Dan 'Jungleman' Cates Stepping Back from Poker – Ghosting Scandal a Factor

Dan Cates announced that he'll be stepping back from poker for the time being. He wants more time to work on other pursuits, such as acting and blogging.

Writing through a Medium post entitled Quarantales, Cates discusses what he's been up to lately. 'Jungleman' also details why he's not as excited about poker these days.

The recent ghosting scandal, which Cates was called out for, is playing a role in his waning poker passion. However, he's also ready to try something new as a career anyways.

Shifting Focus to Something Beyond Poker

Jungleman has been playing quite a bit of poker ever since the coronavirus pandemic began. He's also been winning on the tables too.

However, Cates notes that "poker no longer satisfies my ambitions, so I have largely been working on a new career path."

He has nothing but good things to say about the game from an overall perspective. Furthermore, he doesn't plan on quitting the game entirely.

"Poker was and possibly still is an excellent way to go from having not much money to having enough to give one freedom. [...] To be clear, I am not quitting poker, just shifting focus unless big opportunities or games come."

Jungleman's Thoughts on the Ghosting Scandal

Recently, amateur poker player and millionaire Bill Perkins tweeted about being the victim of a ghosting scandal. He was playing on a third-party app with other businessmen...or so he thought.

In actuality, pros purchased the businessmen's accounts without Perkins' knowledge. They proceeded to win lots of money off him.

Perkins announced the scandal through Twitter and has only called out Cates so far. Jungleman admits his wrongful actions but also doesn't understand why he's the only one being named.

"Got screwed over a bit in new ways and in a scandal somehow despite having the tiniest role," he writes. "So, I got something possibly worth more than money: life lessons and experience! Yeay, thanks?"

What Else Has Cates Been Doing?

Jungleman has been playing a fair amount of online poker while COVID-19 scares persist. However, he's also been enjoying the following activities too:

• Visiting various parks around the UK.
• Learning life skills, such as cooking, using a laundry machine, and stir frying.
• Improv classes
• Blogging
• Working out and dieting
• Taking acting lessons

Cates is really passionate about the last activity. He's gotten so into acting that he's even taking private lessons from an established actor.

"I always wanted to see/feel the world through other people’s eyes, maybe this will sort of allow me to," he notes. "Acting also has to do with the many ways you can perform an action, stretching creativity and showing you new possibilities for how to behave in everyday life."

Jungleman isn't the first famous poker player to get into improv and acting. Phil Galfond took 10 weeks' worth of improv classes while living in New York City. Coincidentally, he also married former Days of Our Lives star Farah Fath.

The chances of Cates going from the felt to the big screen seem slim right now. He mostly seems to be taking up acting for enjoyment purposes.

At the same time, he’s pretty interested in the matter and is searching for a new career path. It'll be interested to see what Jungleman does settle on if he indeed chooses to stop playing poker professionally.