The Neverending Story, the "durrrr" Challenge

[Nosmo_________King]

For those who remember back in the day there was a promotion called the "durrrr" Challenge. Amongst lots of railbird hysteria and massive amounts of PR for Full Tilt Poker it was launched in February 2009 and the first "durrrr" challenger was one of the poker gods, Patrik Antonius. And somehow this original challenge is still going on!

the "durrrr" Challenge is Tom "durrrr" Dwan playing HU against another nosebleed high stakes cash player. They have to play 50,000 hands, each session has to be on 4 tables at once of either no limit holdem or pot limit Omaha on Full Tilt Poker. After 50,000 hands if Dwan is up any amount his opponent will pay durrrr $500,000. If Dwan is losing even if by $1, he has to payout at 3:1, meaning $1.5 million.

The latest session has been played and durrrr has opened up an impressive lead of $1,755,708 and unfortunaetly there are still 16,758 hands left to be played.

Why was this promotion started, who has paid for it, why has it taken so long and will they even bother with the 2nd challenger?

Why was the "durrrr" Challenge started might also be connected to who pays for it. There are rumours that it is all a PR stunt for Full Tilt poker. Although durrrr has to be considered as one of the greatest online omaha cash players would he put up all that money at those odds by himself? Does he have backing from FT themselves?

Why has it taken so long? This is a simple question of maths. These players can win or lose a million in a night, or in the case of Isildur1 $4million. Patrik Antonius may not have worked out the total chore (to them) of having to play 50,000 hands for perhaps $1.5 million or a potential loss of over $500,000. If the challenger does win its only $30 per hand. To those who play at normal levels this sounds good but when you can win $millions in a month its maybe not worth the effort.

The other problem was the amount of action that was happening at the tables which was unprecedented.So many fortunes to be won or lost from other lesser players, then there was the WSOP, then Isildur1 did what others couldn't do and destroyed durrrr for millions and durrrr had to rebuild his bankroll.

Will they bother with the other challenges? Phil Ivey and David Benyamine have also signed up... lets hope not.


Sign up now for a 100% bonus up to $600 with Full Tilt Poker and play the greatest new game of poker in the universe - Rush Poker. Read the review of this amazing super turbo cash game where we can promise you will never have time to be bored playing poker ever again.

[Andy]

If one player is up $1,755,708 and there is 16,758 hands left to be played then that is just over $100 a hand ($104.76) so what blinds are they playing? I was initially thinking he should just fold everything and he would win the thing if its under $100 a time. BUT I guess he could lose more doing that than he would win from the side competition anyway so not worth it. The time will come though when it becomes +EV to just fold everything I expect.

[slim]

they're playing $200/$400 blinds.

I've been following this on and off since the start, Durrrr was down up to a £1 million at one point, so some big swings in this one.

[slim]

My bad, the lowest durrrr ever got to was about -$700,000.

[Nosmo_________King]

durrrr always stated that HU a player might be able to beat him but 4 tabling he is king. durrrr has shown, unless its sick variance, that he can adapt better to Patriks plays and the changes of strategy over time than Patrik has to his.

Andy brings up a very interesting point about what happens near the end game. How are they going to play it especially if Antonius starts to pull some of his losses back.

Will Antonius risk more money, push the hands when ahead or drawing to the nuts?

Will durrrr either play it tight as he is now one double losses, if he loses his lead of over $1.7 million he has to pay out an extra $1.5 million. Or, and i think this is what the man will do considering his style, would he smell that Patrik is taking risks and there is even more money to be won?

Or, will it just fizzle out at the end when one player has basically won?