‘A Casual Milly’ Ends A BIG $1.7M Downswing

(Photo: Cardschat.com)

The signs weren’t encouraging at all and the poker gods were as ruthless as ever. Yet high-roller Doug Polk aka ‘WCGRider’ sticked with it and his grind eventually paid off in a big way finally ending his huge downswing.

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Welcome to Do(u)g’s World!

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And like in the tales of old, it all started with the whole universe siding against him. In today’s poker world, we called this state of things DOWNSWING.

A $1.7 Million Downswing

Most of us can’t quite handle a decent downswing, that’s why there are very few at the top of poker ladder. And you know what? Polk has definitely reached that ultimate level after being not once but twice the subject of a major downswing.

In his latest YouTube video, WCGRider talked extensively about downswings and how poker players should deal with them. He also talked about his experience with this inevitable dark period and how he managed to get through.

From the video, we’ve learned Polk had two major downswings in his life - the first one happened immediately after Black Friday. Full Tilt went down and with it, the bankrolls of many, many poker players including WCGRider. Of course, back then, Doug didn’t know whether he would ever get his money back so that definitely affected his way of thinking about the game. He also started losing on other sites and as a result, the most part of his ‘net worth’ was gone. He did recover though after moving to Vancouver and resuming his online grind.

The second and his most recent downswing was worth around $1.7 million and lasted almost a year and a half, dating back to the 2015 Spring Championship Of Online Poker (SCOOP). According to Polk, during the last dark period, he played a lot of high-stakes tournaments without any major cashes - except maybe the 2016 SCOOP-43 High bink and the Mountain series $700 Kilimanjaro - and also grinded his usual online high-stakes cash games.

The start of this year’s World Championship Of Online Poker (WCOOP) was more of the same for WCGRider. Nothing seemed to really work… until well, the $10,300 High Roller happened last month. He finished second and cashed in $455,000 for his efforts. Polk also broke a Twitch record for the largest sum ever won during a live Twitch stream.

However, his biggest and meanest poker cash at the 2016 WCOOP happened days later in the Main Event. And surprisingly, it has nothing to do with Polk actually sitting and playing on the virtual colorful felt, in front of thousands and thousands of poker fans.

Poker Staking Pays Off Big For Doug Polk

In fact, a so called horse - the common term used in poker for those staked who aren’t investing their own money to play - did the job for him. And boy, what a job he made by winning the WCOOP event with the largest prize pool - over $10 million. Yes we’re talking about German standout Jonas 'llJaYJaYll' Lauck who shipped the tourney and over $1.5 million with it.

Immediately after winning the Main Event, many rumors emerged that Polk actually backed Lauck and won a share of the big $1.5 million prize. The rumors were confirmed by Polk in one of his videos that announced his $1.7 million downswing was finally over.

The high roller didn’t want to talk about specific numbers and how much he got from backing the 2016 WCOOP Main Event winner but he did say ‘it was a damn good WCOOP.’ On Twitter however, a certain fact transpired, specifically ‘a casual milly.’

Biggest Twitch score, my 2 largest streams, and banged off a casual milly. Calling this trip a success. GG #WCOOP and headed back to America

— gN Doug Polk (@DougPolkPoker) September 28, 2016

When a follower asked WCGRider where was that ‘milly’ from, he answered as casually as ever:

@Collybear1990 had large piece of WCOOP main winner

— gN Doug Polk (@DougPolkPoker) September 29, 2016

So there you have it poker fans: $455,000 plus $1 million sums up to almost $1.5 million in the course of a month.

Bye, bye downswing and welcome back (hopefully for Doug) upswing.

What About Doug Polk’s Bankroll Challenge?

And since we are talking about upswings, let’s also take a moment and mentioned some facts about his online poker challenge from $100 to $10,000 on his site UpswingPoker.com.

If we look at his graph, he’s also on quite a downswing there. He did manage to pass the $500 mark after just nine days but beyond that, his bankroll took a big hit down to $137.

This particular downswing could be over as well but not until the month of November. According to Polk, this month he won’t be able to put up the necessary volume to continue the challenge as he will travel to Las Vegas - where he has plans to deliver some new and exciting poker content - and Chicago - where he will play live poker.

In November however, he will resume the $100 to $10,000 challenge so be sure to get your popcorn ready till then because the swings are about to come back. And also be sure to check PokerTube regularly to find out more about what Doug Polk has been up to.