Paul McGuire

$0.00. It’s a daunting number. No one wants to see those digits staring back at you when you check the balance of your online poker account. Losing all of your bankroll is a troubling experience. Sometimes, going broke is too demoralizing and players give up the game for good. Others have the desire to take another shot online, but for either financial reasons or due to the murky political climate, they are unable to reload.

Poker is just one of those mental pursuits where even the best in the world can turn to jelly in seconds. I’ve seen it happen in real life to pros, to my friends, and to myself. When you begin to slide into the depths of tilt ... it’s all over.

If you don’t watch High Stakes Poker, then you missed one of the slickest bluffs seen in a very long time. Tom “durrrr” Dwan was the bluffer; Phil Ivey was the victim.

The high-stakes cash game tables were in full swing on Full Tilt during the opening three months of 2010 with Tom “durrrr” Dwan sitting on top of the world. Actually, he was sitting on a big pile of cash while sitting on top of the world. Durrrr logged more than 2,000 individual cash game sessions for a $2 million profit in fewer than 90 days. He won more than $1 million at the HORSE tables at the end of January, but donated all of it back.

The "durrrr" Challenge resumed and Patrik Antonius and Tom "durrrr" Dwan might actually finish their heads-up battle by the end of 2010. The two are almost two-thirds of the way through their arduous 50,000-hand challenge. Right now, Antonius' chances of winning are not looking so good-he's nearly $2 million in the hole after Dwan's most recent dominating upswing.

PokerStars launched a brand spanking new tournament series called the North American Poker Tour (NAPT). At press time, only two stops were announced ... well three if you include the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure as the first stop in the inaugural NAPT season). The first NAPT event in the continental US is set for Las Vegas' Venetian Casino on February 20-24. The $5,000 buy-in no-limit championship is the anchor event in the Venetian's stellar Deep Stack series. Mohegan Sun Casino in Uncasville, Connecticut will also be a stop on the NAPT from April 7-11.

The dynamics in the nosebleed-stakes cash games on Full Tilt abruptly shifted in mid-December when Brian Hastings annihilated "Islidur1" for $4.2 million. The single session lasted fewer than 3,000 hands and Hastings walked away with the largest single-session score in the history of online poker. Many pundits and pros hypothesized that Islidur1, an unknown player from Sweden, would eventually redistribute the millions he had initially won due to his erratic and hyper-aggressive play. But no one imagined that when Isildur1's roll was busted, it would be embroiled in controversy.

The dynamics in the nosebleed-stakes cash games on Full Tilt abruptly shifted in mid-December when Brian Hastings annihilated "Islidur1" for $4.2 million. The single session lasted fewer than 3,000 hands and Hastings walked away with the largest single-session score in the history of online poker. Many pundits and pros hypothesized that Islidur1, an unknown player from Sweden, would eventually redistribute the millions he had initially won due to his erratic and hyper-aggressive play. But no one imagined that when Isildur1's roll was busted, it would be embroiled in controversy.

We've all done it at the cash game tables-dug ourselves into a hole so deep that it might as well be our grave. You can blame variance, the fickle poker gods, or that idiot from Helsinki who chased a gutshot and cracked your set of aces. But freaking out and placing the blame on your horrendous opponents won't solve your problem. Rather, you must remain as calm as possible in order to focus on getting unstuck, otherwise you might as well start picking out coffins and making funeral arrangements.

The year 2009 started off with a bang in the Bahamas. During the tail end of the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure at Atlantis on Paradise Island, a confident Tom "durrrr" Dwan issued a challenge to any opponent-if you can beat him over 50,000 hands, then he will pay you $500,000 on 3-to-1 odds. Patrik Antonius was the first pro to accept the "durrrr Challenge" in a highly anticipated match up on Full Tilt Poker. The result was an over-hyped and disappointing event where Antonius and durrrr failed to reach 50,000 hands as they played sporadically over the last ten months.