Created by Bay 101 owner Marco Trapani 14 years ago, tournament director Matt Savage says the concept was based on the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am celebrity challenge, which draws some of the best golfers in the world, a host of celebrities and thousands spectators to the Northern California Coast about an hour from San Jose every year.

Trapani’s original plan, 14 years ago, was to try and draw the world’s best rounders to a fan and player friendly $1k buy-in event in the Bay Area.

When it first started, the bounties were a bunch of Trapani’s friends, but it slowly grew and when the World Poker Tour came along seven years later, Savage says they bumped up the buy-in and had a perfect fit.  

“It’s great for TV and the fans because it’s a really unique tournament,” he said. “With the $5k bounties, $10k for the chip leader at the end of the first day and six-handed play with 36 left, it’s unlike any other tournament in poker.”

Unique tournament structures also make for unique tournament strategies.

“Some people chase the bounties,” Savage said. “The local players sometimes are just out here to get the bounties. They think, ‘Hey, I won my way in through a $200 satellite, now I have the chance to pick up five thousand,’ so they might make a loose call.

“That’s why one or two of the shooting stars make the final table every year, because people are going after them and if they pick up chips, they’re tough to get.”

Team UB Pro Brandon Cantu loves the format and actually won the event in 2009, collecting a record six bounties on his way to the title.

“This is one of my favorite tournaments,” he said. “And I actually do hunt the bounties. It’s nice to try and get the buy-in back, so I’m really a fan of going after the bounties.”

Cantu went wire-to-wire in 2008, taking the chip lead on his Day 1 and the $10k prize it came with.

He says that’s the kind of thing that really makes the event fun to play and keeps the fans on the rail entertained throughout.

“I was actually going for it,” he said. “When I was 8,000 behind late in the day, I really went for it. I wanted it.”

What Cantu didn’t enjoy was being a bounty for the first time last year.

“People played really differently against me,” he said. “It seemed like they were up to no good all the time and it just changed my whole mindset.

“I didn’t know where I was in a hand as much as I usually do. I didn’t like it.”

Phil Laak has a bounty on his head and says it changes just about everything.

“I love it, but it really sucks as a bounty when your chip stack starts diminishing,” he said. “You are forced to get real hands, because people are going to call you down, often correctly.

“But it is nice when you have some chips, because people are going to take some incorrect lines to try and chase you.”

Like it or not, with a rail full of fans watching the biggest names in the game here in San Jose this week, Trapani’s plan has worked.

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The PartyPoker Women’s World Open IV has just confirmed a few players, the Ladbrokes Poker Team has just signed its newest member, and more, all in tonight’s Nightly Turbo.

Full Tilt Poker hosted some huge action this weekend, largely driven by the presence of everyone’s favorite online poker punching bag “Isildur1.” There were epic heads-up matches, swingy six-max games, and as many as eight tables of $300/$600…

Other than four hands on Saturday (where Dwan lost $1,000) the durrrr Challenge picked up where it left off on February 15th with an hour-long 364 hand session Monday.

The session started with Antonius in the midst of an epic down-swing which has cost him over $3.2 million so far this year.

Three pots worth over $100k played out, the largest of which saw Dwan win $213k after hitting one of his many outs on the turn to beat Antonius’ kings.

The pot, which felted Antonius at one of their four challenge tables, appeared to be the last straw for the Finnish pro, who ended the session down $306,558.

With Dwan’s lead now over $1.7 million, Antonius has just 16,758 hands to get out of the hole, or he will lose the challenge, along with an extra $500k.

If we assume that all remaining Challenge sessions will be exactly 364 hands - the length of this most recent session - Antonius would have to profit an average of $38,135 over 48 sessions to get back to even.

For Antonius to pull this off, he would have to average $104.77 profit per hand for the remainder of the challenge.

durrrr Challenge by the numbers:

• 273,423,095: Total amount wagered
• 118,000,000: Number of Google search results for the term Poker
• 1,755,708: Amount durrrr is ahead
• 33,242: Hands played overall
• 342,157: Amount made by Dwan in the last session
• 258,000: Number of Google search results for the term “durrrr Challenge”
• 7,501: Amount of rake made by Full Tilt from the Challenge
• 105: Hours played in the challenge
• 66: Percentage of challenge completed
• 8: Number of Google search results for the phrase “cork it durrrrballs”

Below are the two largest hands from the Challenge session. To see more hand replays head to MarketPulse.

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Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies would be the first player to take on the unknown Swedish pro.

After 451 hands of $300/$600 Pot-Limit Omaha, with Sahamies losing over $487k, the two moved their game to $500/$1,000 PLO, where they remained for 40 minutes.

By the end of the 259-hand nosebleed session, Sahamies logged off, down another $290,965.

With Sahamies gone, Isildur1 went on the hunt for his next opponent, finding him in Justin “ZeeJustin” Bonomo. The two played $200/$400 NLHE for 791 hands with Bonomo finishing up $187k.

Looking to bounce back after that NLHE loss, Isildur1 took on the CardRunners team, playing both Cole South and Brian Hastings heads-up at the same time.

Despite starting the year off with a white-hot streak of wins, South lost $334k over his 825 hands, while Hastings made $330k over a shorter 224-hand match, all at $300/$600 PLO.

Hastings, who holds the online record for most money made in a single session after crushing Isildur1 for $4.2 million on Full Tilt late in 2009, tried to repeat his feat, convincing Isildur1 to move their game back up to $500/$1,000, where they played for another 468 hands.

Although Hastings was unable to make anything close to $4.2 million, he came away from the nosebleed session with another $219k, up over half a million total on the day.

After some small sessions at smaller stakes games, Isildur1 sat for his final heads-up sessions, giving South a chance to get even on the day.

After 565 hands of $100/$200 PLO, and South getting himself suck another $222k, the two doubled the stakes, finishing their session with 344 hands at $200/$400.

Although he wasn’t able to get completely out of the hole, South managed to make back $77,958 before the end of the match.

In total, Isildur1 added $572,746 to his roll, putting him up well over $1 million in 2010 so far.

Below you can find Isildur1’s three largest hands of the day. To see more hands from Isildur1, including the $1.3 million dollar largest-ever online pot, head to MarketPulse.

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The PartyPoker.com Women’s World Open IV will take place in London, England March 23 and 24 featuring 24 of the best female poker players on the planet. 

Amongst those already confirmed to take part are Team PartyPoker’s Kara Scott, Betfair pro Annette Obrestad, Women’s World Open III winner Aisling Collins and runner-up Wooka Kim.

Also scheduled to play are Laurence Grondin, Shelley Rubenstein, Stefanie Bergener, Maria Demetriou, Christine Klecz, Pippa Flanders and season two winner Soraya Homam.

The $3,000 buy-in will create a $72,000 prize pool for the tournament. The event’s format dictates that the top two players from each of the three deep-stacked eight handed heats carry their chips through to a six-handed final table. 

“Last year Aisling proved that Britain’s got talent, but the same can be said about Japan in the form of Wooka Kim,” said a PartyPoker spokesperson. “Both will be strong contenders for the title this year. We’ve made the stacks deeper and the competition is just as fierce.”

Matchroom Sport director Eddie Hearn said he’s looking forward to the action.

“The PartyPoker.com Women’s World Open has proved extremely popular with players, viewers and broadcasters over the last three seasons,” he said. “As the game continues to grow, we have made a number of changes to our formats that enables the viewers to watch a deeper-stacked game with more skill, where players can really showcase their ability and flair.” 

Commentary for the TV broadcast will be provided by Jesse May, with presenting duties shared between Kara Scott and Tatjana Pasilic. Coverage of the event will first be broadcast on Five in the UK later this year and then distributed internationally.

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The unique format of the World Poker Tour Bay 101 Shooting Star makes it stand out from the tournament crowd during this blossoming springtime poker season. Day 1a of the $10,000-buy-in event ran on Monday, and the Bay 101 Casino in San Jose…

Patrik Antonius capped off a miserable day at the online tables with another losing session in the “durrrr” Challenge, his tenth in their last eleven meetings. Antonius and Tom “durrrr” Dwan met for only a bit over an hour and 364 hands, but the…

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This might seem like a slight to the…

PokerNews is bringing you $500 cash freerolls at Carbon Poker every Wednesday through May.

There are no minimum deposits or point requirements to qualify. All you have to do is sign up for a Carbon Poker account through PokerNews. The freeroll…