Daniel Cates Biography screen name Jungleman12

The second installment of the Tom Dwan Million Dollar Challenge has kicked off and his opponent is Daniel Cates screen name jungleman12. Cates has been playing online only a couple of years, but he has amassed a reputation that has put him squarely in the sights of the top pros. Let’s take a look at this rising superstar.

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Dan Cates started playing poker back in his high school days, which was just a mere three years ago. Around 2007, he was playing in high school games and was regularly winning in them. He then tried to move into playing local cash games at .50-$1 and $1 – $2 and found himself losing around $3,000 over the summer of 2007. While this seems like a small amount of money for someone that now plays high stakes, it should be pointed out that Cates was working at McDonalds during this point of his life.

Cates then decided to play at the lowest stakes possible and start working on his game. By 2008, Cates was playing online in sit-n-go’s and eventually .25 – .50 heads-up. It was in heads-up play that Cates discovered his niche and within 10 months, he had moved up all the way to $25 – $50 NL heads-up.

Cates was able to make the move through the ranks so quickly due to aggressive learning and aggressive bankroll management. He said in an interview once that he took shots pretty quickly, but with a reasonable amount of buy-ins. He also stated that he has actually ran really well in the last year and that most of his shots have turned out to be successful.

However, not all has been smooth sailing for jungleman12. Shortly after moving up to $25 – $50 NL, he proceeded to lose nearly 1/4 of his bankroll. This forced him to reevaluate his bankroll strategy. He rebounded, but then took another huge hit in a series of matches with Isildur1. His biggest setback with Isildur1 included a day where he lost over $500,000 in a single day.

Those bumps in the road did not significantly affect Cates as he has proceeded to build stats that would impress anyone. Over the course of 771,861 hands, Cates has amassed a total of over $3 Million in online winnings.

Cates had moved up to $1 Million in earnings near the end of November 2009. Essentially, this meant that he went from small stakes to Millionaire in less than 2 years. Admittedly, most of Cates $3 Million in winnings have been in the last few months. He had the biggest day of his poker career online on May 2nd when he won over $1 Million in a single day online.

Looking at Cates “Profit vs. Game” stats, the only game where he is currently showing a loss is $100 – $200 HU NL. Everything else is showing at least a modest gain with $25 – $50 HU NL netting him over $800 in earnings. I think it is safe to say he rebounded nicely from his earlier setbacks.

Cates made his online reputation by being willing to take on all comers. This not only made his rise through the ranks easier, but also has made him the target of all the big pros, including Tom Dwan. Dwan has lost over $1 Million to Cates and decided to challenge him to take part in the Million Dollar Challenge. Cates agreed to Dwan’s terms and escrowed money to Phil Ivey to take part in the challenge.

So far in the challenge, Cates has taken a $692,400.50 lead over Dwan in just 6,820 hands. In this version of the challenge, they are playing NL Holdem and have agreed to play up to six tables at a time. Many give Cates the advantage in this challenge due to his past history with Dwan. It is still early though so anything can happen.

When not playing poker, Cates is an avid video game player. He prefers the PS3 and the Wii consoles and is a big Grand Theft Auto player. He also in heavily into the underground music scene. When asked about any major purchases made, Cates has stated that he hasn’t made any as of yet, but is looking to buy a nice car soon.

Cates does not play much live poker and is planning on changing that soon. The fact that he is about to turn 21 will make him a hot commodity on many of the poker circuits and high profile shows like High Stakes Poker.

Jungleman12 is a rising superstar that along with Tom Dwan, Annette Obrestad, and others could form a new stable of poker superstars that will better reflect the current face of poker. Cates plays on Full Tilt Poker as jungleman12. If you are not playing at Full Tilt, signup today and maybe someday you will be playing heads-up with jungleman12.

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