Dan ‘Jungleman12’ Cates is no doubt one of the hottest players today. He seems to be on the fast track to poker stardom, especially if he keeps up his stellar online performance and if he begins to make more of a name for himself on the live circuit.

Speaking of the live circuit, he’ll have a major chance to make a name for himself at this year’s WSOP. But even then, Cates is already hitting it big, especially since he finally made ‘The Nuts’, a feature which ranks poker pros who are doing especially great at the moment.

Newcomers to the List

Between being the biggest online winner of last year and winning an additional $1.6 million this 2011 and also constantly beating Durrr at his own game and getting featured in a big time magazine, Dan Cates has managed to make it into this exclusive list.

He’s one of the newcomers to the list, the second one being Vivek Rajkumar who made ninth place. In fact, Rajkumar’s debut actually eclipsed Cates’ debut, mostly because he’s a rank higher.

Rajkumar won quite a lot of money and made a lot of waves in the WPT this year and has raised his total winnings to more than $4 million in his tournament career. What’s interesting though is that if Dan Cates’ performance continues to soar over the next few months and if he does well in this year’s WSOP (which is actually the first one he’s allowed to join), then he’ll probably feel right at home in the exclusive list.

We haven’t seen him perform yet at the live arena, but in this 2011 WSOP, Cates will certainly become one of the most watched players. The skill displayed by this guy definitely sets him apart from other players who treat poker like online roulette and run hot for a few months.

Mainstays on the List

Not surprisingly, the number one player is still Phil Ivey. He’s not much of news maker to be perfectly honest—but that’s only because people have gotten so used to him winning now that it’s hardly anything new.

According to the list, Ivey makes an average of $1 million a month in winnings. Nobody’s likely to shove this pro off his pedestal any time soon. On the other hand, Erik Seidel, previously in 6^th place, soared to the second place this month for his winning the NHUPC.

Jason Mercier, who previously occupied the second spot, has now been bumped to the third place. Tom ‘durrrr’ Dwan, despite having a not-so-stellar month, is still in fourth place.

Dwan is followed by Daniel Negreanu, who managed to prove his worth by winning at the SuperStar Shodown.

Vanessa Selbst is at the sixth spot, followed by Tom Marchese at seventh place, and John Juanda at eighth place. The ones who were completely bumped from the list were Eric Baldwni and Sam Trickett.