Dwan Re-surfaces for Super High Roller

(Photo: Pokerfacenews.com)

It’s been a while since Tom ‘durrrr’ Dwan has shown his face at a poker tournament, but the ‘missing in action’ superstar has just been confirmed for the Triton Super High Roller Event in Manila this November – and alongside him in the line-up is none other than Daniel ‘jungleman’ Cates!

Dwan’s disappearance from the poker mainstream has been the subject of numerous stories, articles and gossip – ranging from just being fed up of the limelight to owing millions to the Macau and Chinese Triads.

Today’s announcement that both Dwan and Cates will play the $200k buy-in event at the Poker King Club in the Philippines capital will be sure to set tongues wagging given their history – the so-called ‘Durrrr Challenge’ which saw Cates up a huge amount before their match was halted.

The ‘Durrrr’ Challenge

It’s a crazy story, and briefly for those who somehow haven’t heard of it, back in January 2009 Dwan challenged the best players in the world to generate some action. The basic rules were that

• a minimum of four tables were to be played simultaneously
• a minimum of 50,000 hands per match
• $200/$400 blinds minimum
• Dwan's opponent could choose whether NLHE or PLO were to be played and
• any player who drops below 75 BBs must reload

The first match, against Patrick Antonius, saw ‘durrrr’ up some $2million after 10k hands, but his match-up with ‘jungleman’ went less well.

Down some $1,251,059.00 after 19,335 hands, the match was halted due to Black Friday – and has never been restarted despite many, many attempts, arguments and recriminations. Cates, however, despite being extremely angry with Dwan over the years, finally seemed to have come to terms with it – saying that he had discussed things with his foe and was hopeful the match would restart at some point.

Manila, after the Super High Roller, would be as good a time as any, although quite what bankroll Dwan has available is open to question.

Other big names confirmed for Manila

Alongside Dwan and Cates, there will be a host of high rollers taking part – both John Juanda and Mustafa Kanit already registered for the event, which was won in its inaugural sitting this January by the German sensation Fedor ‘CrownUpGuy’ Holz – walking off with the $3.5million first prize ahead of name players such as Phil Ivey, Dan Colman and Mike ‘Timex’ McDonald.

Also playing will be the usual assortment of mega-rich businessmen from Hong Kong and China, many of whom are regular visitors to host Winfred Yu’s high roller cash games in which Dwan, Ivey, Cates and other pros often play for millions.

According to Somuchpoker.com, last year’s triton event in Manila saw the VIP Rooms of running “spectacular cash games with massive pots” throughout the festival.

"The biggest game that ran during this festival was a HK$20,000 Ante Only (US$ 2,560) game which required a minimum buy in of HK$10 million (US$ 1.29).”