Durrrr Challenge Returns...

Yes, the much ballyhooed and initially much railbirded challenge that kind of fizzled away has returned. I'm a Mac, Patrik Antonious and I'm a PC, Tom Dwan have turned their online battle back on.

We don't know if Patrik is actually playing his poker on a mac, but he could if he played on bwin, and of the stereotypes he's definitely the cooler more hipster of the two. Dwan is kind of IBM of the online world.

To review: durrrr offered anybody in the world heads up action in PLO or NL Hold’Em. His challenge had many suitors but Patrik Antonius was the first in line. Dwan offered odds to anybody (but Phil Galfon) of 3 to 1 that he was favored over 50,000 hands. If he lost, the winner would get what he won plus 1.5 million. If he won, he’d keep what he won plus 500k.

For mac lovers, the good news is the durrrr Challenge is back and Patrik is having some success. When it schreeched to a halt Dwan upped his lead to over 700k. Some time has passed since then. In fact, the rest of the World Series of Poker came and went.

However, Dwan and Antonius aren't afraid of playing each other. In fact, it's been suggested they've been playing all along. They've just been playing in front of fewer railbirds in live play at Bobby’s Room in the Bellagio, Las Vegas. The latest edition of the challenge had quite a different result then the previous one. Antonius was wounded when Dwan reclaimed the lead and built on it. But this go round Antonius was the big winner. The 700k separation became just over 334k after it was all said and done.

The two have played almost 22,ooo hands. With 28,000 hands to play and the challenge 8 months old it doesn’t look like resolution will come any time soon. Maybe by next World Series? We can hope.

-Durrrr has won 11,620 of the hands.

-The big Swede won 9,751 of the hand

(Durrrr wins more often)

-Durrrr has been winning on average $2,529.15 per winning hand

-Patrik has been winning on average $2,979.38 per winning hand

(Patrik wins more pots)

-Patrik won the largest pot ($477,555.50)
-PCs outsell Macs

-Macs swear they are better machines

-PCs are more susceptible to viruses

-Macs get more chicks

To close to tell who will win this race... Stay tuned.

Read is Right in Live Play Foray... Decision is Wrong

I raised in middle late position with a suited ace. He called on the button. I hadn’t played many hands and he had played a good amount. He had twice the chips of me. The flop came king high with two of my suit. I put out a small blocking bet that he seemed willing to call because of the price.

I couldn’t put him on the king here. I’d expect him to defend his hand a little bit. Second pair was an 8 but I couldn’t really give him an 8. If he had two 8s in the hole (a set) doesn’t he repop a little bit here for fear of the flush draw and/or wanting to extract a little value in the hand. In his situation I will at times give the guy a card with such a hand and reevaluate if the flush hits, but hope it doesn’t and extract another bet out of him, so I couldn’t rule out him doing the same thing to me.

The turn didn’t give me a flush but paired my weaker kicker. I decided to bet out a little bit bigger here, and he flatted again. Which is a little offputting. I didn’t think my image at that table was of a two barrel bluffer. So I have to give him something. I don’t think he’s got a weaker flush draw but he might. I can’t give him top pair either.

The river is brick city, not either of my two bad kickers, any of my three aces, or any of my suit (12 outs?). I decide to check and hope that he ends the hand with a check behind me. Then he throws out a strange bet. He overbets bigger than the pot.

Now, I can’t beat top pair, I can’t beat second pair, and I can’t beat many pocket pairs, but the bet is not a value bet. Clearly he doesn’t want a call. Unfortunately, it’s enough of my stack that I don’t think I can shove over the top and have him capitulate.

Then it is clear as day to me. The man has pocket 10s. He had a strong enough hand to call a small bet post flop, I tied him to the pot a little bit that his call on the turn is half-float, half-bluff buster. Probably a fold if I third barreled, but maybe not. Now, his river bet is trying to get a king with a crappy kicker to fold, or perhaps JJ. Or the old, I don’t know where I’m at, let me bet a lot and hope I win (typical of these donkaments). I don’t give him Jacks or queens because I think he pushes back probably preflop and maybe post flop. Nines make sense too but for some reason I see 10s in my head.

I tell/ask “You got 10s”. That got a reaction. In fact, it was enough of a reaction it was possible he was faking it. Ha-ha. Damn. I stew. Okay, he would fake to indicate a stronger hand than he had. So that mean’s he’s weaker than 1010? All that he would do that with was maybe A8 (which I don’t think he calls the turn with) to try and get 9s out of the hand. Or he’s got that flush draw (which is hard to give him because I hold the same draw).

The bet was so big and other than 10s I had to include a variety of flush possibilities as his hands. The reaction threw me and I reluctantly called. He sheepishly turned over his 10s thinking he was bested. Ouch. I mucked.

Terrible, terrible call by me. It was for way too much of my stack. I should have trusted my read and given myself more credit when I called his hand. I could have gotten away from the hand and had plenty of chips to play with (my normal tournament strategy unless I have a strong read). Then the guy, really turned the screw and said he would have folded to a shove (even though I had so little left that the pot would be offering him 5 or 6 to 1).

I guess he ‘s thinking he can’t call there if he thinks I’m shoving knowing his hand. Oh well, I thought that was an interesting hand. Ironic too, because my biggest criticism of Daniel Negreanu is he calls out his opponent’s hand and still calls with a loser. Me too, apparently.

Obviously, after that hand I searched out the roulette table, as I often do. I play online roulette frequently but there is a difference from when I play roulette online and when I play live. Online roulette is a nice little action rush and then I move on to everything else I'm doing that day. Live sometimes can be too much of a get-even charge. Good thing I got even. No chance, I'll think the ball landed on red and it really landed on black. Sometimes I really like roulette.

Gus Hansen's Downswing.

Can you say Tilt? Can you say the woes of variance? Puggy Pearson has a great quote (found here with others):

“The real things to know is that folks will stand to lose more than they will to win. That’s the most important percentage there is. I mean, if they lose, they’re willin’ to lose everything. If they win, they’re usually satisfied to win enough to pay for dinner and a show. The best gamblers know that.”

Sounds like Gus Hansen is dealing with just one of those swings. The high stakes pro who just earlier this year was crushing the games is discovering just how painful variance can be. Tom Dwan was able to regroup and regather after some brutal soul searching. Can Gus Hansen do the same? It's ironic that just this week Daniel Negreanu when discussing the Poker Hall of Fame talked about Dwan's credentials.

Negreanu mentioned being a great young player winning everything and then struggling to become a young player who couldn't win anything. He said Dwan still has to endure that, pull himself up by bootstraps and rebuild himself as a player. Maybe Negreanu wasn't following the trials and tribulations of Durrrrr who went on a streak almost as bad as Hansen's. And Dwan seemed to rise from the ashes.

The question is can Hansen. Perhaps no other player has struggled so quickly and for so much as Gus Hansen. Right now he is down 5 million. Like the gambler in Pearson's quote how far will Hansen let this downswing take him? Until he loses it all? Will he be satisfied with winning anything?

Poker is a brutal game even for the pros that play the highest stakes. David Benyamine was recently noted for his downswings and now he's back winning again. Hansen has a couple of role models, who like himself, had the talent to survive their rough patches and hand on. We hope Hansen can do the same.

ChampionChip From Sunday

The ChampionChip contest at bwin poker had another stellar field. Over 1300 players logged on to play for the prize pool. As usual it was an appetizing desert that awaited the final table. A ChampionChip cookie if you will. Don't know if the winner celebrated Indy 500 still with a glass of milk, but I'd have to imagine I would. ChampionChip cookies aren't easy to make.

Step one make it past 1297 players into the final table. The oven is blazing but once you can get to the final table the sweet aroma of the ChampionChip wafts into your nostrils and your mouth waters. USD4ME entered as the chip leader doing the most salivating. He had 627k in chips in seat 6.

On either side of him, Bummmr_ in 5 with almost 400k in chips and MOUSTAFA74 in 7 with a little over 311k in chips. Second place in chips was maverikk21 with 530k all the way over in seat 1. ELFoff in seat 4 with 423k was the next biggest. Seat 8's MOUUUUUU was the shorty with 81k. He wasn't the only one looking a long way up as bulrik had 129k (seat 2), Tigerlillybaby 274k (seat 9) and weedooo just short of 300k(seat 10).

If the final table was the oven part of baking the cookies, the final five was the cooling off part. If you think you can taste the ChampionChip cookie while it's in the oven, when you can get to the final 5 it's all you can do to stop yourself from getting too crazy trying to get it. Taste it? You are practically digesting it.

In seat 1 maverikk21 accumalated 671k but lost his hold on second place. In seat 5: Bummmr_ basically maintained with a little over 350k, while the chipleader increased his large stack and held on to his lead as USD4ME moved up to almost 1 million in chips. Seat 7's MOUSTAFA74 was nipping at his heels with 783k. Finally weedooo in seat 10 chipped up just a bit to 451k.

The chipleader did get a little crazy with the cookies cooling as USD4ME busted in third place. he would soothe himself with 20k. MOUSTAFA74 and USD4Me both flopped the top pair . Only problem for USD4ME was he was outkicked.

In heads up play the cookies are ready to eat. There just a plate in the middle and it's going to go to the eater of the player who takes it first. MOUSTAFA74 had quite the head start with over 2 million in chips and weedooo's 543k couldn't make up the difference.

The ChampionChip went to MOUSTAFA74 and we don't know if he downed a glass of milk with his $48k or not. weedooo had to make do with 31k. While we don't know if any of the players were playing on mac, we do know they could have been as bwin is mac friendly.