So you may have heard about a certain little boxing match that happened a few of weeks ago called “Rumble near the Rio”. This came about when Pokernews approached me with the proposal that I box their presenter, Melissa Castello. Now I have never boxed before in my life, but it has always been something that I’ve wanted to try, and as I never like to turn down a challenge, I readily accepted. It then occured to me that maybe I should do some research into Melissa and her background, as knowing me it’ll turn out she was once an MMA champion or the like. The research unveiled the fact that yes, she had fought before. Fought significantly. Apparently she’d been quite the scrapper a few years back and had been in bar fights with bottles and broken noses and god knows what else. However, by the time this had come to light the PR ball had gotten rolling and turned the fun boxing match into quite the monster with press conferences, huge blow up posters boasting our vital stats and official boxing licences! Whatever cold feet I may have tried to get were basically nowhere near enough to stop the relentless march of the match, so I resigned myself to probably getting beaten. Even more so when I heard that Melissa had been training every day with a personal boxing coach and I only managed to squeeze in three training sessions due to playing poker each day.
The day of the fight was awesome. Pokernews had set everything up really well and a surprisingly large crowd turned up to watch and cheer on each side. I’d heard rumours of betting but it took a little while until the news filtered back to me that I was apparently the favourite despite the fact she’d been training way more! I was in the blue corner and before I knew it we were touching gloves and the bell was ringing for the first round. It started really well for me, I was able to land some decent punches without her really making any contact on me at all. By the second round we were already exhausted, a minute and a half of trying to beat someone up when you’ve never done it before is exhausting! The second round went by and Melissa fought back really well and it was a close call, but the third round was a definite win for me again so I felt pretty confident when they took us into the middle and announced the winner . I even got a medal! The best bit however is the 100% undefeated boxing record I now have to my name… can’t argue with those stats. Ahem…
It’s been a pretty cool month for online poker. My highlights include a few challenges: Gus Hansen’s boxing match against Theo Jorgensen, Tom Dwan’s (aka “durrrr”) challenges the world to a $1.5million prop bet and Patrick Antonious accepted, and UB’s Steps Challenge.
I was pretty busy in 2008 and I did not make time for keeping myself in shape. This year I started boxing training, started back at the gym, and I am just trying to stay active as much as possible. I never liked going to the gym and it’s always been a constant struggle for me. I played ice hockey for most of my life and it was a great way to stay in shape, especially because I actually enjoyed playing. For the past four years, I’ve been living in places where ice hockey is not an option and staying in shape has not been easy. To be perfectly honest, I hate going to the gym, but thankfully I enjoy boxing which has become my new hockey. It’s something I want to keep getting better at, which motivates me to work hard and to keep going to training, whereas with the gym, I usually stop going after a while. But now, even going to the gym to lift weights has more appeal because it is helping me to become better at boxing (At least that’s what I keep telling myself).
I have always been a fan of boxing and recently I have also become a big fan of Mixed Martial Arts. So when I heard about two professional poker players (Gus Hansen and Theo Jorgensen) in a boxing match, I got pretty excited.
I think it was a great publicity stunt and a really fun bet between friends. I am just getting started with my boxing training but I can appreciate the hard work these two guys must have put in to prepare themselves for a 3 round exhibition fight.
The challenge: Hansen placed a handicap on himself in the match. Gus had to pay $35,000 if he lost and Jorgensen $25,000 if he lost.
In the first round I thought the fight was pretty even. Theo came out and landed a few in Gus’s face, which I think tilted Gus a little bit. Gus then came charging back at Theo for the rest of the round, landing a few really good right hands. The two exchanged a lot of punches and I think it was a very close round. However, I think Gus got too excited and was too eager to land a big right hand, which he was able to do a few times, but he also wasted a lot of energy in the process.
In the second round, I think it was a relatively even too, but Theo seemed a lot more calm and retained a lot more energy than Gus. In the third round, I think Theo pulled ahead by staying with his strategy and taking advantage of Gus’s fatigue. Theo continued to land solid jabs and right hands, while Gus came with solid punches when he had the energy.
I think it was a great amateur fight, even though to a lot of people it probably looked like two boys just throwing wild punches. Both fighters impressed me, but Theo was able to stick to a simple strategy of landing effective jabs and right hands without trying to land too many hooks or try anything fancy. He conserved his energy and stayed calm which enabled him to execute his game plan.
Thanks to both fighters for bringing some excitement to the poker world! And congrats to Theo on the victory and the $35K!
The Durrrr Challenge
Tom Dwan “durrrr” has made quite a name for himself in the poker world. At just 22, he has already become a legend through his success at the nosebleed cash games and tournaments.
Recently, Dwan issued the Million Dollar Challenge, open to any member of the poker community except Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond. The challenge requires opponents to play Dwan in 50,000 hands of $200/$400 or higher on four tables at a time. If either player drops below 75 big blinds in their stack at any point, they must reload.
At the conclusion of the Pot Limit Omaha or No Limit Hold’em hands, a winner will be crowned. If Dwan is ahead by $1 or more, his opponent must fork over $500,000. If Dwan’s opponent is ahead by $1 or more, he has offered to pay $1.5 million. In each case, the victor will also keep the spoils of the 50,000 hands of play. In addition to the money, the Million Dollar Challenge is about bragging rights.
So far Patrick Antonius, Phil Ivey, and David Benyamine have accepted the challenge.
Patrick Antonius was the first to accept and they are currently at just under 4000 hands and Dwan is currently leading by roughly $150K.
It seems that most people agree that Dwan has an advantage over the world’s top players when playing 4 tables. I’m wondering if it’s enough to justify the 3:1 odds against the best players in the world? Regardless, I think this challenge has created a huge amount of exposure for Dwan. This challenge and his appearance on some big poker televesion this year (including my fav show, GSN’s high stakes poker) , should make 2009 an even bigger year for Dwan than 2008.
We recently launched Steps on UltimateBet and we have come up with a promotion to celebrate it. The first 10 players who win all 10 steps (note: you have to start at the .10cent step to qualify) will win a WSOP package (value of $12,000) and an Aruba package (value of $8500)!
I believe this is the best value I have ever seen in a Steps promotion.
I’m thinking about issuing a challenge of my own this year. I’m considering challenging other online poker CEO’s to a boxing or golf proposition bet. If anyone has any ideas for the challenge, comment on this post.
. I even got a medal! The best bit however is the 100% undefeated boxing record I now have to my name… can’t argue with those stats. Ahem…
