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Jungleman Cheating Scandal Nothing New to Pro Poker

Unless you have been off playing marathon online poker sessions the last few days, you probably know about the latest poker cheating scandal. Bill Perkins was the whistleblower for this scandal, claiming that he was scammed by some top-tier poker pros.

Initially, Perkins remained tight-lipped over which players were involved. The exception was that he confirmed that Jason Koon was not involved. Later, Dan Bilzerian alleged that Dan “Jungleman” Cates was one of the culprits.

Cates later confirmed that he was involved and apologized for his action, although the apology was a bit slanted. There are some wondering why poker pros would commit these actions. Today, I am going to give some of my thoughts on the recent scandal and why it isn’t terribly surprising to me.

Perkins Should Have Given More Information From the Start

Bill Perkins started the allegations over the weekend that there was a cheating scandal that was bigger than the Mike Postle cheating scandal. He claimed that “poker heroes” were involved in the scandal. Later, it was revealed that this was involving a private poker game played on a mobile app.

Some pros in the game were “ghosting” which is playing under a user ID that were reportedly amateur players. Perkins later said that he came to a settlement with one of the alleged cheaters to get information. This drew the ire of the poker community, claiming that he was protecting the cheaters.

Settlement w/ 1 participant gave my word I would not Publicly reveal UNLESS they lied during questions
Game: Private
App: download for friends
Cheating: pros playing for fish account (so far)
Participants #: unknown now
Investigation: Ongoing
Evidence: confession/physical https://t.co/HoUiPDs7BR

— Bill Perkins (Guy) (@bp22) May 24, 2020

First, if Perkins is going to out players, he should out them. Coming online and claiming that there is this big scandal to later show that it was a private poker game with pros ghosting was hardly on the level of the Mike Postle scandal. But if he was truly interested in revealing the scandal, he should have named names. Otherwise, this looks odd and more like someone crying over losing in a game where they were over their head.

Jungleman Apology Not Really Much of an Apology

Dan Cates was later named by Dan Bilzerian as one of the alleged cheaters. Cates claimed that he never played against Bilzerian but later admitted that he was involved in the game. He also posted an apology on Twitter on Wednesday.

The apology I don’t feel did Cates any favors. He claimed that he ghosted in the game because other players were doing so. He then also complained about the way he was treated over the matter.

My defense for @DanBilzerian 's accusations https://t.co/EdD3yTsout

— Daniel Cates (@junglemandan) May 27, 2020

First, how else did he expect to be treated by fans and other players? He admitted to cheating. It doesn’t matter about the high level of play or that other players did it. Cates made a conscious choice to play in the game and in the end. If Perkins and Bilzerian never outed Cates, who knows if he would still be playing in the game.

You don’t make an apology and then complain about the consequences of your actions. At least not publicly.

Cheating By Pros is Not New and Will Continue in Some Form

The interesting thing about all this is how some fans seem genuinely surprised by the actions of these pros. Cheating by pros in poker is not new. There are many examples of pros cheating in the past and certain pros who have even been banned from online poker for cheating.

Justin Bonomo is a great example. He was banned for multi-accounting in the past. While he has made amends, the fact he cheated still exists. By the way, multi-accounting was generally accepted by pros playing online poker just as ghosting was on the app that Jungleman plays.

Pros have pushed the limits of playing online poker at various times in the past and this is something that will continue. Poker players try and find any advantage they can. Sometimes they stoop to methods that are less than ethical. This is not surprising and should not be surprising.

However, once a player is caught, they should also expect to take the criticism and consequences for their actions. Complaining that they are being treated unfairly just makes matters worse.

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