High Stakes Poker is my favorite televised poker program. The latest season features 2008 WSOP Main Event Champion Peter Eastgate, Ilaries "Ziigmund" Sahamies and Tom "durrrr" Dwan. The young guns were up against the Las Vegas big dogs such as Eli Elezra and Doyle Brunson. You can also watch High Stakes Poker online at youtube.com. Just type in "High Stakes Poker" into the search and you'll find almost every single episode as far back as the first season.
When I'm not wasting my time away watching poker videos on YouTube, I have been sweating the nose bleed tables online. Through the first sixty days of the year, durrrr was stuck almost $4 million playing online cash games. He erased a small percentage of that deficit in late March and nearly broke even during the first week of April where. Amidst his spectacular run, durrrr netted $2.4 million and most of that score was Gus Hansen's money. Durrrr took the Great Dane for almost $1.5 million at $500-$1,000 heads-up pot limit Omaha on both of Gus Hansen's personal heads-up tables known as "Hansen Knockout" and "Hansen Hangout."
While durrrr schooled Hansen, he had a little trouble against Phil Ivey. They two squared off at the $500-$1,000 heads-up pot limit Omaha tables where Ivey took two pots worth over $250,000 a piece. On the first hand, Ivey felted durrrr and took his entire $132,000 stack when the two players got it all in on the turn in a set over set situation. It was Ivey's top set of Jacks against durrrr's set of eights. Ivey prevailed and dragged the $264,000 pot. Ivey's other score included a double-up against durrrr. Holding 9d-8h-7d-6d, Ivey flopped two pair and his hand continued to improve when he turned a straight and then rivered a full house. The two got it all in on the river. Durrrr had also turned a nine-high straight with Ad-Jh-9c-7c, but Ivey rivered him to win the $285,000 pot
Patrick Antonius and durrrr ramped up action in The durrrr Challenge. The first 10,000 hands of the 50,000 hand challenge were dragged out over a couple of months. In a radio interview, Antonius called out durrrr for ducking him. Although the time difference affected the play, with Antonius in Thailand and durrrr in the States, during the first 10,000 hands, durrrr kept the sessions short when Antonius was always willing to play for longer periods of time.
Durrrr responded to Antonius assertions and the two played their longest session to date ... in excess of eight hours. On April 9, the biggest pot of the challenge unfolded. On a flop of Js-6c-4c, durrrr fired out $1,750 and Antonius quickly raised to $7,650. When durrrr three-bet to $20,200, Antonius came over the top for $63,000. Durrrr called. The turn was 10d and durrrr moved all in for his last $81,775. Antonius called and had him covered. Antonius was ahead with a top set of jacks and a jack-high flush draw. Although durrrr was behind with Ac-7c-5h-3c, he held a wrap, an ace-high flush draw and a gut-shot straight flush draw. One of his outs filled in when the Qc spiked on the river. Durrrr won the record-setting pot worth $291,151.
The challenge is around 75 percent complete and the end is nowhere close in sight. There was speculation on whether the two would continue play during the WSOP.
"I just don't want to play during the World Series," said Antonius. "It's always such a zoo and there's no time to do anything and I don't want to have to worry about the challenge. If we can play an hour a day then we can finish before (the WSOP) starts."
Through almost 13,000 hands in 22 sessions, Antonius is up almost $160,000.
Paul 'Dr. Pauly' McGuire is the author of the upcoming book 'Lost Vegas'. You can read his poker blog, Tao of Poker, over at www.taopoker.com.
