Dwan and Jungleman Re-united

(Photo: Somuchpoker.com)

Not only was Tom Dwan back at the poker tables this week, he even shared one with old friend and foe Daniel ‘Jungleman’ Cates, as the players battled it out in the Triton Super High Roller at the Solaire Resort & Casino in Manila, Philippines.

The American star has been missing in action for quite some time now, making sporadic appearances around the world before disappearing back into the high-stakes Macau cash games, the long-awaited finish to his Durrrr Challenge match-up with Jungleman still no closer to completion, although the two men seemed on good terms during the Triton event.

Cates actually took down the HK$200,000 ($25,000) buy-in NLHE Suncity Cup for $359,229, sharing a table early on with ‘durrrr’, before both players had a go at the Main Event, the HK500,000 ($63,000) buy-in pinnacle of the series. Again the men shared a table, and again they seemed to be getting on famously – despite talk on forums about Cates’ unhappiness at Dwan being ‘in hiding’ and unable or unwilling to complete the challenge.

Readers may recall the Durrrr Challenge story – Dwan was crushing the online nosebleeds back at the turn of the decade and offered 3:1 odds to anyone who could beat him heads-up over a 50,000 hand span.

Cates accepted, but if he lost, he would have to give Dwan $500,000. If he won, Dwan would have to pay him $1.5 million. The two played around 20,000 hands online with Cates clearly ahead by about $1.3 million when the challenge came to a sudden halt in the spring of 2011. Black Friday hit, Full Tilt and PokerStars were shut down and the players’ bankrolls were seized by the American authorities.

Since then there have been numerous attempts to get the match re-started, but to no avail. Dwan was no longer to be found in the usual places, instead plying his trade out of Macau in the big live games infested by mega-wealthy Chinese businessmen. And the likes of ‘Jungleman cates and Phil Ivey would soon join him, although many still believe Dwan has little choice but to play there, rumors that he is in deep debt to Triads and other influential figures.

Whatever the case may be, Dwan this week showed that he could still play tournament poker – finishing day 1 in 2nd spot while Cates floundered early on and busted – but day 2 wasn’t kind to the missing man of poker, losing some big hands and hitting the rail before the money spots.

The event was filled with big names, online sensation Timofey “trueteller” Kuznetsov being one of the surprise participants, while Fedor Holz, Erik Seidel, John Juanda and JC Tran were also in attendance.

It was a relatively unknown to most western players and fans who ended up taking down the $2million first prize, however, with Malaysian Wai Kin Yong hitting the biggest payday of his life so far when he bested US pro Bryn Kenney heads-up for the title.

So Dwan has re-surfaced in what seems like a yearly event – will we see him before another year is out? And will he still be friends with Jungleman? I guess we’ll just have to wait and see!