Dan ‘Jungleman’ Cates is a renowned high-stakes cash game crusher, having it crushed in both the online and live arenas. The 31-year-old poker pro entered this year’s World Series of Poker (WSOP) with over $9 million in tournament earnings to his name. Cates boosted his earnings in a big way at the 2021 WSOP by taking down Event #60: $50,000 Poker Players Championship, defeating an elite field of 63 entries to take home the top prize of $954,020 and his career first gold bracelet.
“Oh yeah, one of those bracelet things,” said the highly elated Cates post his first-ever WSOP GOLD bracelet victory. “It is actually pretty cool and I’m happy to have won one. I think I have one of each now, [with wins in] the World Poker Tour Alpha8 and I have a Triton Poker win. I think that gives me the trifecta, I am not sure how that works. Did I win a European Poker Tour? I don’t know. But this is pretty cool, especially [to win] a tournament that is named after Chip Reese, who has passed away.”
This was Cate’s 4th largest score and took his tournament earnings to $9,868,264. While Cates has recorded several larger scores before, this was the biggest cash he earned for a tournament victory.
Final Day Action
The final day of this event started with just five players in contention and Eli Elezra in the lead. Josh Arieh made it to the official final table but was busted in sixth place ($161,422) before the event returned for the live-streamed final table. Following him was the rising high roller tournament star Chris Brewer who began the day as one of the chip leaders but he lost a big chunk of his chips. Brewer finally pitted his pocket sevens against the pocket jacks of three-time bracelet winner Ryan Leng. Brewer’s sevens did not hold up and he was eliminated in fifth place, earning $211,235.
Despite starting the day as the leader, Elezra was the next to fall. The four-time bracelet winner hit the rail in fourth place. He got the last of his chips in the middle on the fifth street playing razz and was at risk against three-time bracelet winner Paul Volpe, who improved to a 9-6 low on seventh street to best the 10-7 of Elezra (fourth for $286,983). Eventually, it came to the heads-up after Cates busted Volpe (3rd for $404,243) to take a massive lead of 16 Million against Ryan Leng`s 2.90 Million.
Both players battled it for over an hour until Leng was down to just five BBs. The final hand of the dual played out in Limit Hold’em. Cates opened with Qc 3d and Leng called it with 10d 5s. All the chips went in on the flop Ah Jh 10h. The turn Qh and the river 3s improved Caters to two pairs and he took down the title, earning his first WSOP gold bracelet and $954,020 in the top prizemoney.
Final Table Payouts (USD)
- Dan Cates – $954,020
- Ryan Leng – $589,628
- Paul Volpe – $404,243
- Eli Elezra – $286,983
- Chris Brewer – $211,235
- Josh Arieh – $161,422