UPDATE: Daniel ‘Jungleman’ Cates Confesses to Ghosting in Online Poker Home Game; Apologizes to Bill Perkins

As many of you may know, news of Bill Perkins blew up the internet by storm this week as the successful businessman revealed in a series of Twitter posts that he was cheated in an online poker home game.

Specifically referred to as ghosting, Perkins confirmed that an unnamed ‘super pro of pros’ had played in place of a supposed friend in exchange for a piece of the profit. Internet personality Dan Bilzerian later on outright accused a person named Sina Taleb of allowing Daniel Cates to play on his account in place of himself. Jungleman soon replied only to say that Bilzerian’s accusation was misleading while providing no additional information to the issue due to legal reasons other than not having played a hand against Bilzerian.

Just earlier today, Cates released his response on Twitter to address the allegations posed by Dan Bilzerian wherein he admitted to playing under the account of unknown player named “Sina”.

Cates said in his statement, “To be clear, I started playing with Sina (his last name is not Taleb, for the record) on may 8th and ultimately played very few sessions, none of which were against Dan Bilzerian as claimed.”

He followed this confirmation with an explanation to why he did so and an apology to Bill Perkins. Cates highlights the rampant issue of ghosting in online high stakes poker evident through the high level of play seen by supposedly amateur players and notes it made it acceptable for him at that time to be playing.

“I played very few hands against Bill Perkins, who sat in a game I understood was rampant with professionals who were ghosting. I thought since many on the site were using pros to play for them (which was clear by the uniquely high level of play) at the time it felt acceptable for me to be playing. Unfortunately Bill got caught in the crossfire and I’m very sorry for that.”, he added.

The guilty pro, however, expressed his sentiments on being singled out to be judged poorly by thousands of poker enthusiasts everywhere. Given his reputation, numerous fans and aspiring players look up to Cates for his superior skills and excellence in his career.

“While I don’t think it’s fair that I’ve been singled out for something many were much more guilty of, I accept that as a role model for the poker community my punishment should be disproportionate compared to a normal player. I hold myself to a high standard of ethics and aspire to be devoid of inequity, but I still make mistakes and am sorry for my actions. I will do my best to behave better in the future.”

Sending a final apology to the poker community as a whole for what had transpired, Cates concluded his response with special thanks to his supporters and Nick Schulman especially, for starting the #freejungle movement on Twitter.

Jungleman closed his statement saying, “If anyone else believes in my integrity and that I should not be lambasted over the internet, I would appreciate any support and will appreciate it especially if I know you. To those who attacked my integrity, I forgive you.”

To be clear, I think multi accounting is wrong even if others are doing it, and while it is condoned the first step for me and others to change that is to stop it doing it myself as an example. I am sorry, and will find a way to make things right.

— Daniel Cates (@junglemandan) May 28, 2020