Has Tom “durrrr” Dwan Met His Match?

For the better part of 2008 and 2009, the biggest name in No Limit Holdem was indisputably Tom “durrrr” Dwan. You don’t have to think he’s the best NL Holdem player in the world (we don’t) in order to recognize all the press and attention he’s drawn to himself, in large part because of the high-stakes challenges he’s posed to the all-comers – “comers” being the likes of Phil Ivey and Patrik Antonius.

Well, now a new player is finally giving Dwan a run for his money – a rising start who started his rise in much the same way as Dwan did, as online amateur making big strides with small investment. The player goes by the name of Isildur1, and on November 7, while the 2009 WSOP main event final table was underway (the ESPN broadcast was televised), durrrr and Isildur1 were going at it on Full Tilt Poker, with the latter winning about $1.2 million from the former. Then the next day, Monday November 8, Isildur1 won another $600,000 from durrrr.

Tuesday saw durrrr lose another $500,000 to Isildur1 and Wednesday, another $700,000.

Small consolation for durrrr is that he won about $300,000 from Ilari Sahamies this week too, but still, after a couple more bad sessions for Tom, that brings his total losses (and Isildur1’s gains) to over $3 million.

So, appropriately, Dwan has challenged his new rival to a live showdown at Mayfair, London’s Les Ambassadeurs Club for his Million Dollar Challenge.

All we know about Isildur1’s identity so far is that he’s a Swede and that he like Lord of the Rings (from which his username was derived).