Daniel "jungleman12" Cates

Biography

Daniel ‘jungleman12’ Cates is one of online poker’s success stories, going from a job at McDonalds to playing against some of the world’s best at nosebleed stakes.

It was in the summer of 2007 when Cates was working at the golden arches trying to build another bankroll after busting$3,000 online playing sit-n-goes and $0.5/$1. Fortunately for Jungleman however, these early struggles did not last for long, as he found his edge at heads-up and began to quickly move up the stakes, going from $0.25/$0.5 to $25/$50 in a matter of just 10 months.

He has gone on from here to establish himself as one of the premier heads-up and cash game players online and in the world. Cates has received attention for his participation in Tom Dwan’s Durrrr Challenge, where Dwan challenged anyone, with the exception of Phil Galfond, to play 50,000 hands heads-up at minimum $200/$400 stakes, at a minimum of 4 tables simultaneously. If Dwan’s opponent is up $1 after the 50,000 hands Dwan will pay him $1,500,000; while if Dwan is up $1 or more his opponent will pay him $500,000. Strangely, Dwan mentioned to Cates that he was looking for his next challenger after Cates had just taken him for $800,000 heads up.

The challenge started in August 2010, and is still running today with 19,335 hands having been played, with Jungleman up by $1,251,059 as of 2nd August 2013.