If poker had its own 'Where’s Waldo?', it would be Dan ‘Jungleman’ Cates. You never know where he’ll pop up next — perhaps at a nosebleed cash game in Cyprus, dressed as a ferocious lion in a cage at the WSOP Main Event, or splashing in high-stakes cash games on the riverboats of Goa, India.
We managed to track him down in Bosnia, and he’s the special guest on the latest episode of PokerOrg’s The Interview with Craig Tapscott.
Watch the full episode above now, or check below for links to the audio podcast.
One of the best in the world
Jungleman is one of the world’s best all-round poker players, with a tournament record that’s seen him net over $18 million in winnings — and continued success in the biggest cash games in the world.
His biggest achievement was winning the prestigious Poker Players Championship in back-to-back years, in 2021 and 2022. In recent weeks, he’s played a series of nosebleed-stakes heads-up matches with Ossi Ketola — including one session where he won $15 million in a single day.
But it’s his off-table personality that makes him one of the most colorful and fascinating characters in the game.
A brush with real-life magic
Among the topics for discussion in our extensive conversation with Cates is the moment when, aged 29, he had an 'epiphany' that blew his mind.
"I took no drugs," he told us. "It was totally natural. I just had a big, hot moment. It was like being on ecstasy for four days. It was a very altered state of consciousness. It was very strange. I had never really experienced anything like it. But I seemed to get what I was looking for out of it.
“That was definitely the closest thing to magic I've really experienced, other than saying it was my destiny to win a tournament and then actually winning it. That was pretty crazy.”
(Cates predicted before the 2021 $50K WSOP Poker Players Championship that it was his destiny to win it.)
High-stakes action and confronting scammers
Other highlights from our exclusive in-depth conversation include:
- A deep dive into the nosebleed heads-up matches with Ossi Ketola and how he got backing
- Why he’s in Bosnia, hoping to experience an apparition
- The origin story of ‘The Jungleman’ from RTS games to poker millionaire
- Why he dresses as wild characters to play in the biggest poker games
- His ‘A-ha!’ poker strategy moments
- The transformative power of meditation retreats
- Addressing integrity in the poker community and confronting scammers
- And much more…
Watch more of Jungleman’s mind-bending take on poker and life in the full video above, or catch it on Spotify or Apple podcasts.
Check out more in-depth interviews with some of poker’s biggest names below.
