Another year has passed with no real activity in the high-stakes challenge between Dan “Jungleman” Cates and Tom “durrrr” Dwan.
Dwan has incurred hundreds of thousands of dollars in penalties, of which he's paid none, and according to Jungleman if things don't change soon he'll be forced to reveal aspects of Tom's personal situation he'd prefer to keep private.
The Latest on durrrr Challenge
“The latest with durrrr is that he is being totally uncooperative,” Cates told PokerListings.com. “We have played zero hands in 2014 and only 2,500 of the 62k hands Tom played in 2013 were from the challenge.”
The two high-stakes legends completed almost 20,000 of the proposed 50,000 online poker hands in 2011 before the challenge hit a stand-still on Black Friday.
During those sessions Cates beat Dwan for over $1.25 million.
According to the terms of the challenge, if Cates is ahead after 50,000 hands Dwan will have to pay him $1.5 million on top of any winnings. If Cates is behind when the challenge ends he'll have to cough up $500,000.
Cates says Dwan has now stopped answering his calls or responding to his texts.
Dwan's Penalties Piling Up
Cates is enjoying a huge lead now but with communication between the two worse than ever, he's not confident the challenge will ever get finished.
Roughly one year ago PokerListings.com spoke to Cates and learned that he and Dwan had agreed to an incentive program to help move things along.
Dwan was to pay Cates $40,000 for every two months that went by with no durrrr Challenge activity. Additionally, $10,000 was to be added to the penalty every two months. They didn't count the two months last summer during the World Series of Poker.
That number is now at $300,000 and according to Cates, Dwan hasn't paid him a cent.
“He failed to uphold any promises he made to me,” said Cates. “He's extremely frustrating. It's outrageous.
“I feel like he won't complete it, for a few reasons, but for now I won't divulge his personal situation. But I'm not thrilled with anything I hear about him.”
Cates went on to say that if things don't change he will be forced to say more about why Dwan isn't playing, but that he hopes things can be worked out privately between the two high-stakes pros.
Cates Lost Big Cross-Booking Dwan vs. The Machine
While news of Cates' and Dwan's credit online challenge on has been scant, we did see the two names connected again this past summer in another high-stakes betting story.
Cates was part of a group of high-stakes players who cross-booked big money against Dwan taking on a Heads-Up Limit Hold'em machine at the Bellagio Casino in Las Vegas.
Cross-booking refers to making an extra wager on the outcome of a poker session. So if you cross-booked 100% of your friend's action in a cash-game session and he won $1,000, you would owe him $1,000 on the cross-book wager.
Cates confirmed to PokerListings that he was part of the group that cross-booked against Dwan, and that it ended up costing him big.
“I did book him against the limit machine, and got crushed as a result,” said Cates. He estimates he lost about $400,000.
“However since I find him impossible to deal with, and I have good reason to think he is unable to complete the challenge at all, I am deducting it from what he owes me.
“I'm more than happy to resolve the situation but he actually doesn't respond to my texts or call me to talk about it.”
Cates isn't sure if it was a good bet to take or not but he did concede that making bets with someone who's proven difficult to settle with in the past is asking for trouble.
“I heard other people were booking against him vs the machine, it seemed like such an obvious spot that I jumped at it without thinking.
“This was a mistake on my part, even though perhaps it was a good spot. In the future I won't be doing any business with him unless there is some kind of guarantee or escrow.”
Cates Crushing in 2014 Despite “Terrible” Prop Betting
Dan Cates says he's had a very profitable year and a big part of that has to be the return of the funds he had stuck on Full Tilt Poker since Black Friday.
“I received my Full Tilt money and I'm having a good year on top of that,” explained Cates. “Not quite as good as 2010 but almost that good.”
That's saying something considering he profited $5.5 million on Full Tilt Poker alone in 2010.
“My prop bets are going terribly but everything else is good.”
Cates has been spending most of his time travelling in Europe and will be attending the 2014 PokerListings Battle of Malta this November at the Portomaso Casino in St Julians.
To learn more about Dan Cates and his incredible high-stakes success story check out the short documentary PokerListings produced in Malta in 2012.
