Challenge Durrrr Winner Gets Disqualified
On Sunday, the final match of the Full Tilt Poker Challenge Durrrr promotion took place, however it wasn’t without some controversy as the winner of the competition was replaced by the second place finisher at the very last minute.
The Challenge Durrrr promotion offered a unique opportunity for the “Average Joe” poker player to take on Tom "durrrr" Dwan in No Limit Texas Hold'em or Pot Limit Omaha over four tables on Full Tilt Poker. If the amateur player managed to win all four matches in the challenge they would walk away with $1.5 million and there were different payouts for winning each match.
The competition started in February with qualifiers earning points for playing in real money cash games over a period of two weeks. The top 750 players who accumulated the most points were given entry to freeroll tournaments, where the final nine competitors were determined. Those nine players then entered the Matrix, playing four SNGs against each other to determine Dwan's challenger.
The Matrix tournament was won by Russian player, "svetamillion." However, when the final Challenge Durrrr matches took place over the weekend, "inorej" replaced "svetamillion" to battle it out against Durrrr, with no explanation given by Full Tilt Poker, hence the controversy that ensued.
The controversy started a discussion on 2+2 forum and several possibilities were circulating as to why "svetamillion" was replaced. The originator of the thread, "Nofx Fan," commented that "svetamillion" finished in the bottom third of the cash game points for the competition before going on to win the freeroll tournaments and the Matrix event.
Another member on the forum, "sdrf" offered another possibility saying, "I'm pretty sure it has to do with multiple accounts or potentially Sveta having a different player play the account."
In the finale of the Challenge Durrrr promotion, "inorej" played Dwan in Pot Limit Omaha over four tables. It only took 1 hour and 15 minutes before 'durrrr' had won his opponent's challenge bankroll and "inorej" walked away with nothing.
For his victory in the Challenge Durrrr promotion, Dwan and Full Tilt Poker donated $40,000 to the Japan Disaster Relief efforts following the awful earthquake and tsunami that occurred earlier this month.
Commenting on the "svetamillion" disqualification and the controversy that started on 2+2 forums, Dwan himself said, "Curious about the back story – 1st I'm hearing of this."