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Only a few days after Tom “durrrr” Dwan ended an installment of the durrrr Challenge 2 series by telling Dan “jungleman12″ Cates that he was experiencing too much turbulence on his plane, the pair resumed the Challenge with just under 1,100 hands. Though the sessions occur with considerable inconsistency, it seems as though Cates and Dwan may be looking to boost their volume in the Challenge and expedite its conclusion.

As per the rules of the Challenge, the hands were played over four tables of NLHE at the $200 / $400 stake level. To the surprise of railbirds, Dwan came out to an early lead in the session, going positie by $100k within the first 600 hands.

Most of his lead resulted from a massive $100k pot, in which Dwan called with 10-7 on an extremely risky king-high board. Cates had nothing to show and Dwan took the pot.

Unfortunately for Dwan, his lead was short lived. By the time hand number 700 came around, the two were virtually even.

The remainder of the match belonged almost entirely to Cates. In one memorable hand, both players secured trips followed the flop, but Cates’ superior kicker earned him the $101k pot.

At the session’s conclusion, Dwan had lost $39k. The severity of his past losses, however, made this latest session seem like a relative victory for Dwan. Cates has come out on top in the last four sessions, and is now holding a $1.25 million advantage over durrrr. The rules of the challenge indicate that Cates will take an extra $1.5 million bonus from Dwan if he’s positive by any amount of money following 50,000 hands.

Despite Cates’ recent domination, it’s important to remember that 31,000 hands remain in the series.

In other high stakes news, Gus Hansen’s win streak was finally interrupted with a $239k loss, while Phil Galfond recorded one of his biggest wins for the year, netting $584k at PLO.