 Dan "jungleman1" Cates, one of greatest online poker players in history, a man who won roughly $11.3 million in his lifetime between PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker, answered some questions in a recent interview for CardPlayer.
The 26-year-old poker player gave his thoughts on the state of high stakes poker, both live and online ones. You can find the interview below:
“Brian Pempus: Can you talk about how the recent changes to PokerStars have affected the high-stakes games, in particular the rake structure and rake-back for VIP customers?
Dan Cates: The high-stakes games online currently aren’t that good. It’s rare to see $400-$800 or whatever, but there are some good, big live games. Online poker wasn’t getting any easier, and now they are making it even harder. I don’t think they understand how being a pro works. It’s almost impossible to play one game. I think they are just trying to get more rake, which makes sense [from their end]. The real issue is that they raised the rake by like five times. I mean, it’s still beatable, but not by a massive amount.
BP: I’ve seen you tweet about some high-stakes action in the Philippines. Is that the hotbed for live games these days?
DC: Well, there are some huge games in Asia but I can’t get too specific. There are also mixed games going on the U.S. in a place like Los Angeles, and also Las Vegas. There are big games there sometimes.
BP: During the World Series of Poker, do the biggest games in the world still move to Las Vegas?
DC: Yeah. I will be coming back to Las Vegas. There were some big games last year. I was actually bouncing between tables because I didn’t know which [game] to play. Now I play basically all the games. I know the eight-game [rotation] pretty well.
BP: You said last year that almost no one is crushing it anymore at the nosebleed stakes. Would you say that the games that do run are more competitive than they have ever been?
DC: They are more competitive, but it’s still possible to win. There is a lot of room for improvement still. People were definitely playing much worse in the past. People still do obvious things wrong, in my opinion, but I think do think it’s harder to improve in this environment.
BP: You said in August that you had that really rough session in Manila, losing $5 million [at $2,500-$5,000-$10,000 no-limit hold’em]. Was that your worst losing day in your career?
DC: Not at all actually. In terms of overall amount, yes, but I didn’t have all of myself. If you look at the amount it appears I got destroyed. It was a little bit misleading because in terms of buy-ins it wasn’t that much. I did lose a large amount, but you have to look at buy-ins. It was a huge game, that much is true.
BP: Is it fair to say that these live games, now that we are past the heyday of high-stakes online poker, are playing bigger than they’ve ever been?
DC: I don’t think that’s true, they just happen to be big [from time to time]. Taken as a whole, they’ve gotten smaller too, and a little bit [rarer]. High-stakes cash games don’t last forever; you need enough people who are willing to play big. Five players is a lot, and then somebody quits, and then the game doesn’t run.
BP: What plans do you have for the WSOP?
DC: I’ll probably play the $50,000 tournament, and maybe a couple of others. Those tournaments are always something I could do, because they are quite good. If cash games are running, I’ll be playing those. It’s annoying to have to wake up at noon because the cash games run really late. To keep waking up at that hour, it’s hard because you have [logged] so many hours. Tournaments aren’t my first choice.
BP: Do you have a session length cut-off where you are like, “F—k this, I really shouldn’t be playing anymore”?
DC: (Laughs). Well, if the game is really good, I am not leaving no matter what. I will play forever. I will sleep at the table, which I have done before. Or take naps. If the game is whatever, I will get some sleep.
BP: You’ve been around for a long time now. You are no longer a newcomer to the scene. What keeps you motivated still? Is it just the money? Or is it also something else that keeps you hungry?
DC: It’s not directly about the money…I don’t know, I just like to win. I don’t need a lot to keep me motivated; I just want to win. That’s kind of my goal. Eventually, I want to do things other than poker as well, like business. There is some sort of internal ego at play.”
source: cardplayer.com
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Dan "jungleman1" Cates, one of greatest online poker players in history, a man who won roughly $11.3 million in his lifetime between PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker, answered some questions in a recent interview for CardPlayer. 
