Regrettably, cheating happens in poker. Most players realize that high-tech cameras and gear, collusion teams, bots, and Real Time Assistance (RTA) are essential topics to explore and confront. Many agree that a preventative and informed approach by news platforms, diligent players, and site operators is the best avenue to warn players, shut down, and ban repeat offenders. More often than not, the community at large quickly rallies (mostly positively) to the cause.
PokerOrg caught up with the enigmatic Dan ‘Jungleman’ Cates in Macau to find out about his own personal experience.
You recently posted about cheating tools on X.
I posted it as a warning. I was posting to let people know these things were well-known and happening in some games.
Do you feel you’ve been cheated in a private game in the past?
Yes, for sure. Once. It was kind of weird. I don't really want to say where.
What were the circumstances?
During the game, I couldn't win any large hands. And to put it another way, the other person seemed to make the perfect play every time, and they weren’t a good player.
I remember one thing that happened. The host would ask strange questions if I sat out for a bit. They would ask why I was not playing – that kind of thing. That was weird, too.
The way things went down was weird as f*ck.
Dan 'Jungleman' Cates in action at this year's WSOP.Do you think cheating has occurred in games you’ve played online?
I don't think there's that much cheating going on online, to be honest. The one thing that I will say is that, for some reason, people seem to play a lot better against me online. I don't know why that is
Players seem to make calls that are GTO, where people - if they have certain bluff combinations, it makes sense - but they don't make sense if they don't have those combos. They seem to make them only online, or much more consistently online, let's say. That makes me quite suspicious.
Do you recall any specific hands?
I remember I looked at one specific hand. I was like, 'WTF'? I had some weird bluff combo, and the guy f*cking hero-called me in this odd spot. I forget his timing on it. But it was a spot where you really had to dig deep to make some assumptions to hero-call. I just thought, ‘How the f*ck did he know this one?’
It was a raise, bet, bet situation in a three-bet pot. I raised preflop, bet flop, bet turn, and I had some weird ass bluff. He called with the correct no-blocker, two-pair type hand.
Do you suspect RTA is being used?
I know players do use RTA preflop in PLO. I don't really even know, to be honest. But someone told me that an opponent made a lot of correct preflop and flop decisions in PLO. Then suddenly, they start playing a lot worse on turns and rivers.
And to add to that topic, I am aware of a plan to wipe out a lot of RTA'ers.
How so?
I don't know if it's going to happen. I hope it does. I don't use RTA. I don't know if it's ever going to benefit me. I could have charts or whatever to look up strategies, etc. But I'm never going to do that.
I think there are some instances where it's a gray area, where people try to make some kind of argument where it's okay. But if it's in a site's terms of service, it’s no longer okay.
You’ve had some interesting guests on your podcast Winning the Game of Life. Who would you recommend people look out for?
I think Blake Eastman's interviews are interesting. He's more of a scientist than some of these other guys. He shares lots of data and live tells and figures out what's helpful to pay attention to. He gets into the psychology of it. I think he’s quite good.
I'm not necessarily so impressed any longer with doing interviews with the top players in the game. Do I really want to find out who Stephen Chidwick thinks are the best five players in the world? That’s more like 'poker porn' at this point.
Follow Dan Cates on X and YouTube. If you want to arm yourself with the knowledge on how to avoid being cheated, check out our exclusive interview with Houston Curtis.
