The Online Railbird Report: Antonius Back in the Black, Dwan Drops $2.5 Million

Nicole Gordon

May 05, 2010 4 min read

The Online Railbird Report: Antonius Back in the Black, Dwan Drops $2.5 Million 0001

One million dollars in February, another $3.25 million in March, and another $2.38 million between April 1 and April 24. Tom “durrrr” Dwan had bounced back from his $5.5 million in losses against Isildur1 and was in the middle of a blazing hot streak, but, as we all know too well, in poker every good run comes to an end — often an abrupt, painful one. Dwan’s earnings graph took a dive this week, plummeting more than $2.5 million in the last seven days. On the flip side, however, his “durrrr” Challenge nemesis Patrik Antonius pulled himself all the way out of the red this week and is now an online winner for 2010.

Dwan drops 2.5 million in under a week

Losing $2.5 million in only a few days is enough to make most mortals think about jumping off the nearest bridge, but in Tom Dwan’s world, that's just variance. In a week when he also logged some significant hours in his eponymous “durrrr” Challenge (and was able to maintain his huge lead), Dwan took a bath in the cash games, dropping the bulk of that $2.5 million in heads-up matches against jungleman12 and Phil Ivey. Don’t cry too much for Dwan, however. He’s still up $3.8 million for the year.

On Saturday alone, Dwan played nearly 8,400 hands, 7,928 of them against jungleman12 in a six-table heads-up $200/$400 no-limit hold’em session. Although at one point Dwan was up more than half a million, jungleman12 turned it around and then some, quitting the game a $584,000 winner. Their largest pot came in at $282,000, jungleman12 leading off the action with a $1,200 raise. Dwan three-bet to $3,600 and jungleman12 called. Dwan led out on the 9♠7♦5♦ flop for $4,400 and jungleman12 called. The turn was the J♠ and Dwan kept his foot on the gas, betting $11,200. Jungleman12 raised to $37,500 and Dwan called. Dwan checked when the J♣ hit the river and paired the board, jungleman12 moved all-in for $236,712, and Dwan called off the $95,377 he had behind. The turn card was certainly perfect for jungleman12, who make a jack-high straight and picked up an open-ended straight flush draw. Dwan mucked, and jungleman12 raked in the $281,754 pot.

As if that wasn’t enough action, Dwan also found time for a short $500/$1,000 pot-limit Omaha match with Phil Ivey that day. Ivey won $423,000 from Dwan in only 462 hands, including this $296,000 pot. Dwan opened for $3,000 from the button and Ivey called in the big blind. The flop came down J♣4♥3♠ and Ivey led out for $5,000. Dwan raised to $17,000 and Ivey came back over the top for $42,000. Nothing says “I’m not folding” like a $149,000 four-bet and Ivey obliged with a shove for $248,972. Dwan called off the $12,978 he had left and saw that he was in awful shape, his overpair with A♥A♦J♠6♠ up against Ivey’s top set with J♥J♦6♥3♣. The turn was the K♦, the river was the 5♦ and Ivey collected the $295,956 pot.

Antonius back in the black

Patrik Antonius may still have a lot of ground to make up in the last 11,000 hands of the “durrrr” Challenge, but as of right now, Antonius has completely erased the more than $4 million in online cash game losses he incurred in early 2010. Antonius earned $639,000 this week, much of it in a $300/$600 PLO game with Dwan, Ivey, Cole South, Gus Hansen and Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies, and is now up about $50,000 for the year. Boys and girls, that’s why we call them “professionals.”

“Run it twice” hands are not just for episodes of High Stakes Poker anymore, and in this $120,000 pot, Antonius’ drawing hand got there not once, but twice. Antonius had just bought in for $60,000 while Cole South was sitting much deeper, with $356,454 in his stack. South opened, making it $1,800 to go and Antonius called. The flop was J♦5♠3♠ and Antonius checked to South, who bet $2,900. Antonius came in with a check-raise to $12,500, and South dragged the “raise” button all the way to the right, re-potting for $41,300. Antonius shoved and South called.

South K♠Q♠Q♦10♣ (overpair and flush draw)
Antonius A♠K♣J♠2♥ (top pair, nut flush draw, gutshot wheel draw)

Turn card #1 was the 3♥, no help for Antonius, but he made the nut flush on the river when the 6♠ hit and took down the first half of the pot. The second turn card was the 5♦, but Antonius found another one of his outs on the second river, the 4♣ making him a wheel. Ship the $120K to Finland.

URnotINdanger2 sheds $818,000

High-stakes regular URnotINdanger2 weathered one of the worst single-day losses of his career on Thursday night. He sat heads-up with Ashton “theASHMAN103” Griffin at $200/$400 NLHE and dropped $408,000, then kicked it up to $300/$600 NLHE against “tibster24” where he compounded his losses even further, shedding $289,000.

One of the biggest coolers URnotINdanger2 endured all day came in the session’s second-largest pot. Playing $300/$600, tibster24 opened for $1,800 holding 4♣4♦ and URnotINdanger2 three-bet to $6,600 with K♦K♣. Tibster24 called, and they saw a 10♠5♥3♦ flop. URnotINdanger2 led out for $7,600 with his overpair and tibster24 smooth-called. The turn was a disaster for URnotINdanger2, the 4♠ falling to give tibster24 a set. URnotINdanger2 bet $18,600, tibster24 shoved for $212,319 and URnotINdanger2 called off the $52,999 he had behind. They decided to run it twice. Neither river card could save URnotINdanger2, the A♠ falling followed by the 5♦, and tibster24 earned the $171,597 pot.