The totals so far in the 11 sessions played are: 11,569 total hands played out of the 50,000 hands to be played, with Daniel up a little over $580,000.  $580,000 doesn’t represent a very big hole for Dwan to dig out of when you consider that over $70,000,000 has been wagered so far.

For those unfamiliar with the Dwan poker challenge,”durrrr” is putting up prize money at 3 to 1. If he wins, he gets the amount won at the tables and $500,000 from his opponent. If the opponent wins, they get the amount won at the tables and $1,500,000 from Dwan.

The first match (which has been going on for some time) has Tom Dwan playing Omaha Hi against Patrik Antonius. So far, 39,436 hands have been played out of the 50,000 hands to be played with Tom up a little over $2,000,000. Amazingly, over $342,000,000 has been wagered over those 39,000+ hands.

If you’re not familiar with the challenge, check out the “durrrr” online Poker Challenge that I posted previously that explains many of the rules and details of the challenge.

As of today, there have now been 27,185 hands played of the 50,000 hands to be played as part of the challenge. At this point Tom is ahead by  $779,248.00, even though Patrik won $167,620.50 in their last session where 470 hands were played.

Of course, Tom’s lead is not much when you consider that the total bet so far is over $217,037,000.

The total time played up to this point over the 42 sessions is 3 days 14 hours 50 mins.

It begins with Guy Laliberte limping in with the ace five of hearts. Jamie Gold then calls with the jack of diamonds and seven of spades. Doyle Brunson follows by raising to $11,200 with ace ten of diamonds. Sam Farha calls with king of clubs and jack of hearts and David Benyamine follows by calling with the king five of spades. Laliberte and Gold call.

   Guy Laliberte               Jamie Gold              Doyle Brunson

           Sam Farha          David Benyamine

 The pot is $57,100 going to the flop, which is the ace of clubs, jack of spades and four of diamonds.

Doyle, playing the hand fast, bets $40,000. Farha and Benyamine fold, Guy calls and Gold folds. The pot is now $137,100.

The turn is a deuce of diamonds.

Doyle, with aces and the nut flush draw, bets $110,000 to make the pot $247,100. Guy, who also has aces, but with a lousy kicker and an inside straight draw, doesn’t fold, but raises $200,000 more to $310,000.

This is a great play and against most players holding ace queen or worse, would more than likely move them off of their hand. But Doyle makes an even greater play by calling Guy’s $200,000 raise and reraising all in for another $30,500. Guy calls and the pot is now $818,100, one of the biggest ever on High Stakes Poker.

They agree to run it twice and when a queen of spades hits the river on the first run and a ten of hearts hits on the second, Doyle wins the entire pot,  proving once again why he is one of the best to ever play the game.

Playing card clipart courtesy of Dave Schloss

Their poker school covers everything from poker lingo to poker rules, as well as hand rankings and strategies.  Cool Hand Poker even has a section regarding the best starting hands to play for those new to the game.

Cool Hand Poker’s section on Top 10 Poker Tips won’t help you win every hand, but should certainly reduce your number of losses.  Because the better you play, the more poker becomes more about  skill and less about gambling.

Their site offers play in the following games:
Texas Hold ’em and Omaha is offered in both cash games and tournaments while 7 Card Stud and 5 Card Stud is offered only in tournament play.

They also have a $2,500 Guaranteed Sunday Fun-Day Tournament. The $20 + 2 buy-in gets you 1500 chips to start with re-buys only $5.00. And, Cool Hand Poker is giving away 3 golden tickets away to the winners of the main event in the Sunday Fun-day Tournaments for July, August and September, which qualifies the holder for an exciting opportunity to win €1,000,000.

Along with all of this, they offer additional promotions to add to the fun. You’ll have the opportunity to be playing regularly for such prizes as;

• MP3 player
• Music vouchers
• Gaming consoles
• Laptops
• Online shopping vouchers
• Trips to your favorite destinations
• Land tournament entries
• And more!

They also have a rather unique sign-up bonus. While most sites match only your initial deposit, Cool Hand Poker will match the first $350 even if it takes several deposits to get to the $350 total. The minimum deposit amount is $20 so they make it easy to get started. Once you’ve made your purchase, simply start playing and they’ll release your bonus to you in $10 increments every time you play 100 raked hands.

Please see Cool Hand Poker for full details. If you have any questions they have live chat to go along with normal email service.

BetFred.com offers a $250,000 Freezeout tournament every Sunday with a buy-in of $300 + $20 and a $50,000 guaranteed tournament every Saturday with a buy-in of $100 + $9. Every Friday brings a $150,000 guaranteed tournament with the same buy-in ($100+$9) but this one has unlimited rebuys.

If you can’t wait for the weekend you can play in their daily (Monday – Thursday) $50,000 guaranteed tournament for only a buy-in of $50 + $5. And the best news is, you can satellite your way into any of these great poker tournaments.

If you’re short of cash, why not try the $1,000 Freeroll Bounty Tournament? This is a weekly bounty tournament that’s now even bigger because Betfred Poker has doubled the guaranteed prize of this event from $500 to $1,000! This unique event offers players the opportunity to play as the bounty player. In order to do so, you simply need to eliminate the designated bounty player of the previous week. See their site for full details.

BetFred Poker is very user friendly and offers a great deal of information on how to play. Information about hand rankings, what hands to play, rake information, etiquette and a poker glossary can all be found on their site.

You can also find a strategy guide where articles on luck vs. skill and how to go from playing for play chips to real money are available. Of course, they also have information regarding basic strategy, position, knowing your opponents, bluffing, chip stack sizes, blind stealing and more!

BetFred Poker offers Hold ‘em, Omaha, Omaha Hi-Lo and Seven Card Stud that come in the form cash games, sit “n” go’s, multi-table tournaments, satellites, heads-up play and freerolls. And, they’ll match your very first deposit up to a maximum of $600 (or currency equivalent) payable in bonus dollars. (Again please see their site for details)

Their $75 Invite-a-Friend bonus earns you a $50 bonus for friends you invite while they earn a $25 bonus at the same time!

Three professional players all call BetFred Poker home: Rasmus H Nielsen, Paul Zimbler and Lynne Beaumont.

Betfred Poker is dedicated to giving their players the best customer service available, that’s why their support teams operate 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

So if you’re looking for a new place to play online poker, why not check out BetFred Poker?

If you’re not familiar with the challenge, check out the “durrrr” online Poker Challenge that I posted previously that explains many of the rules and details of the challenge.

As of today, there have now been 12,956 hands played of the 50,000 hands to be played as part of the challenge and even though Tom has won more hands than Patrik (6,835 to 6,078) he is down $162,558.00.  Of course, this is not much when you consider that the total bet so far is over $78,644,000.

The total time played up to this point over the 22 sessions is 1 day, 17hours and 14 minutes.

Whichever player is ahead at the conclusion of the 50,000th hand played, even if it’s by by just one dollar, wins the challenge. So, if Dwan wins, he keeps any money he won during the contest and the challenger’s $500,000. If his opponent wins, they keep their winnings and the $1.5 million that Tom has put up.

Here are the rules for the players who accept the “durrrr” Challenge:

• The game type must be No-Limit Hold ‘em or Pot-Limit Omaha
• The stakes must be a minimum of $200/$400
• Once the stakes have been decided upon, they must stay the same for the entire challenge
• Players must reload if their stack falls below 75 big blinds at any time

Patrik Antonius accepts the “durrrr” Challenge
With Dwan giving three-to-one odds to the entire poker world for the “durrrr” Challenge, it’s not surprising that some of the world’s best poker players have already taken him up on his offer. High-stakes player Patrik Antonius was the first to accept Dwan’s challenge with other high stakes players such as Phil Ivey and David Benyamine already in line to accept the challenge too.

Dwan and Antonius will play this challenge out on the digital felt and you can watch on Full Tilt Poker. Full Tilt has set up four special “durrrr” Challenge tables in the Omaha Hi game lobby. Action on these tables is expected to be explosive.

As of today, there have been 20 sessions played which has accounted for 12,114 of the 50,000 hands to be played with total bets of over $71,332,000.

If you’re looking for a new place to play poker, check out bwin Poker. They have a very active site with over 26,000 players online even early on a Monday morning.

You can play by downloading their software or “play instantly” simply by registering. You’ll especially like this site if you’re a new or novice player because they offer an in-depth poker school.

The bwin poker school provides all the information you need to play. They have an interactive tutorial where you click through each step of a poker hand as you sit at a practice table with instructions explaining each step, individual videos explaining the game, sections on poker terms and hand nicknames, hand rankings, poker strategy and more!

One very unique item is their EV (which is short for Expected Value) calculator a statistical measurement that essentially reflects the average value of something – for instance, a poker starting hand. The numbers show average winnings with regard to big bets per hand.

Flight Tournaments
Their “Flight” tournaments are another unique concept that enables players to play multi-day events on bwin Poker. Players can choose a straight flight tournament which is a tournament starts at a scheduled time, breaks after a set number of hours and continues at the same time the next day or they can play a forked flight tournament.

This tournament starts on several separate times and dates. A player can choose which flight suits them best and then, just like in a straight flight, play a set number of hours before the tournament breaks. All players who still remain in all the different starting flights then merge into a final flight played at a separate time. This enables huge fields to enter the same event without the event dragging on for days.

And if you’re looking for regular poker tournaments, they have plenty.  Beginning with their “Euro Daily 50+4” which starts at 20:00 GMT every weekday (Mon-Fri), with a guaranteed prize pool of   $10, 000. You can also qualify for the Euro Daily by winning any of the $7+$1 daily qualifier sit & go tournaments.

They also have a “Canadian Daily 50+4” with essentially the same structure as their Euro Daily, which starts at 01:00 GMT, Monday to Friday and has a guaranteed prize pool of $13, 000.

bwin Poker’s “Cannonball” tournament combines the best of two worlds as it provides the kick-start thrill of a turbo tournament, while still allowing for a more normally paced finish. The first six levels are played at 3 minutes per level, then one 6 minutes long level, before moving to the regular 12 minutes per level. Of course they also offer a host of freeroll tournaments.

The bottom line is, if you’re looking to play online poker at a popular online poker site that has it all, check out bwin Poker.

Be sure to read below to find out how to play for $100,000 each week at Littlewoods Poker with just Frequent Player Points!

Littlewoods Poker is another great place to play free online poker or for real money. They also offer a lot of help to the new or novice player with an online poker school with a complete dictionary, a poker hand ranking section as well as sections covering ring games and tournaments. You can play a number of different types of poker games on Littlewoods Poker, from Texas Hold ‘em poker, to Omaha High and Hi/Lo to Seven Card Stud and Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo. Unfortunately, it’s not open to U.S. players yet, but that may change in the future.

Play for $100k each week with just FPPs!
For a limited time, you can win your seat to the $100,000 Deep Stack Challenge simply by accruing Frequent Player Points. (FPPs) All you have to do is earn 100 FPPs from Friday to Wednesday in any given week and you’ll be eligible for the ‘FPP Freeroll Challenge’ the following Friday where ten $100,000 Deep Stack Challenge seats are up for grabs.

Promotions
Littlewoods offers a number of promotions on a regular basis. they have a First Depositors’ Freeroll, opportunities to win a $17,000 WSOP package, a $20,000 Guaranteed tournament from Monday to Saturday and much more!

Referral and sign up programs
Littlewoods Poker offers a 100% welcome bonus up to £200. They pay 25% of your welcome bonus instantly before you even sit down at your first table. The other 75% of your bonus is pending and easy to clear by accumulating bonus points.

When you sign on to Littlewoods poker, a voice greets you with, “Welcome to Littlewoods Poker, good luck!” You then move to the lobby and then to an interface that is fun to play on with really nice graphics, a choice of avatars (or none if you like) and an easy to maneuver lobby so you can find the game or tournament you want, quickly.

The blind countdown clock is at the table (which I like) instead of the tournament lobby. There’s also a “Your Best Hand” window helpful for players new to the game. You can even set the sound to have a dealer tell you when the flop, turn and river is being dealt. It all wraps up nicely when you sign out and hear, “Join us again at Littlewoods Poker.”

Littlewoods Poker Quick Review:

Full screen: Yes
Changeable avatars: Yes
Hand history in graphic form or text: Graphic and in movie form
Can change the color of the deck: Yes
Can change the layout: Yes
Four color deck alternative:  Yes
Freerolls: Yes
Easy to work betting controls Yes
At this moment:  2089 players
Toll free number for contact support: Yes as well as live chat and email

Be sure to read below to find out about Pacific Poker’s $20,000 Guaranteed poker tournament that runs six days a week.

Pacific Poker is another great place to play free online poker or for real money. If you’re trying to improve your poker game, Pacific Poker offers a lot of help. They have a complete How to Play section covering whichever brand of poker is your favorite game. From Texas Holdem poker, to Omaha High and Hi/Lo to Seven Card Stud and Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo, they cover it all.

Pacific Poker also has sections offering instruction on how to play no limit and pot limit games as well as how to play in a tournament. And they have a complete Terminology section.

$20,000 Guaranteed Tournament
This tournament runs six days a week with a guaranteed prize pool of $20,000 and the buy-in is only $50 + $5, making it one the lowest buy-ins online for such a prize pool. If that’s not good enough, daily satellites to the $20,000 Guaranteed are available from only $2 + 20¢.

Pacific Poker also has a lot of other great promotions that they’re always running, such as 100,000 Deep Stack Challenge Sundays where you can buy in for $140 or satellite your way in from as little as $1.20+ 10¢. And this is just scratching the surface.

Referral and sign up programs
Real money players can take advantage of a 100% sign up bonus on their initial deposits up to $400. Pacific Poker also pays you $50 for each new real money player you refer and that player will receive a $25 bonus of his or her own.

The interface is fun to play on with great graphics, a choice of avatars (or none if you like) and an easy to maneuver lobby so you can find the game or tournament you want, quickly.

One thing I like is having the blind countdown clock (telling you what the blinds are now, when they will change and what they will change to) at the table. They’re usually in the lobby, but I like to be able to see it at a glance. There is also a nice “Your Best Hand” window helpful for players new to the game.

Pacific Poker Quick Review:

Full screen: Yes
Changeable avatars: Yes
Hand history in graphic form or text: Graphic and in movie form
Can change the color of the deck: Yes
Can change the layout: Yes
Four color deck alternative:  Yes
Freeroll for real money:  Yes
Pro Players: Shane Warne
Easy to work betting controls Yes
At this moment:  4589 players
Toll free number for contact support: Yes and live chat