Before 2018 ended, poker pro Dan ‘Jungleman' Cates called out Tom ‘durrrr' Dwan through Twitter, asking the high-stakes poker pro when to resume their long-stagnant "Durrrr Challenge".
Of course, given that the former Full Tilt Poker ambassador has not touched his Twitter account since July 2018, many are not expecting him to answer so soon. Those who follow him would believe that Dwan is entirely not interested in completing this challenge that started back in 2010.
Therefore, Cates sent out a tweet to Dwan, hopeful that the latter will give an answer.
The Durrrr Challenge
The durrr challenge is an open dare to the online poker community offered by high-stakes player Tom Dwan. Basically the structure is 3-1 on this bet: That over 50,000 hands of 200/400 Pot Limit Omaha played online, they would fail to show a profit against him.
Here's the original statement of the challenge Dwan wrote, "I'm making this heads-up challenge to the world. Anyone can accept. Four tables, minimum of $200/$400, and I'll put up $1.5 million to their $500,000. We play 50,000 hands minimum and if they end up a dollar after rake they keep the side money or whatever. So basically, if you and I played and you won a dollar, you would get my $1.5 million and if I won a dollar I would win your $500,000. So I'm giving a million dollars free if anyone thinks they can do it."
Aside from his friend Phil ‘OMGClayAiken' Galfond, anyone was eligible to challenge him. Dwan's first challenger was Patrik Antonius. Dwan was up by over $2 million after 39,000 hands. Unfortunately, this match was never finished.
After one year, Dan ‘Jungleman' Cates decided to take a whack at the young poker prodigy's challenge and ended up having more success than Antonius. Cates is leading by $1.2 million after seeing 19,335 hands. However, no hands were further played since then. Dwan mysteriously walked out of the challenge without leaving an explanation, and it seems like he's not interested in resuming any time soon.
The Current Status
In 2017, Cates announced the possibility of continuing their long-standing challenge, but sadly it also never came to fruition.
Tom Dwan has no longer been appearing in televised live poker games in the past few years. He came out a few times though to compete in "Poker After Dark" games and the Triton Super High Roller Series in 2017.
However, perhaps there's some good manners left in him still, as Dwan actually paid Cates a penalty worth around $700,000 in the same year for not being able to continue on with the challenge.
Since he has paid a penalty already, maybe that's the main reason why Dwan is no longer interested in continuing the challenge? Only he knows that real answer to that.
Source:
https://www.cardschat.com/news/jungleman-daniel-cates-tom-dwan-75957
