Daniel Cates finds himself in the middle of an online cheating scandal.

Daniel “Jungleman12″ Cates had one of the most meteoric rises in poker history. From out of nowhere, a then teen-aged online poker player went from micro-stakes to nosebleeds in the span of a few months. His climb to the top of the high stakes world was impressive, but not long after him came another young phenom, Jose Macedo, who climbed the ranks in short order.

Known, at first, as the Portuguese Poker Prodigy, Macedo went from low stakes to high stakes, all before his 18th birthday. His arrival was celebrated in a now famous thread on TwoPlusTwo. The poker world later learned that Macedo had actually been receiving coaching from Cates for nearly a year.

Following Black Friday, Cates, along with Haseeb Qureshi, the player who introduced Macedo to Cates, planned to move to Portugal to live with the prodigy and continue their online poker careers. Over the last week, however, the poker world has been shocked to learn that Macedo was scamming a number of high stakes regulars, causing a number of people to question Cates’ involvement, Qureshi’s role, the relationship between the three players and whether or not “Jose Macedo” even exists.

BluffMagazine.com talked with Cates to get his side of this story and ask him about his relationship with both Macedo and Qureshi.

BLUFF: At what point did you first hear about Jose possibly being involved in scamming people ?

CATES: I think about a week ago “kjemmy” messaged me on Facebook and said he thought Jose may be involved in a scam. He gave me a long list of details. I asked Haseeb about it, although, to be honest, I did not think it was possible that Jose was scamming.

Based on what exactly?

I had just thought he was a straight up guy. A couple of people told me he was very trustworthy.

What was your reaction once you realized that Jose was, in fact, scamming people?

My reaction was a mix of ‘How does this make sense?’ and ‘What was he thinking?’. I feel like there is some gap in my understanding of Jose. (I) wasn’t sure what to think of him after I learned of it.

For people who aren’t familiar with the high stakes poker world, how common is it to back or coach somebody you’ve never met in person? Do any safety protocols exist for situations like this?

Pretty common for online poker, backing, etc. mostly has to do with reputation, results, mutual friends and perhaps some other things. Safety protocols do not really exist. I believe they don’t really exist because of the implied threat of something like this happening to the reputation of the stakee.

So how does this impact your relationship with Haseeb?

Honestly, I truly believe Haseeb had good intentions. He has helped Jose a lot and it’s really frustrating for him to watch Jose just throw everything away like this. He has been a good friend and helped me with my career as well. I don’t think Haseeb deserves all the shit he is getting.

Also, I am 100% certain there was no sort of scheme to scam people or whatever.

You mean, from Haseeb?

From Haseeb and myself. Jose’s scam was his own doing.

So then do you think your association with him, in terms of this incident, is overblown?

Maybe. I havent thought about it that much. He is my friend though.

Many have speculated that Jose is just a face/name attached to the account and maybe Haseeb or others were playing on the account. We know of at least one instance where this Haseeb played on Jose’s account. How can you be 100% certain that Jose is the one playing all of the hands on that account?

I am very certain that all hands played on Jose’s account are from him (unless Jose has allowed others to play on his account) except for the one instance in where Haseeb admitted to playing on his account. Almost certainly, over 95% of the hands are Jose’s.

When Jose was disqualified from the BLUFF Poker Challenge on Lock Poker, did you know it was Haseeb who had played on the account?

Yes, but I did not want to get involved. I know it was not a habit.

You and Haseeb had plans to meet up and live with Jose in Portugal. Do you still want to meet him or just wash your hands of him entirely?

If I want to meet him now, it’s for an explanation and for my money back. I know for a fact that I took action versus one of the two names of his friend (sauron1989, dollarman) so it seems likely that he has scammed me as well.

So what does this do to your reputation and how do you go about it changing that or repairing the damage?

Well, once again, it was Jose that did wrong, not me. Perhaps not trust people I do not know more thoroughly in the future?

You have to admit, that your image has taken a bit of a hit here simply because of your connection to him, no?

Sure, as to how much, I don’t know specifically. I hope not too much.

Is there any part of you that is at all suspect of Haseeb and Jose’s relationship?

No. Haseeb knew that 2+2 would blowup once he heard about the scam, he wanted to minimize damage. Turns out that completely backfired.

BLUFF will have an exclusive interview with Qureshi on BluffMagazine.com later Wednesday evening. Be sure to check back then or follow us on Twitter @BluffMagazine to get the latest news.

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