2008 in Review: Best Hands of Poker: Part 1

by Bodog Poker | Jan 7 2009

Online action is growing every day. Pot sizes rival anything you’ll see on television on shows like High Stakes Poker. Many famous live game players play for huge stakes online, and most of them end up in a game against Tom “Durrrr” Dwan.

Tom is the internet poster boy for the high stakes cash games, and he’s won millions online since he began playing in 2004. One of his internet rivals, and good friends, is Swedish player Di “Urindanger” Dang. The two have played some massive pots against each other over the last year, but none bigger than these two.

These two hands were played a couple of months apart, with the biggest occurring on October 26, 2008. The two were seated in a $500/$1000 no limit hold’em game along with four other players which included John Juanda and Gus Hansen.

Hansen was on the button while “durrrr” was in the small blind. “Urindanger” raised the blinds from $1000 to $3000, and after one player called, “durrrr” re-raised it to $16,300. “Urindanger” re-raised again to $45,000 and “durrrr” called. The two saw a flop of 5c-9h-4h. With a pot of $94,000 already “durrrr” checked the flop to “Urindanger”, who promptly bet out $52,700.

“durrrr” wasn’t going anywhere and raised that bet to $139,500, which “Urindanger” quickly re-raised with the remainder of his stack, bringing the bet to $367,671. It didn’t take “durrrr” long to call, elevating the pot to $723,938.

All the money was in the middle of the table and “Urindanger” turned over pocket aces. “durrrr” was in big trouble because all he had was pocket kings, and he needed one of two outs to take down the massive pot. The turn card was the three of diamonds, and the river card was the six of hearts. “Urindanger” took down the massive pot, doubling through “durrrr” for a profit of over $360,000 in one hand.

But in the world of high stakes poker, chips come and go. “durrrr” would get his chance to recover some of that lost cash against “Urindanger” a little more than a month later on December 6, 2008. He was in the same size game with “Urindanger” and three other players when he raised the blinds from $1000 to $3000.

“Urindanger” was next to act and he made it $10,500 to go pre-flop. “durrrr” made the call and they saw a flop of As-7h-4c. “durrrr” came out betting $17,600, which “Urindanger” promptly raised to $44,200. Once again “durrrr” made the call and they saw the turn card of Kh. Once again “durrrr” came out betting, putting $71,200 in the middle of the pot.

“Urindanger” made the call on the $71,200 and the two saw the river card of 6d. “durrrr” fired the rest of his stack of $201,887 into the middle and “Urindanger” made the big call, bringing the pot to a staggering $657,073. “durrrr” turned over pocket fours, showing a set he’d hit on the flop. “Urindanger” did not show his hand, and mucked it to the set, which was obviously good enough to take the hand.

Part 2 will cover other crazy hands that drew a lot of online action and attention

Want to get in on the action? Head over to Bodog’s online poker room and put your opponents to the test.