Tom ‘durrrr’ Dwan’s challenge

Tom ‘durrrr’ Dwan, one of the world’s best online cash game players, has issued a groundbreaking challenge to the rest of the poker world. Dwan has said that if any player can beat him heads-up over a sample size of 50,000 hands he will give them $ 1.5m. On the other hand, if Dwan beats them, they need to give him only $ 500,000 in this enormous prop bet! Durrrr is laying the world’s very best poker players, such as Phil Ivey and Patrik Antonius, 3/1 that they can’t beat him.

This challenge has predictably got the whole of the poker world talking and Antonius, Ivey and reportedly David Benyamine have already said that they will accept the challenge and do battle with the 22-year old prodigy.

There are some special stipulations attached to the challenge however that make it a little more interesting;

1. All hands must be played at a minimum $ 200/$ 400 blind level


2. Dwan and his opponent must play a minimum of four heads-up tables simultaneously at all times


3. A player can change to another table at anytime if their chip stacks are greater than 250 big blinds


4. A player must reload when their stack gets below 75 big blinds


5. Money won during the matches will be kept by that player plus the bonus wager. e.g. (in an example Dwan gives) if he was up by $ 750,000 by the end of the poker challenge, he would keep that amount plus an additional $ 500,000 from his opponent. If instead he lost $ 750,000 his opponent would keep their 750,000 plus $ 500,000 with an additional bonus of $ 1,000,000 for a total of $ 2,250,000

6. The challenge is not open to Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond

Though stipulations such as the multi-tabling aspect seem to favour Dwan (and hamper a player such as Ivey who often plies his trade live) the size of the stakes and huge variance inherent in the nosebleed games means that somebody could lose many millions of dollars long before the 50,000 hands are finished. By issuing this challenge though Dwan has showed that he is certainly not lacking in confidence and if he can overcome this trio of elite players he may well be labelled the best cash game player in the world.

The ban on Phil Galfond accepting the challenge has also prompted plenty of debate, with Galfond openly admitting that this snub was one of the greatest honours of his career. Galfond, another of the internet’s biggest cash game winners, has a tight style that has served well against the hyper-aggressive durrrr in the past. The two are also good friends and this may be a key reason as to why he has been excluded from the challenge.

Rumours are circulating that the challenge will start soon after the Aussie Millions tournament concludes at the end of January. However, who durrrr will play and how the action will pan out is still up for debate. Discuss that here in our forum and stay tuned to PokerPlayermagazine.co.uk for all the latest updates on the biggest news to hit poker in 2009.