Daily 3-Bet: Hellmuth Prophecy, Cates Buzzsaw, durrrr Torpedo

The PokerListings Daily 3-Bet is a tray of deli meats, a round of whiskeys and a tear-filled, back-slapping rendition of Danny Boy at the afternoon poker news wake.

PokerListings Team Editorial Team

• Fact Checked by: PokerListings
• Last updated on: November 1, 2024 · 3 minutes to read

Got a tip for a future 3-Bet? Drop a note or link in the comments and we’ll take a look. Today in the 3-Bet we wonder if Phil Hellmuth can actually see the future. And revisit the moment Tom Dwan ran into heads-up NLHE buzzsaw Dan “Jungleman12” Cates. And pinpoint the moment durrrr’s long-term fortunes may have changed course.

1) Hellmuth to Dwan: We’ll See if You’re Around in 5 Years

In the wake of yesterday’s official separation of Tom “durrrr” Dwan and Full Tilt Poker it’s impossible not to revisit the legendary moment between Dwan and Phil Hellmuth at the 2008 NBC Heads-Up Championship.

It’s fascinating for its “place and time” alone as it’s pretty much the apex of the live vs. online cold war. Online pros had surged (successfully) into the live game en masse and proclaimed the live pro outmatched; older pros held fast to the idea the young guns couldn’t grasp the nuances of the live game and would never last.

It manifested itself in the perfect storm here. “Standard” online math vs. the hilarious “quick re-raise” misdirection. A massive suckout. A pissing contest. And a line Hellmuth is probably feling pretty self-righteous about today (although of course the durrrr poker story is far, far from over):

2) Cates: Still Confused by “durrrr Stuff”

Much like the Hellmuth/Dwan moment it’s impossible not to think of Dan “Jungleman12” Cates in the wake of durrrrr’s separation from FTP. Dwan was at the peak of his career when he initiated the first durrrr Challenge to get the action he says no one would give him at the time. Offering 3-1 over 50,000 hands Dwan made fairly quick (relatively speaking and knowing what we know now, of course) work of Patrik Antonius before stepping up to his next opponent – Cates.

Still fairly unknown on a wider scale at the time Cates stormed out to an early $700k lead over the first 7,000 hands and would expand his lead to $1.2m shortly after – breaking through durrrr’s seeming invicibility – before Black Friday shut things down. Three years, dozens of stops and starts later and the now-unavoidable impression he’s been dodging Cates, it’s one of the lingering bad tastes helping durrrr’s reputation go south along with his sponsorship.

After speaking with Cates yesterday it’s clear he’s still confused why it’s played out the way it has – and what “durrrr stuff” exactly entails. Much like he was in this clip from 2010:

3) Watt Beats durrrr, Saves Poker

While we’re on the topic of durrrr defining moments it’s also impossible to forget about his scintillating 2010 World Series of Poker. Taking his lead from poker icon Phil Ivey, Dwan had laid down a ton of bracelet bets with virtually all of the bigwigs in the poker world — reportedly in line for close to $10m in payouts should he bink his first gold bracelet.

In Event #11, a $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em event Dwan made it heads-up against New Zealand’s Simon Watt and the collective panic of the poker world inside the Rio was palpable. Coming in with a 2-1 chip disadvantage it still seemed the durrrr magic would just somehow take over and he’d find a way to win. It didn’t. And even Watt seemed surprised about it.

Dwan quietly left the Rio, Mike Matusow proclaimed Watt a hero and we’ll never know how things might be today if Dwan had won. 

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