When it first was announced, the poker world was very excited about Tom "Durrrr" Dwan's Million Dollar Challenge. Within a week, players were lining up to accept the challenge. However, now, almost 9 months later, it seems that unless you are Patrik Antonius, you are going to be waiting a very long time for your turn.
Over the past week, Dwan and Antonius continued their long and sometimes drawn out battle, playing over 2,000 hands, bringing them to a total of 27,185 hands. For those who are a bit mathematically challenged, they are just over the halfway point and at the current rate, will not be done until sometime in mid-2010. Who knows if Phil Ivey and David Benyamine, two other pros who accepted the challenge, will still want to take part. No one has asked either player about the challenge in months as Ivey is busy getting ready to resume his run at this year's World Series of Poker Main Event whereas Benyamine has been heavily in action on Full Tilt Poker.
Whatever the case, Dwan built up another $82,000 on Antonius, giving himself a lead of $780K. While Dwan has been slowly but surely distancing himself from Antonius, he has been dumping chips at an alarming pace as of late, losing $1.1 million in a scant 627 hands in a weekend session, a great big chunk of it going to the aforementioned Ivey in Pot Limit Omaha. With those figures, perhaps it is a blessing for Dwan that his Antonius matchup is taking so long to complete. Otherwise, he may really be heading towards bankroll ruin, a topic he has never discussed in any media form.
Interestingly, Antonius doesn't seem to be at all fazed by his inability to get the best of Dwan as part of the challenge as he is reportedly now up $7 million on the year on Full Tilt. This would seem to indicate that he is dominating all other comers, except for Dwan in the challenge of course. It may be that Dwan's bravado and brash style is causing him to focus more during the individual matchup with Antonius, but if the rest of his game continues to suffer, can it really be farfetched to believe the well may soon dry up?
Source: www.aintluck.com
