Doug Polk

Californian Polk, born at the end of 1988 in Pasadena, has not only become one of the world’s best players, but also a leading light in the poker vlogging and training worlds.

Californian Polk, born at the end of 1988 in Pasadena, has not only become one of the world’s best players, but also a leading light in the poker vlogging and training worlds.

He started out as an eSports player before poker took over his life while at college, where he gave up his degree to concentrate on poker full-time after running up an initial $20 deposit into more than $10K.

Within a few years he had become a specialist in heads-up NLHE and challenged the king of heads-up, Ben ‘Sauce123’ Sulsky to a series of matches totalling more than 15,000 hands in the autumn of 2013, at the end of which Polk was up a staggering $740,000. This also entitled him to the $100,000 side-stake for winning.

His online game was honed as part of the self-styled ‘Evil Empire’ crew alongside fellow high-stakes players Ryan Fee and Jason Mo, with Donger Kim and Jason Les as close associates, the crew sharing ideas and strategies to conquer the world of poker.

Although primarily noted for his online mastery under the name ‘WCGRider’, Polk’s live tournament winnings also stand at over $5million, and in 2015 he started up the training site Upswing Poker along with close friend Ryan Fee.

He was also part of the 4-man team to face the AI poker program Claudico in the first of several challenge matches, emerging as the biggest winner – although more recently a superior version of Claudico gained its revenge, Polk not being part of the losing team on that occasion.

Around the same time, Polk decided to start streaming and vlogging – and his intro ‘What’s up guys, Doug Polk here’ has become synonymous with excellent hand analysis and rather controversial views on fellow pros and events in the poker world’.

Polk’s outspokenness on certain subjects has led to many calling him arrogant, but he has developed a huge following in spite of, or perhaps because of, very public disagreements with the likes of Daniel Negreanu, Jason Mercier and others.

His beef with Negreanu started when Daniel claimed he could beat the $25/50 NLHE stakes with only 2 weeks of practice, which Polk described as “naïve”, whereas in Mercier’s case the falling out centred around Polk having him tagged as a ‘bad reg’ in his online tournament notes.

More recently he came under fire from English pro Luke Schwartz, who claimed among other things that Polk is a losing player online and therefore his training courses on Upswing Poker are a ‘scam’.

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11 years ago23,637BestPokerVids,

Published 11 years ago

Aussie Millions 2014: High Stakes Cash - Ep4

Paul Phua, Phil Ivey, Patrik Antonius, Doug Polk and other big name pros continue to battle it out in the super high stakes cash g...

11 years ago8,856ThePokerAces,

Published 11 years ago

Aussie Millions 2014 Cash Game: Doug Polk vs Phil Ivey

Doug 'WCGRider' Polk and Phil Ivey battling it out during Aussie Millions 2014 cash game

11 years ago5,974Bellagio1,

Published 11 years ago

WCOOP Event 23 - $10K 8-Max High Roller

$10,300 WCOOP High Roller final table with 'Sauce123' and Doug 'WCGRider' Polk

11 years ago8,121ThePokerAces,

Published 11 years ago

Doug Polk Barreling in a Big Pot Against Paul Phua

Phua and Polk involved in a big pot during Aussie Millions Cash Game

11 years ago8,998ThePokerAces,

Published 11 years ago

Aussie Millions Cash Game: Antonius and Polk in a Huge Pot

Big river decision for Patrik Antonius

10 years ago5,934BestPokerVids,

Published 10 years ago

Man vs Machine - BBC Report on Claudico vs Best HU Players

Claudico against the best heads-up players in the world

10 years ago18,429BestPokerVids,

Published 10 years ago

Brains vs AI - Polk and Dr. Sandholm Audience Q&A

Doug Polk and Dr. Tuomas Sandholm answering questions of the audience after completed match with the No Limit Hold'em bot Claudico

9 years ago9,725BestPokerVids,

Published 9 years ago

What Separates the Good vs the Best Poker Players?

Doug Polk explains what separates the simply good poker players and the very best poker players. Polk talks about the number of ta...

9 years ago3,001BestPokerVids,

Published 9 years ago

The Most Common Poker Mistakes

Doug Polk talks about common poker mistakes he sees from both online poker players and live poker players. Game selection is huge ...

9 years ago51,682BestPokerVids,

Published 9 years ago

Big One For One Drop - Kaplan Schools Young Poker Pro

Poker Personality and TV host Gabe Kaplan schools young crusher Doug Polk during the $1million buy-in WSOP Big One For One Drop

Crazy Rapper Brands Poker Pros Racist

Half a dozen of the most liberal pros in the poker world found themselves under attack by the rapper Talib Kweli, who seemed hell-bent on calling everybody a racist.

Libratus Wins HPCWire Award for Defeating Poker Pros

The poker playing AI software Libratus won the HPCWire Award in the “Best Use of AI” category at the SC17 supercomputing conference in Denver.

Polk Slams Berkey Over Failed Live at The Bike Appearance

Doug Polk’s YouTube broadside this week against fellow highstakes pro Matt Berkey for not appearing at a big cash game has sparked a Twitter storm.

‘Cowardly Piece of Shit’ Negreanu Accuses Actor Woods of ‘Chasing 16 Year Olds’

Woods is trigger-happy when it comes to taking legal action when he doesn’t like what people are saying about him, and his dig at Negreanu might not be an empty threat.

Live Poker Events, 7 years ago

Dan Colman Claims King of the Hill III Title and $200K

A new King of the Hill emerged from the four poker professionals who competed in the third edition of the heads-up elimination contest.

The World Poker Tour and ELC Gaming Unite for an E-Sports/Poker Festival

Ourgame’s World Poker Tour and ELC Gaming celebrated the first Poker/E-sports festival.

Dan Bilzerian Fires Back at Critics Who Called Him a Coward

Dan Bilzerian responded by posting a photo in which he was seen apparently assisting a first responder.

Poker Players Take to Twitter After Las Vegas Massacre

Reactions have been varied, many tweeting in fear of loved ones while others have used Twitter to spread the call for help. Others yet have already started the expected political ‘discourse’.

Live Poker Events, 8 years ago

First Round Matchups Announced For King of the Hill II

Phil Hellmuth will be hoping for a repeat of the ‘white magic’ which he used to defeat Doug Polk and Dan ‘Jungleman’ Cates last month.

Online Poker , 8 years ago

Ben Tollerene Wins Powerfest $25K Super High Roller For $846,722

Ben ‘CowEyed’ Tollerene fought his way through a star-studded field to emerge victorious in the $25K High Roller event.