A few years ago, many people were curious about what was so special about Daniel Cates, a.k.a Jungleman12, that made him successful in live and online poker. But then, he cleared the air by doing what no player had ever done before: he won the WSOP bracelet at the prestigious Poker Players Championship event two times in a row.
From his online dominance to his high-stakes heads-up battles with poker legends, Cates has proven himself one of the best heads-up and all-around poker players.
Today’s online casino news highlights Daniel Cates’s career journey to online and live poker prominence.
Daniel Cates: From Video Games To Heads-Up Poker
Born on November 14, 1989, in Bowie, Maryland, Daniel Cates started playing video games as a child. As an autistic child, he wasn’t interested in what interested other students. He loved spending his time alone but had a knack for video games. He would usually play Minesweeper in the school lab. Being analytical, ultra-focused, mathematically sound, and determined, he was an exceptional video gamer.
During his junior year at Eleanor Roosevelt High School, he discovered and began playing poker with his classmates and other players he found around. He would invent chips using pieces of paper. He was later playing live-action kitchen table games in the homes of his colleagues, for which he lost thousands of dollars. He soon realized he had run down his bankroll and was left with nothing.
At some point, he had to work at McDonald’s to build his bankroll while he continued playing poker and developing his skills. During this period, he began playing online poker games.
After high school, he proceeded to the University of Maryland on scholarship due to an almost perfect SAT score.
However, he continued playing online poker on Full Tilt Poker under the name jungleman12, wagering $0.25/$0.50. This was in 2008. He later transitioned to $25/$50 stakes after building his bankroll. He encountered some losses along the way, including a $500,000 loss to Viktor Blom.
In 2010, the 20-year-old began dominating the online landscape, with over $5 million in winnings, the biggest profit of the year. With such achievement, Daniel Cates later dropped out of school for poker.
The Durrrr Challenge: Daniel Cates vs. Tom Dwan
Tom Dwan, who played under the screen name Durrrr, rolled out the Durrrr Challenge in 2009. Whoever could beat him after 50,000 hands in four $200/$400 No Limit Hold ’em tables would receive $1.5 million, and if he won, the opponent would pay him $500,000. Daniel Cates opted into the challenge after he heard of it.
However, the challenge stopped abruptly in 2011 after Black Friday, which caused Full Tilt to fold. But before then, Daniel Cates was already ahead of Dwan. He notified the Twitter community in 2018 that Dwan had only paid $700,000. He later updated that he received about $1.3 million from the promised prize.
Appearances in Tournament Poker
In 2010, Daniel Cates debuted at the PCA tournament in Paradise. Finishing 12th in the 446-entry $ 1,500 + 100 No Limit Hold ’em, he cashed out $9,085. Live tournaments are almost entirely different from online poker. However, two years later, he earned his first major cash. After playing a No Limit Hold ’em event on Partypoker.com, he finished second to win $300,000.
Most Notable Wins
In February 2014, Daniel Cates played at the WPT Alpha8 Johannesburg. He won a jaw-dropping $500,000 for finishing in first place. Then, in April, he came second in the €98,000 + 2,000 No Limit Hold ’em Super High Roller event at the EPT Monte Carlo Grand Final, pocketing a tidy €1,283,700 ( $1,774,145).
In November 2016, he bested a tough field of pros to win the Triton Poker Super High Roller Series Philippines for a whopping HK$2,785,900 ($359,229). The following year, he was in the Philippines, winning HK$7,765,156 ($1,000,365) because he was third in the Triton Poker Super High Roller Series.
At the Super High Roller Bowl in 2018, Macau, Daniel Cates cashed out HK$5,820,000 ($742,012) after finishing 10th in the HK$2,000,000 + 100,000 No Limit Hold ’em event. In May, at the Triton Poker Super High Roller Series in Montenegro, he came second in the HK$300,000 No Limit Hold ’em/Short Deck Mix event for a cash prize of HK$3,199,000 ($407,515).
In May 2019, he played in the HK$300,000 No Limit Hold ’em/Short Deck Mix event at the Montenegro Triton Poker Super High Roller Series. Cates took home HK$3,930,000 ($500,682) for ending up in the first position in the participants’ rankings.
Poker Players Championship WSOP Bracelets
Daniel Cates set a record in poker history by becoming the first player to consecutively win the Poker Players Championship bracelets at the WSOP.
He won the first bracelet in 2021 at the 52nd WSOP, finishing first in the $ 50,000 Poker Players Championship for a cash prize of $954,020. The second bracelet win came in 2022 at the 53rd WSOP series. He was first in the same event, winning $1,449,103. For this feat, he won the 2022 Global Poker Award.
Since then, Daniel Cates has continued to win in the live tournament scene. He has accumulated $14,493,741, including a whopping cash prize of $1,940,000.
Snap Summary
Daniel Cates has demonstrated several times that he is a good poker player. He believes that he can handle anybody at the table. He claims that his autism has been an advantage for him, helping him learn and be more analytical.
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