Cates Challenge Match cancelled in favor of cash-game

Posted by Steve Ruddock on Dec 03, 2011 Posted in High Stakes Poker News, Live Poker News | No Comments »

I can’t say that I’m surprised that nobody decided to accept the heads-up challenge issued by Daniel “jungleman12” Cates that would have pitted the young poker phenom in a live heads-up €200/€400 No Limit Holdem game, with a minimum buy-in of $100,000 (the match was slated to take place during the EPT Prague tournament series).

With no incentive other than a little Internet exposure and some WWE-style Championship belt (really???), not even the most egocentric poker pros, could find much equity in taking on one of the top heads-up NLHE specialists in the world, so the challenge match has now been cancelled according to the match’s organizers ThePokerFarm.com.

In its place The Poker Farm will be hosting a €50/€100 NLHE cash-game that will be streamed live. Even with the reduced stakes, and the full-ring format, only two players have reserved a seat alongside Cates, Luke “FullFlush” Schwartz (who was slated to be on the “Under-Card” of Cates Heads-Up match) and Danish poker pro Alexander “AlexKP” Petersen.

Cates is still doing a lot of chess-thumping about the heads-up challenge match which he originally announced with following machismo: “As someone who loves the game, I think the poker world deserves to know who the best poker player on the planet is. I’m confident that’s me. If anyone has the nerve to take me on, let them come to me at the table,”

With the match now cancelled, Cates feelings towards his potential opponents haven’t seemed to change: “I’ll play heads-up of I’ll play a ring-game. It’s just so cringe if these guys call themselves sharks and then run and hide,”

It should be pointed out that other players who have issued “Open” Challenge Matches have provided their opponents with excellent incentives, such as Tom Dwan offering a 3-to-1 overlay on a $500k bet to his opponents AND the option to choose either PLO or No Limit Holdem. Even Viktor Blom’s challenge matches on PokerStars saw the young Swede (or more likely PokerStars) offer a $10k overlay to the winner. Cates is merely offering a cheesy “Championship” belt and a live stream on the Poker Farm website.

If Cates truly believes he is the best player in the world than he should give any potential opponents a reason to prove otherwise: I’m sure Cates would have shied away from accepting the Durrrr Challenge had he not received the 3-to-1 overlay, so to now say that the money shouldn’t matter, and the prestige is what’s important seems a bit odd to me.