Dan Cates

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

Cates can be seen on the first season of GGPoker's Game of Gold, a poker reality competition on the GGPoker YouTube channel.

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.

Cates was a guest on the Life Outside Poker podcast during the 2024 WSOP and talked about accountability in poker, his business ventures, outdoor adventures and more.

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!

In 2023, Cates was part of the first tranche of players on Game of Gold, a reality TV show produced by GGPoker. Several high-tension moments with his teammates in the second week of the series turned him into a popular source of drama on the series.

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.

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: