The challenge kicked off on February 18 with a 1,535 hand session between the two players. In the end durrrr was up $135,209. However, after such a quick start, play quickly began to grind to a crawl.

Antonius Says its Durrr's Fault

There have been many delays between sessions in this challenge and on multiple occasions, Antonius has been interviewed by Full Tilt Poker regarding the large gaps in play. Antonius has claimed that a lot of the stalling has come from durrr's side. Either durrrr has claimed to be "too tired", "didn't feel like playing", or wanted to play large stakes cash games.

Dwan Stays Dominant for a While

For the first 5,000 hands, most of the action was dominated by Dwan. Once the took the lead during the first session, he held onto the lead for most of the first 5,000 hands. He was up over $200,000 at one point over Antonius for a while. Around the 5,000 hand mark, the tide would begin to turn.

Momentum Shifting Towards Antonius

Around the 5,000 hand mark, Antonius retook the lead from durrrr and the two regularly swapped the lead back and forth. Both would go up as much as $200,000 over the other before coming back to earth. However, as opposed to the first 5,000 hands, it has been Antonius in the lead much more frequently than durrr.

Durrr's Advantage Not as Great as Perceived

In one of his interviews with Full Tilt Poker, Antonius revealed that when the challenge started that durrrr had an advantage over him as Antonius did not normally play four tables at a time. However, after playing a while, he has become more comfortable with playing four tables and feels that durrr's advantage has been greatly reduced.

By the Numbers

At present, Patrik Antonius is up $84,544 over Tom Dwan. 12,114 hands have been played out of the 50,000 required to complete the challenge. Dwan has won 6,416 hands to the 5,657 hands of Antonius. The telling tale has been the amount per pot won. Dwan has averaged $1,918.90 per pot won where Antonius has averaged $2191.50. Also, most of the larger pots have gone Antonius' way. Six out of the top 10 pots in this challenge have been won by Antonius, including a $291,950.50 pot.

When Will it End

Antonius would like to see the challenge end before the World Series of Poker next month but Dwan's delays have really put that in jeopardy. If the challenge is not completed by then, Antonius says it may be August or later before this match is put to bed. Antonius has stated that he will focus on the WSOP and not worry about the challenge.

It is unknown whether this challenge will actually reach a conclusion. Many have predicted that the challenge will not actually reach a conclusion. Of course, many poker fans are hoping that the challenge does wrap up soon as many are awaiting the match between Dwan and Phil Ivey.