Dan 'Jungleman' Cates, born November 14, 1989 in Bowie, Maryland, spent countless hours playing video games in the basement of his childhood home, honing what he described as a natural talent. Cates' game of choice was Command & Conquer – until he discovered poker at the age of 17. In his early days, Cates took heavy losses and took a job at McDonald's to pay off debts and fund his bankroll. Cates began playing low stakes online cash games to build his bankroll and enrolled in the University of Maryland to study Economics, but dropped out to pursue poker full-time.
As Cates' bankroll grew and he climbed the stakes, he employed a strategy of taking on the best of the best in heads-up online cash games to improve his own game. Tom Dwan. Phil Ivey. Viktor 'Isildur1' Blom. Cates
Within a few years, Cates went from low stakes to the nosebleeds – and began racking up massive wins. In 2010, he won more than $5M, making him the year's biggest winner in online cash games by a considerable margin. Across Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars, Cates has recorded more than $11M in cash game profits.
While his roots are in the online cash game arena, Cates has proven himself more than capable in the live arena and has earned a reputation as a formidable opponent across multiple variants of poker. In 2021, he won the $50,000 Poker Players Championship at the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas for $954,020 and his first bracelet. The $50K PPC is widely considered to be one of the most difficult events to win in tournament poker due to its mix of poker variants and high level of competition. In 2022, Cates returned to Las Vegas to defend his title – and did exactly that, cementing his place in poker history as the first player to win the PPC in back-to-back years.
Currently, Cates continues to play at the highest tournament level at the WSOP and on the Triton Poker Super High Roller Series. In the cash game world, he makes frequent appearances on livestreamed games at the PokerGO Studio and Hustler Casino Live.
