Tom Dwan Vs Patrik Antonius

February 19th, 2009

The first of the Million Dollar Challenge matches has begun. In the first match, Tom Dwan aka Durrrr takes on Patrik Antonius. Play started around 6:30 a.m. Wednesday morning with both players buying in for $40,000 on each of the 4 durrrr challenge tables. Things started off slow for the two players with Antonius up about $25,000 after about 80 hands.

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Durrrr was able to pull back to about even when the first big hand of the challenge went down. Preflop, Antonius raised to $1,200 and durrrr made the call. The flop fell Kh-Qd-6d and durrrr led out for $1,750. Antonius made the call. The turn fell the 4h and durrrr bet out again, this time for $4,250. Antonius then raised to $18,650. Durrrr made the call. The river fell the 9d to put a potential straight draw on the board. Durrrr then moved all-in for $16,366 and Antonius tanked for a bit. He finally called the all-in bet and showed Kc-Qh-8h-8d for top two pair. Durrrr showed Ah-3h-10d-5s for nothing but air. Antonius raked a big $75,931.50 pot off of durrr and durrrr reloaded.

After 170 hands, Antonius was up around $68,000. Durrrr would make most of that back in one hand against Antonius. Antonius would make a standard raise to $1,200 pre-flop and durrrr followed along. The flop fell 2c-4h-Jc and durrrr check-called a bet of $2,400. The turn fell the 9s and durrrr checked to Antonius, who bet $6,400. Durrrr then check-raised to $26,400 which prompted Antonius to shove for $47,986 total. Durrrr made the call. Antonius held Jd-5d-4s-3h for two pair and a straight draw. Durrrr held 8d-8c-2d-2s for a set of deuces. The river fell a harmless Qd and durrrr’s set raked him a $102,991.50 pot.

Antonius would then take a few more pots off of durrrr to pull back in front. At the 300 hand mark, Antonius was up $65,634. Durrrr decided to take a sandwich break around 7:30 a.m. which made the railbirds go bananas. The best line of all the railbirds and posters came over at 2+2 forums when one poster said, “Don’t be fooled. The gods demand a new sacrifice. Durrrr is sacrificing another virgin.”

Around the 460 hand mark, Antonius took another big hand off Durrr. The pot was three-bet pre-flop with $21,600 in the pot when the flop fell 2c-10s-8h. On the flop, durrrr check-raised Antonius all-in for $34,691 and Antonius made the call. Antonius showed Ad-As-4s-6s for a pair of aces and durrrr showed Ac-Qd-10h-9c for top pair and a straight draw. The turn of the Kc and river of the 6d helped neither player and Antonius took down a $90,981.50 pot. At this point, Antonius was up $115,000 against durrrr.

The next couple hundred hand were relatively uneventful with play going back and forth between the two. At the 710 hand mark, Antonius was up $107,459. At this point, durrrr started to make a comeback. He took down back to back huge pots to erase much of the win that Antonius had racked up. First, he took an $114,384.50 pot against Antonius when Antonius pushed with two pair and a flush draw. Durrrr held a lower two pair and a flush draw. Unfortunately for Antonius, durrrr rivered his flush and took the pot. Next, Antonius pushed with a double gutted straight draw and durrrr called with a set of tens. Antonius missed his draws and durrrr took a pot worth $148,266.50.

Durrrr then erases the remainder of his deficit and took the lead on Antonius when Antonius called an all in bet against durrrr holding both a straight and flush draw. Durrrr held two pair and a better flush draw. The river missed both players and durrrr took down a $104,891.50 pot. At this point, durrrr was up around $50,000 and things just proceeded to get better for durrrr.

Around the 1,350 hand mark, durrrr took another huge pot off Antonius. This time, all the money went in on a flop of Qd-6s-9s. The pot sat at $134,631.50 when durrrr showed Jd-10s-6c-6d for a set of sixes. Antonius showed As-Qc-8s-3h for the nut flush draw and a pair of queens. The turn of the Qh gave durrrr a full house and Antonius a set of queens. Antonius had 10 outs to win the hand, but the river fell a harmless 10h and durrr moved up over $100,000 for the session.

Play would continue for nearly 200 more hands with Antonius finally bowing out at hand 1,541. After 1,541 hands, Patrik Antonius is down $135,000 to durrr. No return time has been announced, but you can be certain that Antonius wants to get back on the horse to try and pull at least back to even against durrrr.

The stats for the Tom Dwan Million Dollar Challenge are available directly from Full Tilt.