Tom Dwan and a million dollar challenge!

• Author: Qid
• Filed under: David Benyamine, High Stakes News, Online poker, Patrik Antonius, Phil Ivey, Poker, Tom Dwan, Uncategorized, durrrr
• Date: Jan 7,2009

Tom Dwan has shown that he is very confident about his poker skills and he will play against anybody heads-up in No Limit Hold’em or Pot Limit Omaha. The player who would win would keep the winnings and the extra money.

Tom Dwan is challenging the world!

Here are the conditions that Dwan posted at 2+2 forum:

1) 4 tables at stakes $200/$400 minimum (NL or PLO)
2) can change tables anytime if stacks are >250bb
3) have to reload when stacks are <75bb
4) Money won in the challenge is kept obviously + extra money (if Dwan wins $750k in poker, he gets that PLUS opponents $500k- if Dwan loses $750k in poker, oppnent gets that plus his $1.5M, so $2.25M total).
5) same stakes the whole time
6) not open to Phil Galfond

Practically Dwan is putting million dollars of his money on the line! He seems to think that he has the edge against anybody in NL or PLO in the long run. Someone might think that he wouldn’t have edge against Phil Galfond and that is why he is excluded, but I think that he is excluded from the challenge because they are friends.

Some players have already voiced their interest about this challenge. At least David Benyamine, Patrik Antonius and Phil Ivey (in that order exactly) have said that they will play this challenge against Dwan. We’ll see if all the matches will be played or if Dwan will lose and stop the challenge. If he wins against all three, he sure will show that he is best in the world!

Barry Greenstein called to Phil Ivey in PokerRoad radio show asking about the challenge. Very interesting phone conversation can be found here. Ivey is predicting that someone could go broke and lose over $5 million! That would be a very devastating loss to any poker player!

There is also long thread about this challenge in 2+2. Check also the story in Bluff Magazine.