Daniel "w00ki3z." Cates is an American professional poker player, born and raised in Bowie, Maryland.
As a child, he was obsessed with video games, especially Command and Conquer, which Dan spent most of his free time in his parents basement playing. In an interview with the New York Times, Cates says that he was one of the best Command and Conquer players in world by the age of 15.
Apparently that wasn't the only game Cates had talent for, when he was 17 he started to play poker online. Within 10 months Cates went from the micro stakes and $0,25/50 to the high stakes $25/50. That's something that requires, a lot of skills, insane number hands and some luck a long the way.
Cates first made a name for himself when playing on Full Tilt as "jungleman12", a NLHE Heads up specialist that destroyed his opposition. Dan has begun to play PLO as well with good results. One would think this has a lot to do with the vast majority of high stakes players are playing PLO these days.
Black Friday affected Dan more than most, he currently resides in London England after being denied residency in Canada, due to issues with his Visa. At one point he had millions of dollars stuck on Full Tilt.
Read our interview with Cates from May 2012 here.
When not playing poker, Dan also works as a coach for pokerstrategy.
Dan talks about ”Black Friday” in this video interview