“Jungleman” Cates Wins Back-to-Back WSOP Poker Players Championship Titles

Daniel “Jungleman” Cates Wins $50,000 Poker Players Championship for $1.449 Million

The $50,000 WSOP Poker Players Championship is the biggest mixed game event in the poker world every year.

That is why it is quite remarkable what poker legend “Jungleman” Cates just accomplished. He managed to defend his title, taking home the Chip Reese Trophy again in 2022 after also claiming it in 2021. Michael Mizrachi has won this prestigious tournament the most times, three (2010, 2012, 2018) - however, unlike Cates, he never won it in two consecutive years.

Cates is also known for liking some theatrics from time to time. Last time, he showed up at the final table dressed as Dragon Ball Z character Goku. This time, he put on the appearance of WWE star “Macho Man” Randy Savage. 

Jungleman had to face Yuri Dzivielevski from Brazil heads-up for the title. The very last hand was a classic No Limit Hold’em game. Dzivielevski shoved his short stack with Q5 off-suit, which Cates called after some tanking with J4 suited. The 4 on the flop was enough for the legendary Jungleman to claim his 2nd WSOP gold bracelet, along with the $1.449 million first prize.

David Jackson Takes Down $3,000 No Limit Hold’em event for $598,173

Two weeks ago, we reported on how the poker community as a whole was rooting for Phil Ivey to win his 11th bracelet when he got down to heads-up in the $100K high roller.

Last week, we saw a very similar situation. All-time WSOP bracelet record holder Phil Hellmuth got down to the last two standing in the $3,000 No Limit Hold’em event. He too fell short, however, just like Ivey. 

Hellmuth was defeated by David Jackson from Florida. Previously, Jackson won the $777 Lucky Sevens NLHE event at the 2021 online WSOP on GGPoker. He also has a WSOP Circuit ring from 2017.

Alex Foxen Tops the Field in the $250,000 No Limit Hold’em Super High Roller for $4.564 Million

This year, the highest buy-in event on the World Series of Poker schedule was the $250K high roller. Therefore, it attracted quite a lot of attention and some of the biggest names in poker as well. Daniel Negreanu, Phil Ivey, and defending WSOP Main Event champion Koray Aldemir all bought in, vying for victory.

In the end, it was Alex Foxen who emerged victorious. He’s been on the high roller scene for years, having cashed for over $20 million in live tournaments before this event, but he never won a WSOP bracelet - until now.

He defeated Brandon Steven heads-up for the title.

These are some of the major event results so far:

Main Event Kicks Off, Kitty Kuo Controversy, $1 Million Bounty for Matt Glantz

The 53rd WSOP Main Event is now officially ongoing. The first Day1 started on July 3rd. So far, 6,842 players have entered the tournament. Day1 - Flight D is still on the schedule, starting today, July 6th, to bump up those numbers. As we wrote above, the current WSOP Main Event title holder is Koray Aldemir from Germany.

Recently, there has been a little controversy in the online poker community as well. Taiwanese poker pro Hu Chen “Kitty” Kuo received considerable backlash. She complained about how disabled player KL Cleeton made the game run slow in the $5K 6-Handed NLHE event, as his caretaker, Veronika Brill, kept getting dealt in, causing misdeals. Some people thought this was inconsiderate to Cleeton, who’s trying to enjoy the game despite his disability.

Another poker pro, Matt Glantz, had a much better time. He drew the $1 million ticket in the first ever $1,000 Mystery Bounty event. That means, despite coming in 42nd, he won a full million on top of his $20K cash. 

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