Dwan Challenge Update: Dwan is Back up Again

That’s right, Tom Dwan is back on top again.  Dwan regained the lead on Monday that he had lost on Saturday, finishing the latest session with a $150,000 overall advantage in the challenge.  Patrik Antonius just couldn’t manage to hold onto the $56,000 lead he had over Dwan after this past weekend’s play.  Don’t lose hope just yet Antonius fans, the challenge is still young and there are many more hands of poker to be played.  The competitors have played approximately 4,000 hands out of the 50,000 hands that are required as part of the challenge.

Dwan took a $135,000 lead on Day 1 of the challenge which was on Wednesday then managed to further increase his lead to a little over $171,000 early on Saturday before Antonius came charging back and finished the day with his first lead of the challenge.

The challenge was first proposed in a magazine article.  He stated that he would play anyone aside from his good friend Phil Galfond 50,000 hands heads up in either no limit Texas hold’em or pot limit Omaha at four simultaneous online tables.  If Dwan beat his opponent, he would get $50,000 but if he lost, he would shell out $1.5 million on top of his losses to the winner.  Dwan said that he was issuing the challenge to incite action at the high stakes tables.

“I don’t get enough people to play me heads up. Even though there is more money to be made in other games, rather than playing heads up at one or two tables, it’s so interesting and you learn a lot. I think I might have an edge here, but it’s more to have fun and gamble a bit. That’s why I’m making this challenge,” Said Dwan.

Phil Ivey has also accepted the challenge along with Antonius.  Dwan has been quoted as saying that he will “almost definitely” play a second opponent.