Gross River Card in $500k Pot on Hustler Casino Live Sends 'Jungleman' to the Bank

Jon Sofen Senior Editor U.S.

Nov 30, 2023 2 min read

Up and Down Session for Cates
Hand of the Night

Thursday night's Hustler Casino Live stream has brought in over 20,000 concurrent viewers thanks in large part to hands such as the one you're about to witness involving Dan "Jungleman" Cates.

The $200/$400/$400 game with a $100,000 minimum buy-in began at 5 p.m. PT at Hustler Casino in Los Angeles. By 8:00, the two-time World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner was down a quarter million, mostly because of one brutal river card.

Up and Down Session for Cates

The game, which was still running at the time of publishing, has been intense, with prominent poker figures such as Cates, Ethan "Rampage" Yau, and Santhosh Suvarna seated at the table.

Jungleman's had some mixed results throughout the evening, showing off a looser style of play than normal. He even called a raise out of position in one hand with the "dirty diaper" (3-2). But he's also made some impressive plays, including allowing Andy "Stacks" to bluff off around $100,000 with Jx4x, aka "The Robbi."

Cates pulled off an impressive bluff with nine-high to force the Professor off two pair in a $240,000 pot. But he also four-bet preflop with 10♦10♣ and was pot committed against the A♦A♣ of Raymond, so he called off the rest of his chips before losing a $380,000 pot.

Hand of the Night

Despite having his ups and downs during the first few hours of the session, Jungleman was about even when he picked up 8♣7♠ in the big blind and three-bet to $8,500 a $3,000 raise from Rampage, who was on the button with J♥8♦. Suvarna, who was in the straddle with K♠Q♠, called, while Rampage folded.

The flop came out 4♥10♣9♣, giving both players a straight draw. Following a check, Suvarna bet $13,000 and then called a check-raise to $45,000. Off to the turn they went, which was an uneventful 5♦. Although his hand didn't improve, Cates continued bluffing, firing out a $55,000, and Suvarna was in no mood to fold his gutter ball.

"Come on red jack," Hustler Casino Live commentator David Tuchman begged.

Tuchman's wish was granted as the J♦ appeared on the river, the most brutal card imaginable, if your name is Dan Cates, who hit his straight draw but was up against the nuts. Jungleman moved all in for $156,800 and Santhosh snap-called to take down the $533,500 pot. The high-stakes poker legend exited the game for a bit so he could head to the bank to get some money to rebuy before returning to try and get his losses back.