This week on the Pokercast we are joined by High stakes reg and most recent isildur1 challenge participant Daniel Cates.

Lots to talk about with him including the Durrr challenge, the match with Isildur1 and the state of the high stakes games online.

If you have any questions you would like to hear Daniel answer, please post them below.

The Pokercast will be recorded on Monday night and posted in our forum and on ITunes Tuesda morning.

FYI, this thread will be heavily modded. Please, no-content posts or you will be infracted.

would he take the same challenge rules that he has in the Durrr challenge but against Isildur1? If yes, who would he rather play of the 2 and if no why not?

What he did when he initially lost alot of his roll to Isildur1 to improve and come back up again?

This

(sorry if this is no-content, just wanted to voice my support for this question because it's something I'd like asked)

It seems like your challenge with durrrr is taking a long time to complete, a situation which has plagued his matches with Patrik as well. At the beginning of last month, the impression was given that the challenge would be completed within mere days, but that didn't happen. Obviously, there's a lot of other action away from the challenge that takes focus away.

There's been a lot of talk on the forums about loss of interest in the Patrik vs. durrrr challenge at this point. Do you worry that people will simply lose interest in the match-up if the sessions don't complete in a reasonable amount of time, or is there some kind of edge for either of you in waiting such a long time between sessions?

Do you ever get a nasty pit feeling inside your stomach like you can't beat someone? If so, how do you handle it? How do you handle not tilting in general when you play HU? I find I tilt a lot more in HU matches than FR.

do you share profits with Urnotindanger2? How do you both cooperate in general regarding strategy etc?

According to durr, you often ask him to play with you in the "durr challenge" right after he finishes a long session. Since this is durr's side of the story, could you tell us to what extent is his claim true? Why do you think this challenge is taking so long?

Generally curious about his thoughts regarding his very limited live experience so far

1) What did you do different than most current SSNL and MSNL players that made you improve and move up stakes so quickly?

2) What advice would you give to players stuck at the SSNL level who are trying to improve?

how has your sucess afected your relationship with your (non poker) friends?

Do you and urnotindanger2 share bankrolls, you stake him or something like that?

Did you sell parts of your action when playing the 250k?

You have strongly advocated using a HUD while other top players such like patrik, durrr, ivey don't. Do you think they are passing up on an edge by simply not using one? Or do you specifically utilize the information from the HUD like no one else? (ie it wouldn't even matter if they used the HUD because they wouldn't be using it the same way you do?)

PA said lately in an Interview that the highstakes games are drying up and he moves to different games and plays the specialists in their best game. Same goes for Phil Galfond when he blogged about learning 2-7 or 8Game in general.

You're extraordinarily successful with NLHU, do you see a similar drought and, if thats the case, do you try to learn different games, 2-7, 8Game or the like, and how would/do you approach a new game.

Ball park of how many hours he has played and how many hours of study would be interesting imo. I'd bet it'd be some super sicko amount of time.

P.s. love the show guys keep up the good work!

i have wondered this also..

and..

1. in a time when most people believe the games are getting too hard to beat you have risen to the top in an extremely short time. do you believe it was your natural ability/intelligence/talent that allowed for this or was it because of something you did differently from everyone else in your preperation/learning process?

2. as advice to ss/ms hu players who aspire to play at a high level someday do you suggest taking severe bankroll hits by chasing down and playing regulars over many tables for many hands at their given stakes to improve quickly? or is it better to grind it up by bumhunting at a level until you feel like you can beat the fish/have the bankroll for the next level in order to maintain a steady growth rate in your skill level and bankroll?

3. even though you have only recently ventured into the plo world, how have you been able to learn the new game so quickly and maintain a very high win rate while playing more experienced players who are considered some of the best plo players in the world?

4. do you feel like you would have an edge on in the following situations?
: playing ivey on 2 hu nl tables?
: playing ivey on 2 hu plo tables?
: playing tom on 2 plo and 2 nl tables?
: playing blom on 8 hu nl tables?
: playing blom on 6 plo tables?

If you had to stick your net worth on one player other than yourself to take the Isildur Superstar Showdown and win, who would it be? And why?

1. When making a decision to whether put money into the pot by raising, folding or calling...what things do you consider and in what order?

2. For poker players still in the micros...what games do you think are the softest? MTTs? 9man sngs? 90man sngs? 180man turbos? HU sngs? 6max cash games?

3. If you went busto and had $1000 to start with again, which games would you play to get back into the nosebleeds?

4. The top 3 players that give you the most difficulty HU?

5. The top 3 players that you have had the most profits against or run well against?

Projected end date of Durrrr challenge? Will they pick up the pace anytime soon?

You are studying, or at least were studying, economics at Maryland. What would you say the biggest aspect of your game is, that you took/learned from economics?

Imagine its your first hand playing vs isildur HU and you call his 3bet in positio with 88.

The board comes A92 rainbow. How many streets are you calling assuming the turn and river are both sixes?

Whos your best friend and worst enemy " in poker, ldo " ?

He stated before on 2p2 that anyone that doesn't use a HUD is drawing dead vs him over a large sample. Can you get him to elaborate on this.

If you had to divide your success in the nosebleeds in 3 parts Psychology, Agility (adapting to villain) and Math, what would the distribution be?

if all you had right now was $100 in your ftp account, what would u do with it? which games would u play? BRM strategy? how long do u believe it would take u to go from $100 to say $200k to play 25/50+?

how good do u think ur plo game is right now? comparing to guys who you've played alot?

What can you do about durrrr taking so long to play you in the durrrr challange?

What are you going to do about durrrr taking so long to play you in the durrrrr challange?

What are you going to do if durrrr keeps delaying to the point of the challange not being finished in the next 10+ years?

Did you put anything into place to stop durrrr simply not playing the durrrr challange if for example there are 5,000 hands left to play and you are up massive, but durrrr keeps delaying because he doesn't want to have to pay up?

Do you think being a good poker player is about solely playing the game well? Or do you also believe that to be a good poker player you need to have tilt control and bankroll management?

Based on last answer, how good at poker do you think viktor blom is?

Do you think Viktor Blom has a big enough edge to beat the high stakes games, despite tilting regularly? Basically do you think his edge (if he has any) makes up for his tilt?

Can you start some nosebleed ring games on fulltilt? Your hottest online player in the world, why not sit in some ring games and wait for people?

Do you play in the nosebleed live cash games with Ivey ect and if so how are you doing in them?

Can we expect you to win many wsop bracelets in the future?