Marigliano Wins First Battle At Dwan's Million Dollar Challenge In London

Tom Dwan’s Million Dollar Challenge has hit Les Ambassadeurs club in London and the first opponent prepared to put up $500,000 of their cash and take on the young hyper-aggressive Full Tilt Poker pro was Italian Marcello ‘Luckexpress’ Marigliano.
The heads-up challenge is played over 500 hands or 12 hours at either No Limit Hold’em or Pot Limit Omaha, with neither player allowed to quit before those requirements are met. 
At the end of the first challenge, Marigliano had won a modest $22,500 after 12 hours of action, surprising considering the volatile nature of heads-up play where stacks can crumble quicly under intense pressure.
Following his victory, Marigliano said: “In the end I won a small amount, but I’m happy though, as I won with bluffs. He [Dwan] raised a lot pre-flop and you have to play tight, but I made some good moves and I’m happy I proved I can play with Tom.”
Dwan made the following observation after the match was completed: “It was a really aggressive match. It’s so crazy that at the end there was just a 25 000 difference – that’s absurd. It’s so unlikely that one of us didn’t lose 500 000.I was up 150 000 at one or two points and down 200,000 – but it still wasn’t as swingy as I thought it would be. It was an interesting match – of course I wish I’d won.”
Tom is now facing his second challenger, super aggressive Finn Ilari Sahamies, and unlike Marigliano, who opted for 11 hours of hold’em and only 1 hour of Pot Limit Omaha, the two pros got stuck straight in to $500/$1 000 PLO and after one hour and 50 deals, Dwan was slightly ahead.
We will try to keep you updated on results for ‘Dwan’s Live Million Dollar Challenge as the news comes in.