Dan “Jungleman” Cates is a bit of a polarizing figure in the poker industry, and didn’t help his reputation in any way during an angry outburst on the most recent Hustler Casino Live stream.
Cates accidentally struck the dealer after whipping his cards in disgust, following an incorrect hero call. Despite immediately apologizing and tipping the dealer (named ‘Magic’) what appeared to be $200, he was subsequently removed from both the stream and the Hustler Casino.
“Sorry again,” Jungleman told everybody, directing most of his energy towards Magic. “Obviously, I didn’t mean to throw it at you. I was just, like, angry and threw it.”
It’s unclear whether he is facing a temporary ban or if he can return without incident.
The hand
The pot came midway through the night against a player named ‘Jack C Poker’, who has appeared sparingly on both Hustler Casino Live and the Bally Live stream.
There was already $14,700 in the middle on a board, with Jack C having runner-runnered trips with after betting the flop with total air.
Jack C put in a $14,000 bet on the river, and Jungleman snap-called with . Cates immediately pounded the table and launched his cards in disgust. Unfortunately, his cards struck Magic in the chest. Both the commentary team and the online poker community thought Cates was extremely out of line. Casino staff ejected Jungleman shortly afterwards.
Cates lost $33,400 on the night.
Jungleman’s poker career
Jungleman’s poker career is just as complicated as his life outside of poker. Growing up as a self-proclaimed video game addict in Maryland, where he worked at McDonald’s to fund his bankroll, he started playing $0.25/$0.50 no-limit hold’em cash games on Full Tilt Poker. Two years later, he was playing $25/$50, though he would lose most of his bankroll to Viktor Blom, commonly known as ‘Isildur1’.
However, Cates came back in a hurry and “defeated” Tom Dwan in his famous Durrrr Challenge the next year. This required anyone to record a profit against Dwan heads-up over 50,000 hands playing four tables of $200/$400 no-limit hold’em and/or pot-limit Omaha. Anyone who completed the challenge would receive an additional $1.5 million, though anyone who was defeated would have to pay Dwan an extra $500,000.
After around 20,000 hands, Jungleman was up over $1.2 million. However, following Black Friday, the two hardly played, and they didn’t play a single hand in the challenge after 2013. While he never received the $1.5 million payment, he reportedly received several buyout payments after years of publicly calling Dwan out. The two squashed the beef in 2025.
According to Highroll Poker, Cates has won more money than anyone in poker history in televised live cash streams. The 36-year-old has won nearly $14.3 million, nearly twice as much as Andrew Robl, his closest competitor. However, it must be noticed that Jungleman won over $15 million against Monarch in a six-match series of seven-figure nosebleed cash games that took a total of 16 hours.
Jungleman Vs. Monarch Results
| Match | Buy-In | Winner |
|---|---|---|
| Match 1 | €1,000,000 | Jungleman |
| Match 2 | €1,000,000 | Monarch |
| Match 3 | €3,000,000 | Monarch |
| Match 4 | €5,000,000 | Jungleman |
| Match 5 | €5,000,000 | Jungleman |
| Match 6 | €6,000,000 | Jungleman |
Cates also has the distinction of being one of the best mixed-games tournament players in poker history. Winning back-to-back WSOP $50,000 Poker Players’ Championships (PPCs) is considered one of the most incredible feats in poker history.
Jungleman has earned nearly $19 million in career live tournament earnings, currently ranking 79th on poker’s all-time money list. Cates has a pair of Triton titles, an EPT side event win, and took home a career-high $3,528,000 for his second-place finish in last year’s 285-entry $100,000 Triton Poker Series Jeju spring Main Event.
