Does Anybody Really Care About the Durrrr Poker Challenge?

Once upon a time, it was the talk of the entire online poker community. About 10 months ago, online poker phenom, Tom "Durrrr" Dwan issued his million dollar challenge. The premise was bold. He offered anyone who would take him up on his offer three to one odds that over the course of 50,000 hands at $200/$400 Pot Limit Omaha, no one could show a profit on him. If they did, they would walk away with $1.5 million. The first to step up to the plate was fellow pro, Patrik Antonius. Since the matchup has been talked about ad nauseum, and following the latest round of the battle that never ends, Dwan lost about $67,000 of his lead during the course of 588 hands. These games were played online at Full Tilt Poker.

To date, the challenge which was much ballyhooed at the start, now stands at 27,773 hands played, which is obviously a bit over 50% of the challenge. Dwan's lead has shrunk down to $711K. Remarkably, after 10 months, the two have played against each other for just 88 hours. At this current rate, they should finish sometime in the summer of 2010. By then, it will be interesting to see if anyone will really care anymore. It seems highly unlikely that the next two players who stepped up to accept, David Benyamine and Phil Ivey will even want to take part in something so time-consuming. After all, what is more important, an ego test, or making some consistent money. After all, any of these players are capable of winning the side bet amount in a single session of online play against much lesser competition.

In the meantime, Dwan is still down close to $5 million on the year and is unquestionably in a worse financial state than he was when he issued the challenge to begin with. If and when this competition ever comes to a conclusion, the participants and observers alike may very well not want to invest the time of something of this nature ever again.

Source:  www.aintluck.com