Durrrr Challenge II: Dwan Eeks Out A $28k Win

Last night the Durrrr Challenge II resumed once more, this time with the duo putting in 1,163 hands of $200/$400 NL Hold’em with Dwan finishing ahead by around $28k.
Tom Dwan has steadily been able to reduce his deficit against Dan “jungleman12” Cates over the last few sessions, and with over a quarter of the challenge completed, Tom Dwan is now $555k down from his one time trough of $755k.
Last night’s session lasted around two and a half hours with the biggest pot of the night worth $124k going to Dwan.
In the hand, Dwan holding pocket kings on the small blind raised to $1,200 and was called by Cates with Kc-7c. With the flop falling 4d-Jc-5c, Cates then check-raised Dwan’s $2,000 bet to $7,000 who then just called. An Ad on the turn and a Qh on the river didn’t slow down the action much, with Cates each time betting out almost pot sized bets with his flush draw.
Dwan continued his recent strategy of just calling his aggressive opponent’s actions, which paid off nicely in the hand with Dwan taking down the $124k pot.
Dan “jungleman12” Cates, however, took the second biggest pot of the night worth $115k, after being dealt pocket jacks on the small blind to Dwan’s pocket nines.
The duo then reraised each other a few times until Dwan put the brakes on at $5,600 but a 2d-3d-7s low flop saw all the money going to the centre of the table, with Dwan check-raising Cates $4,800 bet to $15,500 before Cates re-shoved for his remaining $51,793. Cates’ jacks held up through the turn and river to hand him the pot.
However, Dwan won two of the three next largest post to eek out a slim lead of $28k by the end of the session to trail Dan “jungleman12” Cates $555k overall. Its early days, but Dwan will be hoping to continue making further steady progress at the expense of his young opponent if he is to win $500,000 of Cates and avoid having to pay out $1.5 million at the end of the 50,000 hand challenge.