Dan Cates: King of the Online 'Jungle'

Since the end of 2009, Dan “jungleman12” Cates has won $7.5 million on the virtual felt, boasting a graph that looks more like a 45-degree angle that a geometry student would draw than a real results chart.

He was the biggest winner online in 2010, and the Bowie, Maryland, native has backed up his breakout year with another $2 million in profits through about a third of 2011. With an amazing win rate over more than 1 million online hands in his three-year career, the 21-year-old is already one of the biggest winners in the history of Internet poker.

Learning poker in $5 and $10 home games in the kitchen of friend and eventual high-stakes peer Scott “URnotINdanger2” Palmer, Cates didn’t succeed right away. Palmer was one of the better regulars in the group at the time, while Cates was at the bottom of the barrel. “Whenever I played him, he always had the upper hand,” Cates said.
It took only about two years for the poker buddies to move from the micro-stakes games to the high-stakes online games, and while it was Palmer who began with a head start, it has been Cates who has dominated the poker world with one of the most impressive runs in the history of Internet cash games.

He has risen from making minimum wage at McDonald’s when he was a teenager to competing in the 2011 Aussie Millions $250,000 buy-in super high-roller event. The young man who spent much of his childhood obsessed with video games finished one spot away from the final table in the most expensive open buy-in event in history.

Whether it’s high-roller tournaments or nosebleed cash games, massive buy-ins have come to be the norm in Cates’ young poker career, as he has quickly become one of the top players of all time on the Internet.

George of the Jungle

Like many of his generation, Cates began his poker education after the bell had rung and the books were closed. During the home games of his junior and senior years of high school, Cates was a consistent loser. His sporadic play and long hair gave way to a nickname that would come to define his persona. “People claimed that I reminded them of George of the Jungle,” Cates said.

Once Cates graduated from high school in 2007, he began playing $100 to $200 buy-in live cash games. He played those games for a few months, and lost a lot of money at first. It wasn’t long before he decided to try poker with a mouse. With depleted funds, he dropped down in stakes and was playing $5 and $10 buy-in no-limit hold’em games again.

Cates entered the University of Maryland to study computer science, and as his freshman year progressed, he was playing exclusively online. He finally started to gain traction in climbing the stakes. For a while, he experimented with sit-and-gos and tournaments. With mild success outside of ring games, Cates slowly gravitated back to the format that would eventually make him a regular in rail heaven.

Once his bankroll was growing, Cates sat down in $50 buy-in heads-up cash games, and before long, he was pounding on his opponents. “It seemed like I could make a lot more money playing heads up,” Cates said.

In the short span of six months, the then obscure online grinder from Maryland was a regular in $10-$20 no-limit hold’em games. Even though his ascension happened rapidly, Cates rarely played above his bankroll.

“I didn’t really skip any levels,” he said. “I wasn’t too aggressive with my bankroll. I didn’t have a buy-in rule, but I always had a decent amount of buy-ins available, and the amount went up as I climbed in stakes.”

While Cates was dominating the medium stakes online, his interest in class and schoolwork was dwindling. He was going to class less and less, as poker games on the Internet were consuming his mental focus.

“I have always thought of myself as being pretty smart, if not really, really smart,” said Cates, who decided to put college on hold in 2009. “I’ve had high self-esteem for that reason. Poker wasn’t the first thing I became really good at by practicing over and over again. Many times during my childhood, I would watch myself go from having almost no talent at something to being absolutely amazing at it; an example is Minesweeper. I became really good at that game, and other random games. I thought the same process would apply to poker. If I kept working at it, I could do anything I wanted.”

The Isildur1 Disaster

Even though Cates’ ride from $10-$20 to the nosebleed stakes was relatively smooth, there was one blowup that nearly ended his poker career. In December of 2009, he and fellow high-stakes sensation Viktor “Isildur1” Blom sat down for an intense heads-up battle. When it was all over, Cates had lost $500,000.

“When I lost $500,000 to Isildur1 and lost $90,000 the next day, the thought, ‘Oh, s—-, I might go broke,’ started running through my mind, because that was a huge chunk of my bankroll at the time,” Cates said. “I took a few days off after that. Other than that moment, I haven’t been in danger of going broke for a very long time.”

After the massive hit to his bankroll, Cates did exactly what he says is crucial for poker players to do when necessary — drop down in stakes. Despite his young age, he handled the adversity like a seasoned pro. “I tightened up my game selection, as well,” Cates said. “However, I would have played $100-$200 no-limit hold’em against a donkey. I moved down to playing mostly $50-$100 and lower. It’s really upsetting to have to move down, but sometimes you have to do it.”

After the worst downswing in his young career, Cates went on one of his biggest heaters. It wasn’t long before his bankroll was back to around $1 million.

“I didn’t expect to win it all back as fast as I did,” Cates said. “It helped to run well after the match with Isildur1. I tried to remember that I didn’t take any stupid shots in my career, and that I could still make a lot of money playing poker. I thought about how much money I had made that year in a vacuum. It just helped to think the big loss wouldn’t matter that much after a while.”

The Durrrr Challenge

In 2010, with his place firmly established in the high-stakes online world, Cates received an offer that he couldn’t refuse. In late July, Tom “durrrr” Dwan proposed that Cates compete in the second installment of the Durrrr Challenge. The rules were simple: If Dwan was up at least $1 after 50,000 hands were completed, Cates would owe him an additional $500,000, but if Cates finished in the black, Dwan would fork over a $1.5 million bonus.

“I have beaten him [Tom Dwan] really badly before at no-limit hold’em, and fundamentally, I understand that he has leaks in that game,” Cates said. “It seems likely that I have an edge in hold’em. I think he just believes that he’s better than me and wants to prove it in a grandiose way.”

It didn’t take long before Cates was crushing the Team Full Tilt pro in their multitable heads-up battle. By the beginning of September, through just 6,820 hands at $200-$400 no-limit hold’em, Cates was up a massive $700,000.

Even though their session frequency has diminished drastically since the start of 2011, it hasn’t done anything to cool off Cates. Aside from a few minor hiccups, Charlie Sheen would describe Cates’ graph in the Durrrr Challenge with one word — “winning.”

After some sessions in late March, Cates has increased his lead to a comfortable $1.2 million, with about 40 percent of the duel in the books. Through the 20,000-hand mark, Cates and Dwan had wagered about $130 million and logged more than 34 hours together.
It bothers Cates that the challenge has been moving along slowly in 2011. However, he is resigned to playing whenever the opportunity arises. “There isn’t much I can do about it when Dwan doesn’t want to play ball,” Cates said.

Despite Dwan being regarded as one of poker’s most feared players, he has lost more money to Cates than any other player has. Dwan isn’t alone, however, as many other high-stakes winners have contributed massive amounts of money to Cates’ account, players such as Phil Ivey and Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies.

Cates, who has done meditation in preparation for sessions with Dwan, began his journey to the top of the poker world when Dwan was already playing the nosebleed stakes on Full Tilt Poker. “I believe that the first time I saw the screen name ‘durrrr,’ he was playing $500-$1,000 against Ivey,” Cates recalled. “I had no idea who he was.”

Even with snowballing confidence, there was a decision to be made as to whether or not it would be a good idea to sell some of his action. Cates was in no mood to put his bankroll in jeopardy, like he had done in the session against Blom a year earlier.
“I briefly wanted 100 percent of myself, but it was a stupid idea,” Cates said. “I talked to other people, and they convinced me that it was a bad idea, because I could legitimately go broke if I had 100 percent of myself and ran terribly. Going broke isn’t very pleasant.”

Why is Cates’ Poker Game So Successful?

With a lucid brain, sick fundamentals, dedication to improving, and a well-timed heater, Cates has shown his earliest critics that he can survive in the brutally tough world of professional poker.

Unlike nearly all of the biggest winners in the history of online poker, Cates has yet to scoop a pot worth more than $400,000 in his career, providing some evidence that his recent domination of the high-stakes games makes him one of the most consistent winners of all time. “I try to keep variance low,” Cates explained.

Roommate and fellow poker pro Ashton “theASHMAN103” Griffin cites well-timed aggressiveness, specifically an ability to three-barrel bluff, as one of the fundamental reasons why Cates has been the biggest winner over the past 16 months.

“Relative to his opponents, Dan tends to bet more frequently on just about every board texture,” Griffin said. “Generally, he will bluff or bet the flop with the intention of betting every street in hidden spots that most competent regulars wouldn’t. I would say that he finds the secret three-barrel spots better than anyone. For instance, if betting XYZ flop is marginally bad, most good heads-up regulars realize it, because they’ve bet XYZ flops thousands and thousands of times and have lost a small fraction of a big blind doing so. Cates takes a jump ahead of the pack by knowing when people are calling the first two streets and folding rivers. It’s what enables him to earn eight big blinds per 100 hands against average and great players.”

Griffin said that his roommate is also running very hot, and Cates agrees. However, in cash-game poker, no amount of luck can take the place of hard work over the long run. Cates plays almost every day at the highest stakes on the Internet, according to Griffin.

Shooting for $10 Million

Despite being a millionaire, Cates doesn’t have much of a desire to spend his fortune on material goods. He has rented some tables at clubs before with friends, and last year treated himself to a new Lexus, but for the most part, he lives modestly, preferring to “invest in making more money.” The online demigod wants to have $10 million in what he calls “instant money” in the near future. However, he doesn’t know exactly what he would use it for. “I could do pretty much whatever I wanted with $10 million.”

One such investment on the radar — although many players call it a gamble or a vacation — is this summer’s World Series of Poker, where Cates plans to invest a few hundred thousand dollars.

While a bracelet is on the radar and seems within reach for the poker whiz kid, railbirds should not expect to see him become a multitable-tournament grinder anytime soon. “Tournaments are significantly higher variance than cash games, so it is especially frustrating to make a living playing only tournaments,” he said. “I’m never going to play tournaments exclusively, but I will be playing a lot of them in the near future.”

Now that he has become one of poker’s elite, Cates has no plans of migrating away from the game anytime soon. For him, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. is far uglier than 9-5 offsuit. It seems like the only thing that could stop him is if the high-stakes river dries up completely.

“It is very rare for me to find action these days,” said Cates, who is well aware of how the games have changed in just a few short years. “It appears that it’s harder for me to get action than most people.”

There was one time when the action came from an unusual place, thanks to Cates’ notoriety expanding beyond just the poker world. In December, Cates was contacted by Cristiano “CR7sete” Ronaldo via Skype. Soccer’s highest-paid star allegedly wanted to play against the online world’s hottest player. In a friendly $1-$2 pot-limit Omaha session, Cates dropped some money to the $16-million-a-year forward for Real Madrid. The loss, which was peanuts to Cates, was just another day on the virtual felt for him.

“I haven’t played with anyone who is as big a celebrity as him,” Cates said. “It’s cool, but at the same time, I wasn’t like, ‘Oh, my God, I am playing Cristiano Ronaldo.’ He is just another guy. He is a regular person. We both respect each other’s game. I don’t follow football, but from what I understand, he is one of the best players ever. I would definitely consider coaching him [in poker] if he ever asked, as long as I had enough time. I might charge him a couple drinks or something like that.”

So, what is really left for one of the most profitable 21-year-olds in the history of poker (other than making more money)? Cates said that he wants to learn all variants of poker, play in big live cash games, and make appearances on TV. Nothing seems unrealistic anymore for a kid who not long ago could only dream about playing the highest online stakes in the world.

“At one point pretty early on, I had a dream of playing Ivey at blinds of $500-$1,000,” Cates said. “It became a reality not too long ago. I once thought, or at least hoped, it would happen. I think it was somewhat of a fantasy at first. In the beginning, I thought I had some kind of shot, but I had no idea how real it was.” ♠

Unrelenting in the Quest to be the Best

Dan Cates has been tearing it up in both heads-up pot-limit Omaha and no-limit hold’em. The majority of his $7.5 million in career earnings has come from no-limit hold’em, but after dominating more than 700,000 hands of no-limit hold’em, most of his opponents stopped giving him action in the discipline. So, he moved on to Omaha, which has gained in popularity in the high-stakes world.

Before routinely playing six-figure pots at the highest stakes offered online, Cates won more than $800,000 in just 150,000 hands of $25-$50 heads-up no-limit hold’em. He didn’t need the nosebleed stakes to become a millionaire, but moving up from the medium stakes seemed natural for someone who just couldn’t lose.

Here is a look at the biggest hands Cates has ever won online:

Cates vs. Patrik Antonius in Largest Career Pot

Cates began this $300-$600 pot-limit Omaha hand with about $215,000 in his virtual stack, while his opponent, Patrik Antonius, was not far behind with about $190,000. Cates had the button and raised to $1,800. Antonius three-bet to $5,400, and Cates made the call. The flop fell A♣ 5♦ 4♦, and Antonius fired $10,800.

Cates called, and the 10♣ peeled off the deck. Antonius bet $32,000, and Cates responded by raising to $129,000. Antonius shoved, and Cates called. Antonius tabled the A♠ 5♠ 7♣ 4♣, for two pair and a flush draw. However, he needed help against Cates’ flopped wheel with the A♦ 2♥ Q♠ 3♠.

According to the CardPlayer.com Omaha odds calculator, Cates’ hand holds up about 68 percent of the time. The players elected to run it twice, and each time was safe for Cates. He dodged a lot of Antonius’ outs, twice, to rake in the $375,000 pot.

A Cooler vs. Tom Dwan

With millions on the line in the Durrrr Challenge, it comes as no surprise that Cates won his largest-ever no-limit hold’em hand in the contest. With the blinds at $200-$400 and deep stacks, Cates and Dwan have produced many six-figure confrontations.

With each having slightly more than $100,000 at the table, Dwan had the button and raised to $1,200. Cates three-bet to $4,800 from the big blind, and Dwan called. The flop came Q♣ 8♥ 6♥, and Cates bet $5,200.

Dwan called, and the K♥ fell on the turn. Cates bet $16,800, and Dwan called once again. The river brought the 3♦, prompting a $43,000 bet from Cates. Dwan moved all in, and Cates made the call with the J♥ 2♥, while Dwan mucked an inferior flush with the 5♥ 4♥. Cates raked in the $216,000 pot.

A True Grinder

Players who have career online cash-game earnings equal to or greater than Cates’ earnings have taken advantage of pots that really haven’t ever been there for Cates — at least not yet.

Phil Ivey has won a pot of more than $800,000, Antonius has the record with a $1.3 million scoop, Phil “OMGClayAIken” Galfond has won multiple $500,000 pots, and Dwan has won a hand worth nearly $700,000. Cates has truly been a grinder, day in and day out, with the more modest of the six-figure pots instead of the home runs.

Whether it’s a lack of opportunities or a style designed to avoid seven-figure and potentially bankroll-damaging pots, Cates has gained a reputation for being one of the most consistent high-stakes players ever. ♠