Dan ‘Jungleman’ Cates is renowned in the poker world as a high-stakes cash game crusher, having battled at the highest stakes in both the online and live arenas. What some fans of the game might not realize is that the 31-year-old poker pro came into this year’s World Series of Poker with nearly $9 million in prior tournament earnings to his name. Cates added to that total in a major way at the 2021 WSOP by taking down the $50,000 buy-in Poker Players Championship nine-game event, defeating an elite field of 63 entries to earn the top prize of $954,020 and his first gold bracelet.
“Oh yeah, one of those bracelet things,” said Cates, who had died his hair a shocking shade of neon turquoise and dressed as a video game character for the final table of this event. “It is actually pretty cool and I’m happy to have won one. I think I have one of each now, [with wins in] the World Poker Tour Alpha8 and I have a Triton Poker win. I think that gives me the trifecta, I am not sure how that works. Did I win a European Poker Tour? I don’t know. But this is pretty cool, especially [to win] a tournament that is named after Chip Reese, who has passed away.”
This was the fourth-largest tournament score of Cates’ career, which increased his lifetime tournament earnings to $9,868,264. While Cates has recorded three larger scores with deep runs in six-figure events that ended short of the title, this was the biggest payday he received for a victory in a tournament. For Cates, coming out on top this time around was a forgone conclusion.
“I knew I was going to win. I said I was going to win, so I won,” Cates told the gathered poker media after closing out the title after 3:00 a.m. local time. The final table lasted more than 13 hours.
In addition to the money and the bracelet, Cates was also awarded 612 Card Player Player of the Year points and 572 PokerGO Tour after surviving this marathon final table. This was […]
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