After encountering a rough patch in his highly publicized challenge, Tom “durrrr” Dwan may be taking some time off. His opponent, Dan “JungleMan12″ Cates was asked about it in a recent chat…

Ansky451: are you and tom playing any time soon
jungleman12: idk
jungleman12: seems like there will be a big hiatus
jungleman12: tom is hard to work with
jungleman12: yeah
jasoneade (Observer): yea, its his terms or no game

The general response to this tidbit has been largely negative. Many poker fans seem to believe that, since Full Tilt is paying an exorbitant amount of money to Dwan, he should take his role in the community a bit more seriously. Others, however, are quick to point our that “durrrr” has a myriad of other time commitments which demand attention.

No matter how you feel about this particular situation, it’ll be interesting to see how things play out. So far, JungleMan12 is up $500,000 after 14,190 No-Limit Hold’em hands. There is plenty of time remaining for Dwan, however, since the eventual winner will not be decided until the counter eclipses 50,000 hands. If, at the end of this period, the challenger is up by even a single dollar, Dwan will owe him $1,500,000. If Jungleman12 finds himself behind at the end, “durrrr” will take home $500,000.