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Dan Bilzerian Alleges Dan Cates Was The "Top 7 Pro" In Bill Perkins' High-Stakes Poker Scandal Tweet

Bilzerian Made The Accusation Monday After Perkins Tweeted About The Situation Over The Weekend

by Steve Schult  |  Published: May 25, 2020

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Dan Bilzerian has accused Dan Cates of ghosting in a high-stakes private poker game played on a mobile app between wealthy businessmen.

On Saturday night, millionaire poker enthusiast Bill Perkins tweeted that he was cheated in a presumably high-stakes game that would “make the Mike Postle scandal look like a church service.” He said that the incident involved players that “you would call poker heroes.”

Perikins’ initial tweet sparked curiosity and popcorn gifs from many in the poker community as theories about the situation began to spread.

At first, Perkins wouldn’t give any more detail than that, only that he was wronged by a top tier poker pro. He spent several hours responding to players who wanted Perkins to reveal more if for no other reason than to save other poker players from being cheated by the same person.

Eventually, he revealed that Jason Koon was the one player who showed integrity and alerted Perkins to the scandal, and that a separate player had confessed to cheating.

On Sunday, Perkins elaborated further, clarifying that the game was private and played on a mobile app. A top pro was playing under the screen name of a recreational player invited to the game in exchange for a piece of the profit. This form of cheating commonly referred to as “ghosting.”

The majority of mobile poker apps on the market right now do not facilitate real money gaming. Any payments made to players must be made outside of the app based on play money balances.

Perkins agreed to keep the name private in exchange for more information about who else was involved. In a subsequent tweet, Perkins said that it was a “top 7 player” that was cheating the game.

On Monday afternoon, Dan Bilzerian tied a couple of names to the story when he tweeted that Sina Taleb allowed Cates to play on Taleb’s account against Bilzerian, Perkins, and others. The tweet included a picture of Saleb and blurred out contact information. Taleb is an unknown to the poker world without a documented tournament cash.

Cates, however, is touted as one of the best players on the planet and regularly plays in the biggest cash games in the world. He also has just shy of $7.4 million in tournament earnings.

He responded to Bilzerian’s accusation by saying it was “misleading” and that he has never played a hand of poker with Bilzerian, but couldn’t dive into the issue any further because of legal reasons.

Perkins showed up in the responses to Bilzerian’s tweet and said that he had high-level attorneys advising him on his next step.

He also walked back the comparison to the Postle situation, noting that he only did so because the amount of money at stake in his game was much more than what Postle is accused of cheating players out of.

Update: Bilzerian’s tweet has since been deleted, but Cates’ response is still up.

 
 
Tags: Dan Cates,   Bill Perkins,   Dan Bilzerian,   poker,   online poker,   poker cheating
 
 
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