Bill Perkins started to reveal that he was cheated out of huge sums of cash in a private poker game, firstly comparing it to the Postle scandal but then later reigning that in after some discussion. Bill initially tweeted a mysterious statement that claimed…

Cheating scandal in poker going on that would make the Mike Postle scandal look like a church service. Really hard to wrap my head around. I’m very disappointed in many people. Some you would call poker heroes. 1 person/pro showed integrity others failed miserably #POKER

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

Perkins Adds More Details

“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”

This had the whole Poker world in “Who Did It?” mode, with the claim that this was a top 7 Pro, there aren’t many players that it could have been.

Then in comes Dan Bilzerian who isn’t afraid to shame the player for a second…

So there it is, we know a little more information, Dan Jungleman Cates has been back at it again and ghosting rich whales accounts.

For anyone that isn’t familiar with what the term Ghosting means, it’s when someone helps another player with their decisions. There have been many scandals through the years where rich amateurs have all of a sudden got really good at the game and won a lot of money and this seems to be the case here.

Sina Taleb who is an Energy Businessman reportedly but other than that we know very little about him, probably a friend of Bill Perkins that was the fish in this all-star game.

After losing huge to these guys he decided to outsource some help, he apparently turned to Pro Jason Koon who declined the offer to ghost the account and play for Sina, however, Dan Cates apparently took this offer up and must have started winning pretty big for this to all boil over like this.

Dan released this statement via his twitter:
“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. 

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.  

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.

I’d also like to give gratitude to my friends and the people that supported me on the internet and other communications. Your efforts were vital to mitigating this situation and I appreciate your concern for me. Special thanks to Nick Schulman who contacted me to make sure I was ok and started the #Freejungle movement. 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.”

So there it is, Dan Cates admits to his mistake of taking part in mulit-accounting again after being caught red handed it would seem. Since his apology, he has been bombarded with many Pro’s ridiculing him with the always outspoken saying that “Others doing it is no excuse to do it” which I fully agree with, it’s a very childish excuse from the Jungle who is known for his child-like ways.

He later posted this tweet:

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

What’s Next for the Jungle?

Well he hasn’t broken any laws as such, but this will definitely hurt his image in the Poker community and hinder his career. However, many other top Pros have come to his defence saying things like “Show me one poker player that has never watched over someone’s games and helped them with spots and decisions”. This is a good point, however, I think when you take over someones play entirely on an account that is from a recreational player to profit on the extra action that player is getting due to their skill level, then that’s a whole new ball game.

The question lingers, will this affect his heads up challenge against Phil Galfond? Will Phil want to have his new poker site tainted with this blatant cheater… time will tell.