Poker
Cates began playing online poker under the screen name "jungleman12" at the $0.25/$0.50 level as well as losing money in his local casino game before employing "reverse game selection" in order to take on and beat the best players at his stakes in heads-up matches before moving up the limits. He went from $0.25/$0.50 to $25/$50 in two years. [6]
In 2009 Cates lost most of his bankroll to Viktor Blom at Full Tilt Poker before rebuilding. [7] In 2010 he began to play higher and higher stakes, racking up victories against many noted pros, including heads-up specialist Tom Dwan. In August 2010 Cates agreed to take the Durrrr Challenge, playing Dwan at four tables of $200/$400 no limit for 50,000 hands. If Cates should beat Dwan by $1 or more after 50,000 hands, he will win $1.5 million from Dwan. As of April 2011, the two had played 19,335 hands, and Cates was up over a million dollars. [8] On December 31, 2018, Cates called out Dwan publicly on Twitter for his apparent welching. However, Cates also said that Dwan paid out approximately $700,000 in 2017. [9]
On August 13, 2015, Cates announced via Twitter that he lost HK$38 million (US$5 million) at a casino in Manila. [10]
As of July 2022, his total live tournament winnings exceed $11,800,000. [11]
World Series of Poker
Cates has two World Series of Poker bracelets, both in the Poker Players Championship. He claimed his first bracelet in 2021, after defeating Ryan Leng heads-up. [12] He claimed his second bracelet in 2022, after defeating Yuri Dzivielevski heads-up. [13] He is the first person to win the Poker Players Championship in consecutive years. [14]
Phillip Jerome Hellmuth Jr. is an American professional poker player who has won a record seventeen World Series of Poker bracelets. He is the winner of the Main Event of the 1989 World Series of Poker (WSOP) and the Main Event of the 2012 World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE), and he is a 2007 inductee of the WSOP's Poker Hall of Fame. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest tournament players of all time.
Phillip Dennis Ivey Jr. is an American professional poker player who has won eleven World Series of Poker bracelets, one World Poker Tour title, and appeared at nine World Poker Tour final tables. Ivey is regarded by numerous poker observers and contemporaries as the best all-around player in the world. In 2017, he was elected to the Poker Hall of Fame.
Gustav Hansen is a Danish professional poker player from Copenhagen, Denmark who has lived in Monaco since 2003. In his poker career, Hansen has won three World Poker Tour open titles, one WSOP bracelet and the 2007 Aussie Millions main event, and was the season one winner of the Poker Superstars Invitational Tournament. Before turning to playing poker professionally in 1997, Hansen was already a world class backgammon player and a youth tennis champion.
Thuận B. "Scotty" Nguyễn is a Vietnamese-American professional poker player who is a five-time World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner, most notably as the winner of the 1998 World Series of Poker Main Event and the 2008 World Series of Poker $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. World Championship. He is the first and only player to win both the WSOP Main Event and $50,000 Players' Championship.
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Erick A. Lindgren is an American professional poker player. He has won two World Poker Tour (WPT) titles, two World Series of Poker bracelets, and more than $10,500,000 in tournament earnings during his poker career. As of April 2020 he is 85th on the all-time money list of poker.
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Thomas Dwan Jr. is an American professional poker player who played online in the highest-stakes No-Limit Texas hold 'em and Pot-Limit Omaha games, primarily on Full Tilt Poker under the screen name "durrrr". Dwan has won prize money in live poker tournaments and has appeared on NBC's National Heads-Up Poker Championship, the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh seasons of Poker After Dark, the third, fourth, and fifth seasons of Full Tilt Poker's Million Dollar Cash Game, and the fifth, sixth, eighth and ninth seasons of GSN's High Stakes Poker.
Richard "Chufty" Ashby is a professional poker player from England. He was given the name 'Chufty' by his friends at University, due to Ashby's frequency of using the term "chuffed".
Phil Galfond is an American professional poker player. Galfond won three World Series of Poker bracelets, in the $5,000 buy-in pot-limit Omaha with rebuys event in 2008, the $10,000 no-limit 2-7 single draw championship in 2015 and the $10,000 Pot Limit Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better Championship in 2018. Due to his success as a high-stakes online player, he appeared on multiple seasons of GSN's High Stakes Poker.
Luke Schwartz-Orbach known as Luke Schwartz is a professional poker player from north London, England.
Viktor Blom is a Swedish millionaire high-stakes online poker player, best known by the online poker name Isildur1. His rise to fame drew considerable attention around the poker world in late 2009, when he took part in all ten of the largest pots in online poker history. In December 2010, it was announced that then-anonymous Isildur1 had joined Team PokerStars Pro. Blom's identity was revealed by PokerStars on 8 January 2011, at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure. Blom parted ways with PokerStars in August 2012 and was quickly signed-up by Full Tilt Poker on 15 October 2012, along with rival high-stakes player Tom Dwan.
Cole South is an American professional poker player, author, and entrepreneur from Washington, DC. South is best known for his play online, though he has also made television appearances on Poker After Dark in season 5 of the show. South graduated from Georgetown University with a degree in economics in December 2011.
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