High stakes pro Daniel ‘jungleman12’ Cates has been to Vienna lately, participating in Johannes Strassmann’s poker seminar. Poker journalist Marius Gartner from Hochgepokert.com has grasped the opportunity to catch him for an interview. You can read its translation here.
Hi Daniel. Johannes told me that he showed you the nightlife of Vienna yesterday. How did you like it?
It was totally fun (laughs).
Before you came here to Vienna, you also visited Amsterdam. Did you play poker there or you just wanted to see the city?
It was a vacation with some of my friends, whom I met there. Most of our party were high stakes pros, like Scott ‘urnotindanger’ Palmer, and some high stakes PLO players. We didn’t play poker at all, we just wanted to relax a bit.
Then you came straight to Vienna. Is the seminar the only reason for this, or there is something else, like your friendship with Johannes?
It has several reasons. Johannes is a good friend of mine, and then there is the seminar, and I also have some minor businesses to deal with here. Besides, I have heard that there are really good PLO games running in Vienna right now.
Let’s speak about the beginnings of your career. If I’m not mistaken, you started to play four years ago in high school, in $10 games. This is when your screen name ‘jungleman12’ was born. Where does this come from?
When I started playing poker, I was considered a crazy, bizarre kind of guy, like some weirdo who has just come out from the jungle. This is how I got the name.
Surely it has something to do with poker as well?
Yes, I was suggested to add the number “12” because it brings luck. It has proven to be true since (laughs).
You were accepted to the University of Maryland later on, where you studied informatics. However, soon you were good enough at poker to beat $10/$20. What did your tutors and schoolmates say, when you decided to leave the university?
In fact, I never discussed this issue with my schoolmates or my tutors. I discussed it with my parents, who, let’s put it this way, were reluctant to accept it. As I had already been making a lot of money with poker at the time, they eventually came to terms with my decision, but they weren’t happy about it. It was tough for me, too, at first. I wasn’t sure about it myself, but it has been since proven that it was the best to do, in financial terms.
I’ve read once that your family said they had a hard time accepting that their son is a professional poker player. How did you manage to convince them?
My primary arguments were, of course, my results as a poker player. My parents are not anymore so much against it; my mum does actually plays occasionally and, although my dad doesn’t, he isn’t upset about it. Since I became a regular and made a lot of money, they haven’t questioned my decision.
In fact, they are proud of their son’s success, aren’t they?
Absolutely, they are.
You are known to have been a fanatic gamer; you had outstanding results both in Minesweeper and in Command & Conquer. How do you think these games helped you prepare for online poker?
I must admit, I don’t really see how these games help becoming a poker pro. Perhaps, they helped me to understand poker faster, and I’m pretty sure they develop multi-tabling skills. Command & Conquer definitely requires you to pay attention to several things simultaneously. To sum up, there is overlapping between these games and poker and they probably helped, too, but I cannot really explain how.
Poker pros are known to make prop bets on a regular basis. What was your funniest or most memorable one?
We made it with Ashton Griffin, who offered 4:1 odds for beating his Angry Birds high score in a month. For some mysterious reason, my phone just happened to break down at that time and I had to buy a new one, this was a setback.
Johannes Strassmann (with a big smile on his face): Maybe Ashton manipulated it in some way.
It would’ve been though for him, since he wasn’t there (laughs).
Did you win the bet?
No, I lost it. More precisely, I bought myself out pretty soon. Ashton’s high score is incredible, I’m serious, it’s sick. He is among the World’s Top 100 players, or he was at the time, anyway.
There is another bet in which there is probably more money at stake: it’s the Durrrr Challenge. You have played about 20,000 hands so far and you are in the lead with $1.2 million. What happens to this now, after Black Friday? Did you talk about it with durrrr?
Yes, we had a short conversation about it. Tom insists that we wait to see what the fate of Full Tilt Poker will be. We originally planned on resuming the challenge in September but we needed to delay it, for reasons obvious. I’d really much like to resume it but Tom has seemed to be interested in live games instead lately. It is possible that, if he doesn’t get his motivation back, we close the challenge. We will see what happens in the next few months.
Is it possible for the Challenge to resume at PokerStars?
Yes, that could be an option. But I don’t know, it’s basically up to durrrr. Unfortunately, despite me wanting it to resume, there is no guarantee that it will. Durrrr says he wants it, but I don’t see that he really cares. We have had an agreement to play at least 5,000 hands per month but then he was busy and we couldn’t do that most of the time. It’s a little frustrating.
You used to say that you are better at NLHE and Tom is better at PLO. Why do you think you have an edge on him only in NLHE?
When I said that, I felt it to be true, but I’m not sure if it’s still the case. He didn’t use to play so much NLHE back then but I did. That’s why I chose this game type, I felt I can beat him in it.
Let’s take a look at another famous session. You had a memorable match against Isildur1 in 2009, in which you lost about $0.5 million. Was there a chance for you to go bankrupt?
I would probably have, if I hadn’t stopped in the last minute. I lost a lot and I was left with no other option than to stop playing. Still, I lost another $90,000 to him the next day. I was really worried that I wasn’t going to be able to come back.
End of Part 1
In Part 2, Daniel speaks about his Full Tilt account, the ‘Girah’ cheating scandal, a feared opponent in the upcoming live challenge and his near future.
Hi Daniel. Johannes told me that he showed you the nightlife of Vienna yesterday. How did you like it?
It was totally fun (laughs).
Before you came here to Vienna, you also visited Amsterdam. Did you play poker there or you just wanted to see the city?
It was a vacation with some of my friends, whom I met there. Most of our party were high stakes pros, like Scott ‘urnotindanger’ Palmer, and some high stakes PLO players. We didn’t play poker at all, we just wanted to relax a bit.
Then you came straight to Vienna. Is the seminar the only reason for this, or there is something else, like your friendship with Johannes?
It has several reasons. Johannes is a good friend of mine, and then there is the seminar, and I also have some minor businesses to deal with here. Besides, I have heard that there are really good PLO games running in Vienna right now.
Let’s speak about the beginnings of your career. If I’m not mistaken, you started to play four years ago in high school, in $10 games. This is when your screen name ‘jungleman12’ was born. Where does this come from?
When I started playing poker, I was considered a crazy, bizarre kind of guy, like some weirdo who has just come out from the jungle. This is how I got the name.
Surely it has something to do with poker as well?
Yes, I was suggested to add the number “12” because it brings luck. It has proven to be true since (laughs).
You were accepted to the University of Maryland later on, where you studied informatics. However, soon you were good enough at poker to beat $10/$20. What did your tutors and schoolmates say, when you decided to leave the university?
In fact, I never discussed this issue with my schoolmates or my tutors. I discussed it with my parents, who, let’s put it this way, were reluctant to accept it. As I had already been making a lot of money with poker at the time, they eventually came to terms with my decision, but they weren’t happy about it. It was tough for me, too, at first. I wasn’t sure about it myself, but it has been since proven that it was the best to do, in financial terms.
I’ve read once that your family said they had a hard time accepting that their son is a professional poker player. How did you manage to convince them?
My primary arguments were, of course, my results as a poker player. My parents are not anymore so much against it; my mum does actually plays occasionally and, although my dad doesn’t, he isn’t upset about it. Since I became a regular and made a lot of money, they haven’t questioned my decision.
In fact, they are proud of their son’s success, aren’t they?
Absolutely, they are.
You are known to have been a fanatic gamer; you had outstanding results both in Minesweeper and in Command & Conquer. How do you think these games helped you prepare for online poker?
I must admit, I don’t really see how these games help becoming a poker pro. Perhaps, they helped me to understand poker faster, and I’m pretty sure they develop multi-tabling skills. Command & Conquer definitely requires you to pay attention to several things simultaneously. To sum up, there is overlapping between these games and poker and they probably helped, too, but I cannot really explain how.
Poker pros are known to make prop bets on a regular basis. What was your funniest or most memorable one?
We made it with Ashton Griffin, who offered 4:1 odds for beating his Angry Birds high score in a month. For some mysterious reason, my phone just happened to break down at that time and I had to buy a new one, this was a setback.
Johannes Strassmann (with a big smile on his face): Maybe Ashton manipulated it in some way.
It would’ve been though for him, since he wasn’t there (laughs).
Did you win the bet?
No, I lost it. More precisely, I bought myself out pretty soon. Ashton’s high score is incredible, I’m serious, it’s sick. He is among the World’s Top 100 players, or he was at the time, anyway.
There is another bet in which there is probably more money at stake: it’s the Durrrr Challenge. You have played about 20,000 hands so far and you are in the lead with $1.2 million. What happens to this now, after Black Friday? Did you talk about it with durrrr?
Yes, we had a short conversation about it. Tom insists that we wait to see what the fate of Full Tilt Poker will be. We originally planned on resuming the challenge in September but we needed to delay it, for reasons obvious. I’d really much like to resume it but Tom has seemed to be interested in live games instead lately. It is possible that, if he doesn’t get his motivation back, we close the challenge. We will see what happens in the next few months.
Is it possible for the Challenge to resume at PokerStars?
Yes, that could be an option. But I don’t know, it’s basically up to durrrr. Unfortunately, despite me wanting it to resume, there is no guarantee that it will. Durrrr says he wants it, but I don’t see that he really cares. We have had an agreement to play at least 5,000 hands per month but then he was busy and we couldn’t do that most of the time. It’s a little frustrating.
You used to say that you are better at NLHE and Tom is better at PLO. Why do you think you have an edge on him only in NLHE?
When I said that, I felt it to be true, but I’m not sure if it’s still the case. He didn’t use to play so much NLHE back then but I did. That’s why I chose this game type, I felt I can beat him in it.
Let’s take a look at another famous session. You had a memorable match against Isildur1 in 2009, in which you lost about $0.5 million. Was there a chance for you to go bankrupt?
I would probably have, if I hadn’t stopped in the last minute. I lost a lot and I was left with no other option than to stop playing. Still, I lost another $90,000 to him the next day. I was really worried that I wasn’t going to be able to come back.
End of Part 1
In Part 2, Daniel speaks about his Full Tilt account, the ‘Girah’ cheating scandal, a feared opponent in the upcoming live challenge and his near future.
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