Tom 'durrrr' Dwan Extends Challenge Lead To $937k

It was another quiet night at Full Tilt Poker’s high stakes tables, following the inglorious downfall of Isildur1, and the subsequent fall out over data-mining allegations. Consequently, Tom Dwan and Patrik Antonius decided to take advantage of the loll in the action to get in another session of their ongoing ‘Challenge’.
To recap, the challenge involves playing 50,000 hands (minimum) against Dwan, at stakes of at least $200/400, with a minimum of 4 tables going at the same time. If Dwan was ahead at the end of the challenge, then his opponent would have to pay him $500,000, on top of whatever was lost during the course of the challenge. If Dwan’s opponent was up, then Dwan would have to fork over $1.5 million dollars, on top of whatever he lost during the challenge.
The challenge got underway on February 18th 2009, and yesterday’s session brought the challenge to 60% completion, and extended Tom’s lead by a further $171,000 to $937,000 overall.
The two pros contested 1,991 hands over around 7 hours of play, and things were looking pretty even until towards the end of the session, when Dwan took down a $240,000 pot.
Antonius had $119,000 in front of him and was dealt KdQcJs9s, while Dwan had a $230,000 stack and was holding Jd10s9h8s. The pre-flop action was very aggressive, with Dwan raising to $1200,  Antonius re-raising to $3,600, Dwan four betting to $10,800 and Antonius re-popping to $25,200. A flop of KsJc7h had Antonius making a pot-sized bet of $61,200 with top two pair and a gutshot straight draw, while Dwan re-raised Antonius all-in, and was called, holding a straight draw. A 7s on the turn didn’t change things, but the 9c on the river made Dwan’s straight, and handed him the $238,674.50 pot.
Dwan’s latest win now takes him to almost $1 million clear of Antonius, and his $1 million profit on the week has helped reduce his overall losses in 2009 to around $5.3 million. Conversely, Antonius has had a healthy 2009, and is around $9 million up on the year.