"Jungleman" Rivers Straight Flush to Crack Poker Vlogger's Nuts on Hustler Casino Live
Dan "Jungleman" Cates went out of character a bit when he used speech play to get paid off with a straight flush during Friday's Hustler Casino Live.
The hand aired on the stream a little after 7:30 p.m. PT, and it involved a brutal river card that cost poker vlogger Mariano Grandoli, a regular on the show, a ton of money.
You Can't Stop the Jungleman
Cates, who will appear on an upcoming episode of PokerNews' Life Outside Poker podcast, hasn't appeared much at the 2024 World Series of Poker (WSOP) thus far. But he'll no doubt look to win his third $50,000 Poker Players Championship bracelet when the tournament begins on Sunday.
Until that happens, he's busy playing cash games in Las Vegas at Bellagio, and on Friday over in Los Angeles at Hustler Casino on the most popular livestream cash game show in the world.
There were a number of entertaining hands that kept viewers interested during the show, but one stands out, and it involved Jungleman and Mariano, who have a fairly extensive history against each other in the big Hustler Casino Live games.
In a $50/$100 ($100 big blind ante) no-limit hold'em game, Mariano raised to $300 from the hijack with K♥Q♣. Cates then three-bet to $1,200 from the button with 9♠8♠, only receiving a call from the original preflop raiser.
The flop came out 10♠4♦A♣, not exactly the most action-packed board. Mariano checked before Jungleman began thinking through the hand out-loud, and then making a $1,000 continuation bet.
"Do you have an ace?" Cates asked his opponent.
"Yeah, I do," Mariano, who didn't have an ace, responded.
The J♠ on the turn was the ultimate action card as it gave Mariano the nuts — a straight — and his opponent a straight flush draw. Having picked up some equity, and after an under-the-gun check, Jungleman clearly had an easy decision to fire a second barrel. But he'd continue talking through his decision, which frustrated Mariano.
"Just bet your hand, Jungle," Mariano pleaded.
Eventually, the online poker legend would bet, this time for $3,800, and then was surprised a check-raise to $14,000 followed. With such a big draw, Cates wasn't about to fold, so he made the call and then spiked the 7♠ on the river to complete the backdoor straight flush draw.
Mariano, with little reason to believe his opponent hit a runner-runner flush, confidently led for $16,600. The smaller-stacked Cates, whose hand was unbeatable, would again use some speech play in hopes of getting an all-in raise to $52,050 called by the vlogger.
With such a strong hand and $101,000 in the pot — 3:1 odds to call and $35,950 more — there simply wasn't any way Mariano could find a fold. He threw in some calling chips before learning that Cates had rivered a straight flush to scoop the $136,550 pot.
At the time of publishing, Mariano was only down around $29,000 and had battled back a bit. Cates, on the other hand, was the biggest winner in the game with a $69,000 profit, enough to cover his Poker Players Championship buy-in.
Hustler Casino Live has a special Saturday stream in store, with celebs such as social media influencer Dan Bilzerian, soccer star Neymar, NBA great Jimmy Butler, and Twitch streamer Ninja in the game.
