Dan Cates

Biography

Dan Cates, better known by his nickname "Jungleman" is an American poker player. In 2021, he won his first WSOP bracelet.

Cates is known for playing at the very highest stakes both online and live, and was a regular feature in the PokerNews Railbird Report during the mid-2010s. In 2015, he admitted that he lost $5,000,000 while playing in Manila.

Poker Achievements

Cates' nickname came from his online username 'jungleman12' that he used when he first started out playing poker. He made a name for himself as a tough opponent in heads-up cash games online, regularly battling with the likes of Viktor Blom and Tom Dwan.

He also took on Phil Galfond in mid-2020, but came out second best.

In September 2021, Gates joined poker training site Run It Once as an Ambassador.

Less than three months later, Cates won his first WSOP bracelet. He won the highly prestigious $50,000 Poker Players Championship for $954,020 in what was only his third WSOP cash ever.

"I said I was gonna win, so I won. But it was pretty important because now I have more money to help the world and to continue a career outside of poker," Cates said in his interview after the hard-fought victory.

Amazingly, Cates achieved the unthinkable and won back-to-back $50,000 Poker Players Championship events after defeating Yuri Dzievielvski heads-up in 2022. Cates won the tournament while dressed as WWE's Macho Man Randy Savage, even giving his winner's interview in Randy Savage style!

Durrrr Challenge

In 2010, Cates took on the Durrrr Challenge from Tom Dwan. The rules were that Dwan would pay $1.5 million to anyone who could beat him at high-stakes heads-up poker over 50,000 hands.

As of December 2021 and with no hands having taken place since late 2013 Cates currently leads by $1.2 million after 19,335 hands.

Cates did however spark rumours in late 2018 that the Challenge would be resumed, but there have been no further hands played.

@TomDwan Hey, haven't heard from you in a while. Don't you think it's time to give everyone an update on the durrr https://t.co/8p4ze7SiXT

— Daniel Cates (@junglemandan) window.twttr=function(t,e,r){var n,s=t.getElementsByTagName(e)[0],i=window.twttr||{};return t.getElementById(r)||((n=t.createElement(e)).id=r,n.src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js",s.parentNode.insertBefore(n,s),i.\_e=\[\],i.ready=function(t){i.\_e.push(t)}),i}(document,"script","twitter-wjs");## Multi-Accounting Scandal

In 2020, Cates was involved in one of several high-profile scandals that year. He was accused of ghosting on a free-to-play money app with Dan Bilzerian and Bill Perkins.

He would later tweet this statement:

To be clear, I think multi accounting is wrong even if others are doing it, and while it is condoned the first step https://t.co/9ONvqpOebE

— Daniel Cates (@junglemandan) window.twttr=function(t,e,r){var n,s=t.getElementsByTagName(e)[0],i=window.twttr||{};return t.getElementById(r)||((n=t.createElement(e)).id=r,n.src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js",s.parentNode.insertBefore(n,s),i.\_e=\[\],i.ready=function(t){i.\_e.push(t)}),i}(document,"script","twitter-wjs"); ## PokerNews Covered Events

Event	Place	Prize
2022 World Series of PokerEvent #56: $50,000 Poker Players Championship	1st	$1,449,103
2021 World Series of PokerEvent #60: $50,000 Poker Players Championship	1st	$954,020
2019 Triton Super High Roller Series London100,000 No-Limit Hold'em Main Event	8th	£410,000
2019 World Series of PokerEvent #58: $50,000 Poker Players Championship	6th	$168,305
2018 Triton Super High Roller Series MontenegroHKD $250,000 Short Deck Ante-Only	2nd	3,199,000 HKD
2017 Triton Super High Roller Series ManilaHK $1,000,000 Main Event	3rd	7,765,156 HKD
2015 PokerStars EPT Season 12 Prague10,300 High Roller	6th	€138,110
2014 PokerStars and Monte-Carlo Casino EPT Grand Final100,000 Super High Roller	2nd	€1,283,700