Jungleman Attempts to Terminate PPC Field for 3rd Straight Year; Moneymaker Jumps In

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Jun 18, 2023 2 min read

Dan "Jungleman" Cates, dressed in full Terminator costume, has begun his mission to three-peat in one of the most prestigious World Series of Poker (WSOP) events — the $50,000 buy-in Poker Players Championship.

In 2021, Cates defeated Ryan Leng heads-up for his first bracelet thanks in large part to a questionable fold from his opponent late in the game. Last year, he backed up his repeat prediction and took it down for the second straight year.

The two major victories gave Cates a combined $2.4 million in earnings. He only has four career WSOP cashes and has always been more of a cash game and online poker player. Later this week, however, he could become a three-time bracelet winner and also join Michael Mizrachi as the only three-time Poker Players Championship champions.

Brian Rast, who like Mizrachi is a Poker Hall of Fame candidate this year, is also seeking his third PPC title.

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It Was Almost Hasta La Vista, Jungleman

When the 2023 Poker Players Championship kicked off at around 2:15 p.m. PT on Sunday, Cates made his presence known. PokerNews captured a quick video of the Arnold Schwarzenegger wannabe in action.

Early on, things didn't go Jungleman's way. He was quickly down around half his 300,000-chip starting stack, but would battle back and get to within striking distance of where he began Day 1. At the time of publishing, Cates had about 200,000. The Poker Players Championship, a multi-game tournament, is a five-day grind. Early chip leads and deficits aren't all that significant.

Chris Moneymaker is in the House

Twenty years after winning the WSOP Main Event, Chris Moneymaker has made a surprise appearance in the PPC. The Poker Hall of Famer has just nine cashes at the World Series of Poker since his $2.5 million world championship win in 2003.

On Day 1, he battled against some of the top players in the game today and put up a strong fight. When this article was published, he was a bit above his starting stack after having dropped below 250,000 earlier in the session.

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