Dan “Jungleman” Cates has taken his nickname rather literally at the inaugural African Poker Championship in Tanzania.
The two-time WSOP bracelet winner appeared at the Le Grande Casino in Dar es Salaam wearing a leopard-print jacket and elaborate big-cat face paint as he played the $1,000 APC Main Event. It was unmistakably Jungleman, although Cates has not publicly explained exactly which animal or character the paint was supposed to represent.
For a player who has previously turned up at major poker tournaments dressed as Goku, “Macho Man” Randy Savage and the Terminator, it was also completely on brand.
This time, though, the setting may be every bit as interesting as the outfit.
Jungleman Heads to Tanzania
Tanzania rarely appears on the usual international poker circuit alongside Las Vegas, Barcelona, Monte Carlo, Jeju or Cyprus.
Yet Cates was sitting in Dar es Salaam this week playing a serious tournament festival that has attracted players from across Africa and much further afield.
The newly established African Poker Championship is running at Le Grande Casino from September 24 through October 4. The inaugural series was launched with more than $500,000 in guaranteed prize pools and is powered by the Monster Jam Poker Tour, which was founded by South African poker figure Marc Joseph.
Cates arrived late during the final Main Event starting flight and immediately found himself on the streamed feature table. His first attempt did not last, but Jungleman re-entered and quickly made the second bullet rather more productive.
Tianyi Wen became one of his victims when Cates made quads. By the end of the flight, Cates had turned his second 100,000-chip starting stack into 139,500 and secured a place on Day 2.
Anyone unfamiliar with Cates beyond the latest costume can read our full Dan “Jungleman” Cates profile, including the high-stakes online career that produced the nickname in the first place.
The face paint appeared on Day 2, along with the leopard-print jacket. The live stream later showed Cates down to 55,000 chips at the 2,000/4,000 blind level, leaving him with just 14 big blinds and considerably less room to manoeuvre than his appearance suggested.
African Poker Championship Beats Its Main Event Guarantee
Cates may provide the recognisable face, but the first APC has developed into a substantial tournament in its own right.
Late registration eventually pushed the Main Event to 256 entries and a $215,040 prize pool, comfortably clearing its $200,000 guarantee. By late on October 3, the field had been reduced to 39 players, with Panayiotis Giannakopoulos, Xianbin Li, Jonathan Hyman, Tutu Russon and Aidan Jacobs among the biggest stacks.
The festival has already produced some sizeable results away from the Main Event. Italy’s Mattia Festa won the $3,000 High Roller for $56,000, while Tanzania-based Dan Zvonaru finished third for $20,000.
The Main Event concludes on October 4, alongside the remaining events on the inaugural APC schedule.
Poker in Tanzania Didn’t Start This Week
For many poker fans, the more surprising part of the story may simply be discovering that Tanzania has an established live tournament scene.
Dar es Salaam has quietly been hosting recorded poker festivals for several years. The Hendon Mob database lists events at Le Grande Casino going back to the Dar Poker Masters in 2022, followed by further editions in 2023, 2024 and 2025 and two Grand Slam festivals.
The numbers have also been growing.
April’s 2026 Dar Poker Masters Grand Slam included a TSh3 million High Roller that attracted 92 entries. Its TSh237.36 million prize pool was worth roughly $91,000, with India’s Praful Patwa taking the title.
Local players regularly appear among the results alongside travelling players from South Africa, India, China and Europe. Tanzania’s Luqman A, Shao Daudi and Tindi Ketan are among the players with multiple recorded cashes at Le Grande.
That makes the African Poker Championship less of a poker tournament suddenly dropped into an unlikely destination and more of an attempt to build an international series around a scene that was already developing.
Cates turning up certainly helps people notice it.
Jungleman Has Been Dressing Up for Years
The face paint also continues one of poker’s stranger modern traditions.
Cates famously reached the final table of the 2021 $50,000 WSOP Poker Players Championship dressed as Dragon Ball character Goku. He did more than provide a memorable photograph, winning the tournament for $954,020 and his first bracelet.
A year later he returned to defend the title as professional wrestling legend “Macho Man” Randy Savage. Cates stayed in character and, remarkably, won again, defeating Yuri Dzivielevski for $1,449,103 to become the first player to win the Poker Players Championship in consecutive years.
His attempt at a third straight title in 2023 began with another transformation. Cates arrived as the Terminator, complete with face paint, sunglasses, gloves and a leather jacket.
Poker Type readers have seen the less theatrical version of Cates too. He recently finished as the biggest winner during an episode covered in our Jennifer Tilly and Hellmuth’s Home Game story.
So the Tanzania look isn’t exactly a radical departure. It might actually be one of his more restrained outfits!
When Catgirl Played Poker in Body Paint
Cates is not, however, the first poker player to discover that paint can technically double as tournament clothing.
Back in 2008, Russian former gymnast Alina “Catgirl” Salnikova was preparing to play the televised PartyPoker World Open IV in London. Her original plan was far more ambitious: play the tournament naked.
Channel 5, which was due to broadcast the event in the UK, vetoed the idea.
Salnikova responded by appearing in body paint instead and then sitting down in an $8,000 buy-in heat containing Dave “Devilfish” Ulliott, Surinder Sunar, John Tabatabai, Ian Woodley and Liam Flood.
It wasn’t merely a publicity appearance either. Catgirl finished second in her heat, with Flood beating her to the automatic qualification spot. Marty Smyth eventually won the tournament and its $250,000 top prize.
Almost two decades later, Jungleman has unintentionally revived one of televised poker’s more unusual fashion choices.
The difference is that nobody seems particularly surprised when Dan Cates does it anymore.
And if an American high-stakes legend in leopard print and full face paint gets a few more poker fans looking towards a growing tournament scene in Tanzania, the first African Poker Championship probably won’t complain.
