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Tom Dwan Losing FTP Sponsorship Bad News for Dan “Jungleman” Cates?

Tom Dwan Losing FTP Sponsorship Bad News for Dan “Jungleman” Cates?

Tom Dwan Losing FTP Sponsorship Bad News for Dan “Jungleman” Cates?


It’s been months since Dan “Jungleman” Cates and Tom Dwan reached a new agreement to continue the durrrr Challenge but the only news Cates has received is that Dwan is no longer a sponsored Full Tilt Poker pro.

Today the story broke that Full Tilt Poker and Tom Dwan have officially parted ways, which can’t be good news for a high-stakes challenge that’s already been dragging on for years.

“It’s pointless to think about it every day but durrrr is just being disrespectful at best at this point and I’m not sure what to do about it,” Cates told www.pokerlistings.com.

Cates has won over $1.25 million from Dwan over the first 19,000 hands of their epic 50,000-hand slugfest but the two haven’t played a single pot since March of 2011.

Cates said today that Dwan doesn’t respond to him when he reaches out and that he feels like he’s out of options. Nearly four months ago Cates and Dwan had reached new terms in order to make sure the action continued.

Dwan has already incurred a $40,000 penalty for not playing since the agreement was struck in September. Every subsequent two months that durrrr refuses to play will mean an additional $10k gets tacked on to the $40k fine.

Keep reading to see how Cates is dealing with the situation and how he thinks the news of Dwan leaving Full Tilt Poker affects his chances of finishing the durrrr Challenge II.

www.pokerlistings.com: News came out today that Tom Dwan is no longer sponsored by Full Tilt Poker and we’re curious how this might affect the durrrr Challenge.

What’s your communication been like with him since you made the last agreement in September?

Tom Dwan

Dan Cates says Tom Dwan is a “mystery”.

Dan Cates: It’s pretty frustrating. He hasn’t been communicating with me much at all lately. I have no idea what he’s up to.

Is this news about him no longer being sponsored by Full Tilt Poker worrying to you at all?

Somewhat, but what can I say? Supposedly he gets into some of the best games in the world. Hopefully he can beat them.

Are you afraid the whole challenge thing could fall apart or do you think it will continue? What does Dwan say when you ask him to play?

Tom doesn’t really respond. I offered to settle on multiple occasions but he declined. Strange, guess things just didn’t go as planned for him so he’s focusing on other things.

Why do think he’s not playing you?

No money? I don’t know. Busy? He’s a mystery at this point.

What are your plans for dealing with the situation? What would you like to see happen?

For him to play or cooperate I guess. At least try to communicate with him in the near future. Otherwise I don’t know.

What can you do if he continues to be unresponsive?

I’m not sure. He has some incentive to respond now.

What’s it like with this situation dragging on? Is it something that’s on your mind every day?

No it’s pointless to think about it every day. durrrr is just being disrespectful at best at this point and I’m not sure what to do about it.

What are the most likely outcomes in your mind?

I literally have no idea. Seems like the chance he just goes broke and f***s over everyone is certainly a possibility.

I can’t say if that’s higher chance than him making a bunch of money and ultimately settling in some way though.

I guess the latter is most possible considering it’s hard to go completely broke in terms of not having money or connections. He sort of has to settle or it will ruin his reputation entirely.

Beating juicy Macau games shouldn’t be too difficult. I don’t know where else he gets the money but he’s involved in all kinds of durrrr stuff I hear.