Two iconic online glories made an unexpected return in poker news headlines most recently which got the community tuning in once again to these memorable names. Swedish pro Viktor “Isildur1” Blom who once took the poker world by storm has resurfaced in the online cash game scene once again, albeit in lower stakes in comparison with his past record.
A social media post from Tom Dwan to Blom on the other hand, led to another update on the decade-long pending Durrr challenge against Daniel “Jungleman” Cates. While the two have been going back and forth for a while, hints of the two ending their ongoing dispute have finally come to light.
Isildur1 plays €2/5 PLO
Viktor “Isildur1” Blom
While it has been almost a decade since poker fans tuned in to Blom’s crazy action that occurred on Full Tilt, the Swedish pro has once again resurfaced in the cash game scene just before the Covid-19 pandemic hit last year. Blom can be seen playing a variety of stakes in his own club “Isildur1’s Game” (ID: 100999) while allowing players to play and interact with the icon in games as common as €2/5 PLO, wherein he was last spotted.
Despite a huge step back from the million dollar swings he used to take, Blom’s reputation remains at the top of everyone’s list after he came out of nowhere back in 2009 and crushed the best players there ever was. To this day, Blom’s prowess is supported by his big tournament wins and impressive list of cashes in the last decade having reached a total of nearly $3 million. One of his career-best scores stands to be his victory back in 2018 in the partypoker MILLIONS Main Event where he bagged the top prize of € 850,000 (~US$ 1.05 million) for his win.
Durrrr Challenge update as Jungleman calls out Tom Dwan on Twitter
On another note, a challenge which should have concluded years ago appears to have the poker community buzzing once more. The extended issue sparked up as opponent Daniel “Jungleman” Cates replied to Tom Dwan’s latest tweet involving Blom.
Yo, anyone able to get in touch with @ViktorBlom ?
Hope you’re well buddy, have a cool spot for u… hit me
— Tom Dwan (@TomDwan) April 23, 2021
As to which, Cates replied, “Hey, anyone able to get in touch with you? Let’s conclude our stuff?”
A bit of a background, the infamous Durrr Challenge was a match arranged back in 2009 around one of poker’s biggest stars, Tom Dwan. Ahead of his time skill-wise, Dwan was in search of more high stakes action with which he agreed to pay $1.5 million to any contender who could beat him in a 50,000-hand $200/$400 heads up match in either No Limit Hold’em or Pot Limit Omaha. His first opponent was the equally outstanding pro, Patrik Antonius where after less than 40,000 hands, Dwan saw a profit of over $2 million. The match never concluded and was settled by the two off the tables.
In Cates’s case, the challenge took a pause when Black Friday hit and relatively hasn’t resumed in recent years. To date, Jungleman stands with a lead of over $1.2 million after nearly 20,000 hands. In 2017, he revealed that Dwan had paid roughly $700,000 in penalties for drawing out the challenge and while the two technically haven’t agreed on a conclusion since, Cates has once again called his attention.
I believe we’ve reached an agreement. Will see…
— Daniel Cates 🇺🇸 🌎 (@junglemandan) April 23, 2021
Later that day, Cates posted another reply in which he stated that the duo has reached an agreement. While no information from either side has been known, it may likely be another stretch to see the two return to the felt anytime soon.
