BLOG – November is Isildur1 time; jungleman12 takes over durrrr’s mantle

BLOG – November is Isildur1 time; jungleman12 takes over durrrr’s mantle

Monday, 4 October 2010

Remember how goddamn crazy online poker went last November when Isildur1 emerged at the high stakes and nosebleed games on Full Tilt? It was pretty mental; he went from thrashing the likes of Haseeb “INTERNET POKERS” Quereshi to Cole South, Brian Townsend, Ziigmund and Patrik Antonius. The only person he seemed unable to beat, or at least hesitant to play against, at heads-up No Limit was Phil Ivey.

Everyone remembers him as the man who almost busted Tom Dwan after taking more than $5,000,000 from durrrr in an epic six-tabling heads-up match that spanned the better part of a week; 40,000 hands and stakes from $300/$600 to $500/$1,000 with millons of dollars on the felt. Isildur1 later lost it back playing PLO against Patrik Antonius and, famously, Brian Hastings – controversial as Hastings admitted sharing hand histories in a database with Cole South and Brian Townsend.


I’m not here to discuss the ethics of what Hastings did – in short, it was wrong and his punishment was probably far too lenient. I’m here to talk about the heads-up match that Isildur1 isn’t so remembered for. Before his games with durrrr, he took on the relatively-unknown high stakes player jungleman12 and won half of his opponent’s million dollar bankroll before jungleman12 cried off.


Back then, jungleman12 was a $25/$50 regular who was known in the high stakes community and the more studious members of the poker media but not a famous name. Since then, he’s rejuvenated his bankroll and begun to take on and prove himself against the best at the highest heads-up stakes – notably Tom “durrrr” Dwan, who is currently down over a million dollars to jungleman12 including $690,000 in the durrrr challenge.


So, now that Daniel “jungleman12” Cates is widely considered the best heads-up No Limit player in the world what will happen in the Isildur1 rematch? It wouldn’t surprise me if “durrrr” took on Isildur1 again but he’d be stupid if he did – clearly the Swede has the edge over Dwan at multi-tabling heads-up NL. Cates, though – sure, he received an absolute ass-whooping this time last year but in that time span, when durrrr has just... well, been durrrr (and lost a couple million to WSOP bets) with no astounding improvements to his game, Cates has gone from a $25/$50 regular to being recognised as the best heads-up player in the world.


That’s one hell of an improvement – can Isildur1 handle it?



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