Doug Polk Leaves Las Vegas After Achieving Poker's Ultimate Dream
3 years ago29 Mar
He came, he saw, he conquered⌠and now itâs time for Doug Polk to leave Las Vegas for pastures new, the undisputed king of highstakes online HUNL revealing his decision on TwitterâŚ
That decade in Nevadaâs iconic City of Lights has been filled with incredible stories, victories against the worldâs best, $millions won at the poker tables, and controversies that have made Polk a household name in the poker community.
Starting out as a Warcraft3 player, his screen name "WCGRider" followed him into online poker, his love for the cards seeing him drop out of college and move to Vegas at the age of 19.
Like many before him, it wasnât the immediate success heâd dreamed of, Doug even contemplating quitting the game before things turned around. Along with his Evil Empire buddies, Ryan Fee, Jason Mo, Donger Kim and Jason Les, the fearsome crew mauled the high-stakes games online.
Working his way up the stakes, within a few years he was playing and beating the best HUNL players in the world, a highly-publicised match against Ben âSauce123â Sulsky confirming his status when he took $800k from his rival.
With no-one willing to chance their bankroll against him, Doug turned to live tournaments, and soon proved he could mix it with the best there as well.
In 2014 he had five 6-figure cashes, including his first WSOP gold bracelet, and topped the year off with victory in the second Super High Roller Bowl, a win worth $1,648,350.
Founding Upswing Poker in 2015 along with Ryan Fee, it was soon transformed from âa blog offering free preflop charts to the world's biggest poker training companyâ.
A high profile match as part of a humans against AI poker showdown saw the carbon life-forms emerge victorious â this time at least â and Polk was becoming a celebrity of sorts in a game looking for heroes.
His victory in the $111,111 buy-in High Roller for One Drop brought him more WSOP jewellery and his career best cash in 2017, a $3,686,865 scoop when he defeated Bertrand âElkYâ Grospelier heads-up.
By this time, the self-confident, often brash, Polk had started what would become a very successful YouTube channel, his original trailer showing what to expectâŚ
Mixing hand reviews with poker news, or rather âPolkerâ news, his witty and slick production soon gained a huge following. It also brought along its critics and trolls, especially when Polk took aim at some of the highest-profile players in the industry.
Online fights with Jason Mercier, Tom Dwan, Cate Hall, Ben Tollerene, Luke Schwartz, âJNandezâ and most notably Daniel Negreanu ensued, all caught in the crosshairs of Dougâs âtake no prisonersâ approach to YouTube âjournalismâ.
That latter feud, oiled by countless swipes at the Canadian legend, ultimately led to the recent Grudge Match of the Century, with Polk taking $1.2million from Negreanu as they settled their differences.
By this time Polk had already âofficially retiredâ from playing poker, and it looks unlikely he will change that status now that Vegas is soon to be a distant memory.
A series of tweets revealed his new life away from Vegas still doesnât have a destination.
âNot totally sure yet, probably AustinâŚSold my place and figuring it outâŚits almost all packed and whatnot at this point.â
As for what comes next, itâs unclear if poker will play any serious part in Polkâs life, but among the fansâ ideas for what he should do was this rather enticing ideaâŚ
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