Poker After Dark and durrrr challenge: The Return of Tom Dwan

We all remember those days when High Stakes Poker was at its peak, and the live poker legends were left squirming in their seats by a young online pro who seemed to blast everyone off their hand at every opportunity. While High Stakes Poker is no longer on our screens, that particular young pro soon will be once more. Tom ‘durrrr’ Dwan has returned to televised live poker.

Poker After Dark hosts hefty cash game featuring Tom Dwan

The TV show in question will be Poker After Dark, and Tom Dwan will be joined by Daniel Negreanu, Doyle Brunson, Antonio Esfandiari and Andrew Robl, among others.

The game will be $200/$400, with a $400 button ante, and the minimum buy in will be $100,000. Monday August 14th – Wednesday August 16th will see the show air live at 8pm ET on the channel PokerGO.

After years spent in the televised wilderness of Macau, fans will be excited to see if the same old Tom Dwan returns, guns blazing, or whether the years have slowed his aggression down a little.

When asked about his return, Dwan stated that people all over the world always asked him about the shows and when he would do them again, and that he is delighted to finally give those people what they’ve been hoping for.

Polk interview with Cates provides revealing insight into the ‘durrrr challenge’

Over the seven years that it has been running, the ‘durrrr challenge’ has been the cause of a lot of criticism for Tom Dwan. Many have openly stated that Dwan is ducking Daniel ‘jungleman’ Cates and by not either playing on or buying out of the challenge, he has wronged Cates.

While few would argue that Dwan’s challenge to the world in 2010 that he would play almost anyone at 50,000 hands of high stakes and put $1.5 million in cash up against $500,000 as a side bet on who came out in front, was sensible – it certainly sent ripples of excitement through the poker world. Now, seven years later, with half the hands completed, Cates over $1.2 million ahead and Dwan halfway round the world with an apparent aversion to ever logging in online, it has been sending ripples of boredom through the poker world instead.

During Doug Polk’s interview with Cates recently though, more light was shed on the subject, and it showed that Dwan was perhaps being criticized a little unfairly by many people, including Polk himself in recent times. The cost of continually stalling the challenge has been between $700,000-$800,000 in total according to Cates, who says Dwan has been paying penalties to him over the last seven years. He also asserts that the challenge will be completed by the end of 2018.

If Dwan had been hoping that Cates may have lost some of his edge over the years, he may be disappointed, with Cates saying that “I don’t know what the fuck he thinks in this particular case. I’m like, sitting here thinking to myself, what does he think I’ve been doing all this time? I think I’ve gotten a lot better since I played him actually”.

Tom Dwan and the Durrrr challenge – 55:20

Article by Craig Bradshaw

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