Home / Poker News January 2011 / Durrrr challenge: Cates pulling away
Durrrr challenge: Cates pulling away
Posted by: Jo Martin - Thu, 2011-01-06 15:06
During the last few Durrrr Challenge sessions, Tom Dwan meticulously chipped away at the giant lead his opponent had built up during the first couple of bouts. For a while there he did look like he was making slow but certain headway, but all that got tossed out the window as variance hit him and Cates booked another monster winning session a couple of days ago.
Cates hadn’t won a session for a while, but his luck changed with the New Year. The very first challenge session of 2011 saw him log a phenomenal profit of $319k. He only needed 2,918 hands to pull the deed off too. After the latest developments, Cates’ lead is now at a daunting $819k, which means that Dwan has now been left with more chipping away to do than ever.
The largest pot of the session ended up in Cates’ possession. It was a massive $216.5k monster, which started out in a fairly standard manner. After a preflop give and take, the Qc,8h,6h landed on the flop, promoting Cates to fire out a $5,200 bet. Dwan made the call to see the Kh fall on the turn. Cates bet again, this time almost as much as the pot. Dwan called yet again to see the 3d land on the river. Cates continued to pile on the pressure by betting yet again in response to which Dwan shoved all-in. He then tabled 4h,5h for a flush. Cates had 2h, Jh though for the higher flush.
At one point, Cates had built up such a big lead that had the contest been put on hold right there and then, he would’ve headed to bed with a bigger than $900k lead. Fortunately for him, Dwan managed to clinch the second biggest pot of the session, and thus he somewhat limited the amount of damage his bankroll suffered.
