High Stakes Column: Who Is jungleman12?
jungleman12 is one of the newest players to reach the nosebleed stakes and make a profit at the same time. He's going to take the so-called "durrrr Challenge", but what else do we know about this guy?
In this column, PokerStrategy.com English editor talks about one of the new faces at the Full Tilt Poker high stakes tables: Daniel Cates, better known as jungleman12.
Who is he and why should you care about him? The fact that he will take on Tom Dwan in the next "durrrr Challenge" is enough to get you interested. But let's see why else you should know more about the guy and follow the "durrr Challenge".
jungleman12 is a winning player at the high stakes
This 20 year-old player started playing seriously around 2008 and made if from No Limit $0.25/$0.50 to $10/$20 in a matter of months, reaching $100,000 in online winnings by the end of the year according to PokerTableRatings. In 2009 he went on to play $25/$50 and reached the $1 million milestone. The guy obviously knows what he's doing.
Since October 2009, jungleman12 entered the big games at Full Tilt Poker, playing against the likes of Phil Ivey, Patrik Antonius and even his challenge "partner", Tom "durrrr" Dwan.
So far this year, he made more than $2.25 million at the online poker tables, which is the third highest profit in 2010, only below Phil Ivey and Dwan.
Regarding his profit to date, jungleman12 himself says it's because of several factors: aggressive bankroll management, constant will to improve, and willingness to play any opponent. Unless he's one of the luckiest people in the world, we can also say it's because he is also a talented player.
jungleman12 has a winning record vs. durrrr
Besides being a profitable player, he is also doing quite well against his soon-to-be opponent. So far, he took around $775k from Dwan (pictured right), which is definitely something to consider. These two played around 18,000 hands against each other, so we can't really blame it on heaters.
However, it seems that durrrr doesn't know or care about this, as he didn't change the challenge rules: he still gives him 3:1. Maybe he is confident in his game and considers that he can take him down easily - at least that's what he seems to think, if we are to check the latest chat between these two.
The next durrrr challenge will be more interesting
The whole concept of this challenge is definitely very exciting, which is why the online world paid so much attention to it in the beginning. Unfortunately, Antonius and Dwan dragged it for so long that it lost much of its appeal - it's been about a year and a half since they started and they still have around 10,000 hands to play.
This will probably not be the case with jungleman12, since he's also a high stakes grinder like durrrr. Both of them are no strangers to mass multi-tabling, so 50,000 hands should be done in a matter of months.
Right now, it's not yet decided whether they will play No Limit or Pot Limit Omaha. Maybe they'll decide to play both formats, who knows. jungleman12 seems to have an edge in the Hold'em variant, so maybe durrrr will try to make this a PLO-only battle. We'll just have to wait and see what they decide.
Who do you think will win this challenge?
Both of these players are definitely at the top of the game, so it's not going to be easy for either of them. If you look at the standings so far, you'd be inclined to believe that jungleman12 will take it down. If you look at Dwan's overall winnings against the top online players, you would probably put your money on him.
Who are you rooting for? Tell us your who you think will win in the news comments or in the community vote below:
Poll: Thoughts on the upcoming durrrr challenge?
About durrrr Challenge
Tom "durrrr" Dwan issued an online poker challenge to everyone except his friend, Phil "OMGClayAiken" Galfond. According to it, he puts $1.5 million to anyone's $500k in a set of 50,000 hands of $200/$400 No Limit or Pot Limit Omaha.
If, at the end of the challenge, his opponent is up by even $1, he will keep the profit and get an extra $1.5 million from Dwan. If durrrrr finishes with a profit, then he will also get $500k on top of that.
