Online Poker News and Gossip: Cates Owed $1.9m and Yu Throws Down the Gauntlet to Veldhuis and Benger

cates-owed-1-9mOnline poker news sees Daniel Cates outing David Lerner as the biggest scumbag on earth, and Ben Yu issues a challenge to Griffin Benger and Lex Veldhuis,

When I see Lex Veldhuis and Bertrand ‘ElkY’ Grospellier squaring up against each other I start painting my nails, and when I see Andrew Robl and JC Alvarado preparing for a scrap I tune into the Antiques Roadshow.

Boring shmoring!

If you really want to get my loins stirring then why not set up a Texas Bull Rope match between Daniel ‘Jungleman’ Cates and David ‘PerkyShmerky’ Lerner, with David ‘viffer’ Peat as the guest referee?

Now that’s what I call a fight.

I love the Jungleman because he is one of the few poker players who doesn’t have a societal filter. The thoughts that slip and slide around that super-charged brain of his never end up on the cutting room floor, and this makes him a poker media magnet.

In his recent outpouring of truth Cates revealed in an interview with iGaming.org that David Lerner owes him $1.9m after he cross-booked him whilst playing a few sessions of $300/600 online. In the first session Cates lost $460,000 and immediately wired him the money, then in the next session Cates destroyed him for $1.1m and Lerner jumped ship.

He has never returned what Cates says is around $1.9m in losses.

That interview contained the words ‘Biggest Scumbag on Earth’ and ‘Dumbass’ and I will let you decide who deserves to have which title stitched into their t-shirt.

Ben ‘benyu’ Yu Challenges Lex ‘RasZi’ Veldhuis and Griffin ‘Flush_Entity’ Benger to War Games

There are differing ways that you can get into the poker community, but one of the most common seems to be the route from online gaming to online gambling.

Two of the very best online gamers in the business are Lex ‘RasZi’ Veldhuis and Griffin ‘Flush_Entity’ Benger – or perhaps I should use the past tense when I talk about their levels of ability in the online gaming scene.

At one time Benger was one of the kings of Counter Strike a first person shooter that sees teams of people try and kill the crap out of each other in terrorists versus counter terrorists action; while Veldhuis is a rather formidable player in Dota 2, a multiplayer online battle game where you also kill the crap out of each other albeit in a more fantasy based gaming environment.

Recent Mini FTOPS final tablist Ben ‘benyu’ Yu believes he has what it takes to pulverize the both of them and has issued a tongue in cheek challenge to the pair during a recent interview with PocketFives.

I sat down with Benger in the summer to talk about his Counter Strike abilities and this is what he had to say:

“I am completely disconnected from the gaming community because I am so invested in the poker community. In a game like Counter Strike there is always some 17-year old kid who is playing so many more hours than you.”

So perhaps the smart money is on Yu, but challenging RasZi? I’m not sure that’s wise. The last time somebody did that he nearly took their head clean off.