Oct 28 2011

Got What it Takes to Beat Dan Cates?

written by: Will under News Comments: Comments Off

It’s been a couple of months since we’ve heard much from Dan “Jungleman12″ Cates, the young online poker phenom who was at the top of his game until Black Friday. Cates was absolutely dominating Tom Dwan in the “Durrrr Challenge” series, but that went sour when Full Tilt Poker closed its doors to U.S. players. Since then, Cates has unfortunately become better known for his involvement with the Jose Macedo poker scandal than for his undisputed online cash game prowess.

Now, however, Cates has issued a challenge. Apparently aggravated by the negative media attention that’s been placed on online poker in the wake of Black Friday, Cates is hoping to add some positivity to the industry by inviting anyone with enough cash to play him heads-up at the Prague Poker Festival, with the match currently scheduled for December 6.

The match, which is set to be streamed with a 15-minute delay on ThePokerFarm.com, will come with a buy-in of no less than 100k Euro, as well as stakes of 200 Euro / 400 Euro. Hole cards will be displayed as part of the semi-live broadcast. No word yet on whether Cates has chosen a game type, though NLHE and PLO seem like safe bets.

In an interview with ThePokerFarm.com, Cates said the following:

“As someone who loves the game, I think the poker world deserves to know who the best poker player on the planet is. I’m confident that it’s me. If anyone has the nerve to take me on, let them come to Prague in December and sit down across from me at the table.”

There’s no question that Cates is good, but “best poker player on the planet” good? It seems likely that Cates will get more than one person to accept his challenge, though it remains to be seen whether Cates will select an Ivey, a Negreanu, a Dwan or an unknown as his challenger.

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