durrrr challenge' is about to restart?" When hearing this kind of remark, everyone who pays attention to the dynamics of the poker circle will have their eyes glow. Yes, Dan 'Jungleman' Cates tweeted the news last month. But will this challenge really restart? We can't help but be skeptical.
There are many reasons why we think the Durrrr Challenge is unlikely to be completed, the simplest and most obvious of which is that all discerning people know that Tom Dwan has almost no chance of overturning.
In this $200/$400 level head-to-head showdown totaling 50,000 hands, Dwan has completed more than 20,000 hands, losing $1.2 million to the world's top heads-up player Jungleman. If he loses the challenge, he will have to pay Jungleman another $1.5 million.
Let's take stock of some facts now. When their challenge began in August 2010, Dwan had no chance of winning. When Dwan announced the challenge in January 2009, his poker skills had already been questioned by some up-and-coming players. However, at the time, these people did not have the funds to take on such a challenge, and the players who had already become famous at the high stake level were reluctant to play against Dwan.
In late 2009, Durrrr's fame in Texas took a big hit, with Luke Schwartz winning more than $500,000 over $500,000 over the table. Then, in November 2009, Swedish newcomer Isildur won $5 million from Dwwan in less than two weeks at the $500/$1000 level. By the summer of 2010, a large number of German sharks, led by Jungleman, surfaced.
However, until the summer of 2010, Dwan had been accumulating his poker money. Between November 2009 and April 2010, Dwan won more than $9 million in online poker. So, Dwan was very complacent about his level of poker and once again felt completely invincible. It is worth noting that Dwan's funds at that time simply could not be compared to Guy Laliberte's, and his level of german saves has not improved in any way. Most of Dwan's profits at the time came from crazy PLO duels with IIari Sahamies, Gus Hansen, Patrik Antonius and others. However, during that time, Dwan lost $750,000 at Infinite Texas Hold'em.
No matter how you look at it, Dwan's money may rebound, but his level of poker has declined, and his love of fierce combat and the brutal blows that Isildur1 has inflicted on him have made him more and more fond of the PLO. Throughout, Ike Haxton, Ben Sulsky, Jungleman and many other professional players have excluded Dwwan from the top Texas Hold'em players.
Looking at today's Texas Hold'em thinking level, even micro-bet players can clearly see that the durrrrr used in 2008-2009 is more amateurish. You can't even imagine that some of the mistakes he made in the game would appear in today's online games.
Here are two of Dwan's past real-world cards, and let's take a look at how badly Dwwan has played:
Of course, we're not saying that Tom Dwan is a bad player, it's just that there is still a big gap between the paidian kings of the '00s and the leading players of today's pokers. Perhaps the best assessment of Dwan's poker level comes from his former roommate David Benefield, who said in 2011, "I always thought he was a fish, but a very creative and intelligent fish". Unfortunately, for any "fish", not even a creative, intelligent fish, can compete with Jungleman.
Dwan's friendliness has led to a rise in his fame. After the X-Speed Poker reboot, Dwan and Jungleman played a few more innings after a gap of two years. However, since then, the challenge has been pending. Players like Dan Colman and Doug Polk even call Dwan a master of serial scams. Polk has called the Durrrrr Challenge "the biggest scam in poker history." Occasionally, rumors popped up in poker circles, such as Dwan's promise to pay Jungleman a $40,000 fine every two months, but it was all empty. The only person who seems to have defended Dwan is Jungleman, who once said Dwan had some "problems" that needed to be addressed. Jungeman also tweeted last month: "Tom and I have been discussing the challenge and have come up with a solution. We should be playing some cards this year. ”
While Jungleman said it was possible for Dwan to take the time to restart the challenge, I can now vouch that Dwan won't do so.
I'm not saying Dwan will break his promises, but if Dwan continues this game where he's in a serious downwind, he'll have to pay Jungleman $1.5 million if he loses... At the moment, Dwan's best option is to spend some money like Patrik Antonius to withdraw from the challenge. Partrik Antonius had already lost more than $2 million when his PLO challenge with Dwn reached thirty-nine thousand hands, and then Antonionius and Dwn made a deal to pay for it to withdraw from the tournament.
If Dwan can afford to quit the race, then that's clearly his best bet, isn't it? Dwan both saved himself his reputation and almost certainly saved himself a fortune and didn't have to play another 30,000 hands at the $200/$400 level against an opponent he had no chance of winning.
Don't get me wrong, I really hope to see this challenge end as soon as possible. However, I'd rather see Mercier and Doug Polk team up for this year's WSOP's $10,000 buy-in Tag Team tournament.