The Jungleman Himself: An Interview with Dan “Jungleman” Cates
The following is an interview with one of the game’s most intriguing and colourful characters, and one of it’s brightest minds. A dual Bracelet winner who has amassed $18,896,471 in live tournament earnings, according to thehendonmob.com, a man who has taken many forms and identities, such as Son Goku from Dragonball Z, and iconic wrestler “Macho Man” Randy Savage, when he won the prestigious $50,000 Players Poker Championship back-to-back in 2021 and 2022.
Most recently, he was seen in full Harry Potter attire, in a nod to his partnership with GTO Wizard.
Despite his shape-shifting and enigmatic nature, when you hear the name Dan Cates, you can only think of one word.
Jungleman.
During my time at the world-class Bombay Club in the heart of Estonia’s capital city of Tallinn, I had the pleasure of interviewing the €10,000 Bombay Invitational Anniversary Winner, Mounir Tajiou, Hall of Famer and G.O.A.T. status individual Phil Ivey, and the super-talented Dan “Jungleman” Cates.
As well as hitting the tournament tables at The Bombay Club, Cates appeared on stream playing a high-stakes cash heads-up cash game versus Finnish phenom, Ossi Ketola. Legendary commentator and The Bombay Group’s Head of Poker Strategy Jesse May took to the booth to provide the comms for the evening in what was an exciting night of high-stakes action.
Cates was Ketola’s second victim of the night and the third opponent in total, and he lost €1,000,000 across a session of €5,000/€10,000 No-Limit Hold’em, which lasted around three hours. Check the video below to see the action, as well as the games versus Elias Talvitie and Kayhan Mokri, who also played Ketola off-stream at The Bombay Club.
Again, another short, sweet, but interesting talk with one of the game’s greats. Like Ivey and his high-stakes crushing colleagues, Cates is also a busy individual. We were set to meet before Cates had a social obligation to fulfil, before returning to the Bombay Club for a spot of high-stakes cash game action with the likes of cash-game specialist Kevin Paque, his fellow countryman and €10,000 Bombay Anniversary Invitational Runner Up Teun Mulder, and home team representative Markkos Ladev.
Eventually, a spot opened up for us to talk. The atmosphere in the Bombay Club was electric, with the bar nearing max capacity and the drinks and music in full swing throughout the luxurious venue by the time we sat down.
The Bombay Club, Tallinn, 2:21 a.m.
What makes The Bombay Club a world-class venue?
It’s very beautiful, luxurious, a lot of high-stakes games, a lot of different rooms, a lot of parties going on.
What do you like about Tallinn?
It’s very friendly, and there’s no crime, it’s kinda cute, yeah, it’s a lively, very friendly place.
What made you want to partner with GTO Wizard?
A lot of things. It’s one of the, if not the most dominant, solver there is, they care about fairness and integrity, all these kinds of things. They’re okay, very expansive and ambitious, we’ve been travelling all over the world to try and expand.
For those new to the game of poker, GTO Wizard is an online platform that players of all stakes and bankrolls are using to learn GTO, which is Game Theory Optimal strategy. The solvers help players learn what the optimum play would be in any given spot, which players can generate by plugging in the scenario manually or using their hand histories. The software can be used to study spots in tournaments, cash games, and even Spin and Go’s, and the database contains a staggering 10,000,000+ solved solutions.
Cates went on to add:
They’re very well run, actually. They created various incentive systems to make sure the pros do a good job and they are more instructive and helping with that process. It really, really is one of the best solvers. Plus there’s a lot of interviews and seminars and all that stuff.
Did your partnership with GTO Wizard influence your decision to start your own training site, enterthejungleverse.com?
What I’m trying to do with mine is use different styles that should work with The Jungleverse, and trying to build some kind of pathway to combine them all together which is a bit tricky, because it’s not all technical, the tools you need to get there, but that is something I am passionate about. It is more about the route to success.
It was around this point in the interview that seemingly the entire population of the Bombay Club entered the room where Cates and I were talking, so we took a moment and moved onto the now quiet gaming floor, where the tournament and cash game action had been taking place.
How important is studying now in the modern game?
It’s very important. Nearly essential.
Why did you decide to set up your YouTube Channel around three years ago? Was it something that always interested you or did it come to you at the time?
It was more for the impact side of things. It was actually, it started as a podcast, which was a good idea, I still think so, and then we realized we had to just go with content.
Cates has amassed 35,000 subscribers who tune in to his regularly posted content, which focuses on hand analyses, stories from his past, think-pieces, and interviews.
What is the origin behind the name “Jungleman”, how did that come about?
When I started playing poker, I was a bit hairy, and the players that I played with didn’t know where it came from. So, they nicknamed me, uh, Jungle Man, they said, oh, he’s from the jungle, he’s Jungle Man.
Off the felt, what does a day in the life of Jungleman look like?
It really varies a lot, I’m often very active, do lots of things, so there’s that I go to the gym about four times a week. I read on airplanes quite a lot. A lot of different books, making content. Some days I try to focus the days between different things and playing poker. I’ve played a little bit of a game on my phone, but also sometimes I’m answering text messages. I’m answering a lot of messages, at some point I want to catch up with the whole Justice System thing for poker, which I’ve been trying to put together.
The Justice System has been alluded to before in a recent YouTube video that was posted on his channel. Cates teamed up with John Dorsey, a high-stakes cash game poker player and streamer, to discuss a Justice League, which would aim to expose fraudsters and uphold the highest standards of game integrity.
You mentioned going to the gym four times a week. How important is it to stay in good physical shape as a poker player?
I don’t know how important it is because people lack the metrics to answer that question, but it is definitely quite important, and it is apparently most beneficial to push our willpower by doing hard workouts, it turns out it is better for you than cold plunges, etc.
How about when it comes to stamina at the table?
Sure, probably most of that comes from mental health, some of it comes from physical, but I don’t know how to answer the question properly.
What’s next for the rest of the year?
I’m going to Norway soon, then I’m going to Sweden. Then I’m going to China at some point. I’m gonna go back to the US in September. And then, from there, yeah, at some point we’re going to China and Asia, especially for Jeju, and I’ll be, grinding a lot at these places.
Cates will no doubt be a fixture at the upcoming Triton Series in Jeju, the same place and series where he scored his biggest ever single career score of $3,528,000 for his second-place finish in the $100,000 NLH Main Event. Can Cates go one step better and take home the title this time around? Below is a table of his biggest scores.
| Date | Location | Event & Buy-in | Finish | Prize (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 07-Mar-2025 | Jeju, South Korea | $100,000 NLH Main Event (Triton Jeju) | 2nd | $3,528,000 |
| 05-Aug-2023 | London, England | $125,000 NLH Main Event (Triton London) | 3rd | $1,940,000 |
| 24-Apr-2014 | Monte Carlo, Monaco | €100,000 NLH Super High Roller (EPT Monte Carlo) | 2nd | $1,774,145 |
| 10-Aug-2019 | London, England | £250,000 Short Deck Ante Only (Triton London) | 5th | $1,651,028 |
| 26-Jun-2022 | Las Vegas, USA | $50,000 Poker Players Championship (WSOP) | 1st | $1,449,103 |
| 19-Feb-2017 | Paranaque, Philippines | HK$1M NLH Main Event (Triton Philippines) | 3rd | $1,000,365 |
| 31-Oct-2021 | Las Vegas, USA | $50,000 Poker Players Championship (WSOP) | 1st | $954,020 |
| 25-May-2025 | Budva, Montenegro | $100,000 PLO Main Event (Triton Montenegro) | 4th | $875,000 |
| 20-Mar-2018 | Macau, China | HK$2M NLH Super High Roller Bowl China | 10th | $742,012 |
| 17-May-2019 | Budva, Montenegro | HK$300,000 NLH/Short Deck Mix (Triton Montenegro) | 1st | $500,682 |
To Conclude
The possibility of interviewing people like Ivey came about thanks to Martin “Franke” von Zweigbergk, who introduced us to the Bombay Club, and enabled us to attend the Bombay High Stakes Week.
I thank Cates for taking the time to talk to me and wish him continued success on and off the felt.
That’s all for now, folks, but there is still one more interview to come across two parts, which was conducted during last week’s instalment of the Bombay Club High Stakes Week in Tallinn.
Until next time.
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