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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8 years ago8,840BestPokerVids,

Published 8 years ago

Poker Hands - Will Kassouf Does it Again!

In honor of William Kassouf's victory in the high roller event of the last ever EPT, Doug Polk breaks down another hand from his i...

8 years ago15,948BestPokerVids,

Published 8 years ago

Poker Hands - What is Phil Ivey DOING?

David "Viffer" Peat is the man in this lineup best known for volatility and being unpredictable. However, it's actually Phil Ivey ...

8 years ago6,764BestPokerVids,

Published 8 years ago

Poker Earnings LEAKED! How Much Money They Really Made!

It's Doug Polk's birthday, and he gets the best gift ever: unlimited access to player earnings at tracking site HighStakesDB.com! ...

8 years ago9,882BestPokerVids,

Published 8 years ago

Doug Polk Wins His First Belt

Doug Polk tries to win THE CAGE outright by eliminating every opponent online on America's CardRoom, but the last kid has alligato...

8 years ago7,572BestPokerVids,

Published 8 years ago

Flipping for One Million Dollars!

In this classic moment on High Stakes Poker, Patrik Antonius and Sam Farha refuse to give up on the pot. They both stubbornly figh...

8 years ago10,134BestPokerVids,

Published 8 years ago

Poker Hands - Samantha Abernathy's Bluff STUNS Mike Dentale

Samantha Abernathy runs a daring bluff against Mike Dentale in this hand from Poker Night In America. Dentale's line is remarkably...

8 years ago5,145BestPokerVids,

Published 8 years ago

Doug Polk - Top 3 Craziest Poker Bluffs

Doug Polk takes a look at three big poker hands where someone tried to run a huge bluff. Not surprisingly, these hands feature som...

8 years ago12,401joeingram1,

Published 8 years ago

Table Talk - Episode 3

Doug Polk and Joe Ingram discuss the latest poker news in a rapid-fire format. This week on Table Talk: Alex Dreyfus, William Kass...

8 years ago4,798BestPokerVids,

Published 8 years ago

Doug Polk on Pokerstar's "Best Online Poker Operator" Award

Still reeling from the GPL Finals, Doug makes the horrifying discovery that PokerStars has won an award for the best online poker ...

8 years ago5,645BestPokerVids,

Published 8 years ago

Doug Polk on the GPL Finals

Doug Polk wakes up in a panic, realizing that he's missing out on the Global Poker League Finals. This is a historic moment in pok...

Live Poker Events, 8 years ago

WSOP Event #2: $10,000 Tag Team No-Limit Hold'em Championship

Not only is the $1k tag team back but the first open event of the WSOP is going to be a $10,000 buy-in version.

Live Poker Events, 8 years ago

Where to Watch the Aria Super High Roller Bowl

It has 56 of the world’s best poker players and leading amateurs paying $300,000 apiece to vie for the $6million first prize and it kicks off tonight.

High-Stakes players Hacked - Doug Polk Explains How

Vanessa Rousso was not the only well-known poker player to have her account hacked this past week

Online Poker , 8 years ago

Doug Polk Wins $271k Live on YouTube

Doug Polk certainly answered his critics with a fantastic take-down of the $271,000 first prize in PartyPoker’s Powerfest.

Doug Polk Moves Stream To YouTube: Can't Compete With Somerville!

Doug 'WCGRider' Polk has admitted defeat in the realm of poker streaming on Twitch, making the announcement to move the bulk of his streaming over to YouTube.

The Twitch Rich List Top 5

It’s the modern phenomenon which has brought poker right up into the 21st Century and today we’re going to make an attempt to fill the top five seats with the biggest TwitchTV poker earners.

Doug Polk Can't Beat Online Poker??? Schwartz Calls Him Out!

Schwartz reiterated his dislike of Polk but also challenged Polk to a heads-up duel this summer in Las Vegas.

The YouTube Rich List Top 5

There just has to be an undercurrent of competition between the scores of vloggers and streamers who vie for our attention these days.

Poker Madness with Doug Polk

Doug Polk hopped in the $25/$50 cash game with Mike Dentale, Brandon Cantu, Shaun Deeb, Kyle Bowker and the ‘Hashtag King’ Salomon Ponte.

Top 3 Jason Mercier Moments

Jason Mercier mixes in the highest spheres of the poker world these days, but it doesn’t mean that he can avoid trouble himself as the following three ’Mercier Moments’ show…