Daniel “Jungleman” Cates expressed remorse for ghosting a recreational player in a private online poker home game, but he denies ever having played against Dan Bilzerian and claims he wasn’t the only player who was ghosting.

On Saturday night, Bill Perkins teased an alleged poker cheating scandal that would make Postlegate “look like a church service.” After leaving everyone on Twitter hanging overnight, the hedge fund manager provided brief details of the incident.

Perkins claimed that he played in a private home game on a poker app against recreational players, or so he thought. In his vague post, he said he caught unnamed pro(s) playing under recreational players’ accounts, but wasn’t ready to release the names.

The following day, Dan Bilzerian outed Daniel Cates as the culprit on Twitter before later deleting the tweet. Although most poker fans on social media bashed Perkins for over-hyping the scandal, “Jungleman” was also criticized by many pros. The online poker legend finally responded to the allegations on Wednesday.

Cates: ‘I Don’t Think it’s Fair that I’ve Been Singled Out’

Cates released a statement in Google docs on Wednesday apologizing for his actions. In that statement, he admitted to playing under the account of an unknown player named “Sina Taleb.” He also used the “If everyone else is doing it, that makes it okay defense.” Cates says that he began playing with Taleb on May 8, and played just a few sessions under his account.

“I thought since many on the site were using pros to play for them (which was clear by the uniquely high level of play) at the time, it felt acceptable for me to be playing,” he wrote.

Cates claims he played very few hands against Perkins in the game. He apologized for Perkins getting caught in the crossfire of multiple pros ghosting recreational players.

“I’m very sorry for that,” he said.

Cates also said he doesn’t think it’s fair that he’s being singled out since others did the same thing. He acknowledged, however, that “as a role model for the poker community my punishment should be disproportionate compared to a normal player.”

In his statement, Cates wrote that he holds himself to a high standard of ethics, but says he sometimes makes mistakes and apologized for his actions.

“I will do my best in the future to behave better,” the online poker pro wrote.

‘Jungleman’ Disputes Bilzerian’s Accusations

Although Cates admitted to deceiving his opponents, he denied one accusation. Social media icon Dan Bilzerian claimed on Twitter that he and Perkins both played in the same games against Taleb, who was being ghosted by Cates.

Cates, however, says that he and Bilzerian didn’t play in the same games. Clearly, someone here isn’t telling the truth or is being misled.

The two poker players have a brief and rocky history together, regardless of how many hands they’ve played against each other. In March 2019, they briefly feuded on Twitter. How Bilzerian obtained his wealth has long been a hot topic of discussion. He claims much of it came from crushing private games against celebrities and wealthy business people. Cates, like many others, doesn’t buy it.

Cates will eventually face Phil Galfond in a future Galfond Challenge. No date has been set, but the two online poker legends recently played a mini Galfond Challenge, with Galfond winning. Perhaps, a match between “Jungleman” and Bilzerian would be more intriguing.

Sweden’s Christian Jeppsson wins the latest online WPT Main Event on partypoker. He defeated a field of 2,130 entries to win the $3,200 buy-in WPT Online no-limit hold’em main event on partypoker. The Swedish gamer struck a deal heads-up that saw him gain $923,786 and a place in the background publications as the initial player to put his name on the WPT Champions Cup by winning an on-line event after he beat Viktor Ustimov to secure the win.

This event featured four starting flights, which collectively drew a total of 2,130 entries to blow away the $5 million guarantee and create a final prize pool of $6.39 million to be paid out among the top 312 finishers. Plenty of big names made deep runs in this event, but ultimately fell short of the final table, including the World Poker Tour’s first-ever female champion of a main tour event Ema Zajmovic (25th – $21,151), 2014 World Series of Poker main event champion Martin Jacobson (23rd – $28,755), high roller regular Matthias Eibinger (20th – $28,755), 2014 Aussie Millions main event champion Ami Barer (12th – $51,120), three-time WSOP bracelet winner Benny Glaser (11th – $51,120), and WSOP bracelet winner Dmitry Yurasov (9th – $51,120).

By the time final table of eight was set, Jeppsson had taken the lead, with high-stakes regular Sam Greenwood hot on his heels. Greenwood got off to the worst possible start, though, losing a massive preflop race for one of the largest pots of the tournament just moments after play resumed. Pascal Hartmann raised to 550,00 from the button with blinds at 125,000-250,000 with a 40,000 ante. Greenwood three-bet to 2.2 million with ADiamond SuitKSpade Suit from the small blind. Viktor Ustimov, who won preliminary events during this series, moved all-in for 9,048,972 with QSpade SuitQHeart Suit. Greenwood called and the pocket queens held to earn Ustimov the double up and the chip lead. Greenwood still had nearly 6.7 million in chips leftover, but it was still a huge blow to his chances at his first WPT title.

Pascal Teekens was the first to hit the rail when he ran A-Q into the pocket aces of Ustimov and failed to come from behind. He earned $66,776 as the eighth-place finisher. Greenwood was the next to be eliminated. After falling down to less than 3 big blinds, he got his last chips in with KSpade Suit6Spade Suit in the small blind up against Ustimov’s 8Heart Suit7Heart Suit in the big blind. Ustimov flopped a pair of sevens against Greenwood and held from there to knock him out in 7th place ($103,838).

Jeppsson earned his first elimination of the day by busting Pascal Hartmann, who began the day in third chip position. Hartmann got all of his chips in with JSpade SuitJDiamond Suit u against the AClub SuitQClub Suit of Jeppsson. A queen on the flop gave Jeppsson the lead and he held from there to narrow the field to five. Hartmann earned $151,443 as the sixth-place finisher.

Alex Clark’s run in this event came to an end when he limp-called all-in with A-Q in a battle of the blinds. Ustimov had shoved with A-5 from the big blind and was dominated, but a five on the flop gave him a lead that he never relinquished from there on out. Clark secured for $221,733 for his fifth-place showing.

Nikolay Ponomarev was left as the shortest stack after Clark’s exit. Like many that had come before him at this final table, he was sent packing by Ustimov. The chip leader raised with ADiamond SuitKDiamond Suit on the button and Ponomarev shoved holding KClub Suit8Club Suit from the big blind for around 25 big blinds. Ustimov flopped an ace and that was enough to send Ponomarev packing in fourth place ($317,583).

Jukka Koskela fell below 13 big blinds after losing a sizable pot without showdown to Christian Jeppsson. He got the last of his stack in from the button with AClub Suit6Diamond Suit and was called by Ustimov’s AHeart Suit10Club Suit. Ustimov made tens and sevens by the river to eliminate Koskela in third place ($477,333).

With that the final two players struck up negotiations for a deal, with Jeppsson holding 50,389,668 to Ustimov’s 34,752,558 in chips. The two agreed to lock up $913,784 for Jeppsson and $865,542 for Ustimov, leaving $10,000 in additional prize money, the title, and a $15,000 seat in the WPT Tournament of Champions.

The two battled it out for a while, and by the time the final hand arose, Jeppsson had built roughly a 4:1 chip lead. The hand began with Ustimov min-raising from the button with KSpade SuitKClub Suit. Jeppsson called from the big blind with JDiamond Suit9Diamond Suit. The flop came down QDiamond Suit6Diamond Suit5Heart Suit and Jeppsson checked. Ustimov bet 1,399,200 with his overpaid and Jeppsson made the call with his flush draw. The 7Diamond Suit on the turn completed Jeppsson’s draw and he checked a second time. Ustimov bet 5,000,000 and Jeppsson dipped into his time bank before shoving with his flush. Ustimov quickly called and found that he was drawing dead. Ustimov had to settle for the $865,542 he negotiated for. Check out a video clip of the final hand below in a tweet from the World Poker Tour.

WPT Online Championship Final Table Results

Texas poker room, The Lodge Card Club in Round Rock, will resume its doors on May 18. Texas hold’em players getting in the establishment needs to be aware of the center’s new wellness security procedures.

Cardrooms all across the state, and also nationwide, have actually been shut since mid-March because of the coronavirus. As well as while it’s likely most will remain closed for fairly a long time, specific online poker rooms, including The Lodge, are gradually beginning to reopen. In Phoenix, for instance, the preferred Chatting Stick Hotel sent a memo to its workers notifying them of a June 1 poker room resume day.

Talking Stick,, the largest poker room in Arizona, will limit ability to 50%, at least for the time being. Five additional Phoenix-area casinos have currently resumed, however without texas hold’em video games. Numerous various other gambling enterprises are shooting for a resuming date of Memorial Day Weekend or shortly after. But one Texas poker room is set to reopen, with constraints, in less than two days.

Texas Poker Room Rolls the Dice

The Lone Star State has nearly 48,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases, per the CDC, but plenty of residents are itching to get back to the felt.

The Lodge in Round Rock, a community just north of Austin, will only allow six-handed games in the beginning in an attempt to follow social distancing standards. To achieve this objective, the card club will likewise limit ability to 75 people, including team member.

Should presence go beyond 75 people, protection will certainly ask some club members to wait in their automobiles up until there is space available inside the poker room.

The poker club is additionally putting some extra coronavirus avoidance procedures in position, consisting of calling for team to use face masks, refusing service to those that display any type of sort of disease, calling for customers to sterilize their hands upon entrance, as well as frequently cleaning and sanitizing chips.

Cardrooms in Texas run differently than they do in the majority of states due to the Lone Celebrity State’s stringent betting regulations. As opposed to taking rake, which would certainly be illegal, the businesses run as clubs as well as call for that players pay for a membership. At The Lodge, everyday admission expenses $10. The club likewise uses $25 monthly and $200 annual entrance costs for those who constant the facility.

Nevada casinos still can not reopen. But once they do, the Nevada gaming Control Board will certainly require them to execute rigorous standards, consisting of limiting capability to 50%, in an initiative to stop additional spread of the coronavirus.

Gov. Steve Sisolak revealed on Thursday he will certainly allow certain organisations to reopen as early as Saturday. Those include beauty salons and also restaurants, which will be permitted to seat customers at 50% maximum ability. Yet he’s leaving the decision on casino sites approximately the NGCB.

Sisolak made it clear in his once a week press conference that Nevada gambling enterprises will not fit into his “Stage One” plans. However some hypothesize the NGCB could be ready to grant permission to the 440+ gambling facilities in the Silver State as early as Memorial Day Weekend. Wynn CEO Matt Maddox is amongst those that are hoping his Las Vegas Strip resort will be ready to roll for among the busiest travel weekends of the year.

While the reopening date stays uncertain, we do recognize that when they are allowed to open, casinos will certainly need to make some significant changes to their operating procedures.

Health and Safety a Priority

The NGCB won’t take all the fun out of Nevada casinos, however when reopening is allowed, clients will certainly see some major modifications to the casino gambling experience.

Per the NGCB’s guidelines, which were accepted on Wednesday, poker areas can just run with four gamers at each table, maximum. Several casino poker gamers on social media have stated they have no interest in short-handed play as well as some believe the limitations will certainly require lots of, otherwise all, of Las Vegas’ cardrooms to close.

All casino patrons will be reminded to wash hands and cover their faces when they cough via signs posted throughout the casino.

All online casino clients will certainly be advised to wash hands and cover their faces when they cough via signs posted throughout the gambling establishment.

Slot machine sections will also look a bit different than they have in the past. The NGCB is urging gambling enterprise operators to advertise safe social distancing guidelines, which could indicate eliminating chairs at every other slot machine to make sure customers don’t rest alongside each other.

Gaming establishments will also be required to limit the number of players at each table game. For blackjack, only three players can sit down at the table. Craps tables will be limited to six gamblers at a time, and four at roulette.

May is set to be an active month for players, despite of the coronavirus pandemic getting in the way of the WSOP.

The poker industry is typically at its most vivid in between May and July thanks to the WSOP. With hundreds of gamers making the trip to Las Vegas in search of a bracelet, task comes to a head over the summer.

COVID-19 has forced everybody to transform their plans this year but Partypoker is ensuring players have something to do. Together with the forthcoming digital WPT, it has introduced dates for the inaugural Super High Stakes Bowl (SHSB) Online Series.

SHR Bowl to Create More Online Action

The event represents an additional link-up with Poker Central and is the latest live tournament series go virtual.

In maintaining with the Super High Roller Bowl’s typical layout, the 28 MTTs will cost in between $10K and $100K. Each one will certainly span two days and also the action will start from May 23 to June 1, just after the WPT Online Series concludes.

On top of a $20 million guarantee, the top performer over 27 events will be declared the “champion.” That accolade carries with it a free ticket for the $100,000+$2,000 Super High Roller Bowl Online main event.

The full schedule is yet to be determined, but an April 27 press release has confirmed main event will feature a $3 million guarantee. Blinds will increase every 30 minutes and players will start with 300 big blinds.

For all other Super High Roller Bowl Online events, blinds will increase every 12 or 15 minutes depending on when the tournament starts. Additionally, re-entries will be available in all events (except the main event) until the end of level 12.

Turning the Super High Roller Bowl into an online affair is part of the latest trend in poker. Although “trend” suggests operators have a choice, the recent innovations have been successful.

Coronavirus Hurts but Poker Will Survive

The coronavirus pandemic initially threatened to crush major poker events. But by collaborating with online operators, the WSOP, WPT, Poker Central and others have found ways around the problem.

Live venues and staff may still be reeling from the current crisis. The industry as a whole, however, is maintaining a degree of strength.

The new wave of online festivals will, most likely, mark the rest of 2020. Unibet Poker’s tournament team said as much in a recent statement. Not wanting to play with uncertainty, Nataly Sopacuaperu said all Unibet live events will now take place online.

This commitment to a 2020 without any offline action could soon be matched by other organizations. Indeed, if the Super High Roller Bowl Online Series is a success, it will serve as another indication that players are happy to try online alternatives.

If the world is changing, poker is changing with it. That’s a positive message for players and a sign that major events can and will be staged online during and, potentially, after coronavirus.