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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9 years ago5,552BestPokerVids,

Published 9 years ago

Poker Hands - Would You Bluff Patrik Antonius Here?

Patrik Antonius is put to the test as Doug Polk runs a massive bluff in this nosebleed stakes cash game played alongside the Aussi...

9 years ago26,778joeingram1,

Published 9 years ago

Doug Polk vs Ben Tollerene Dispute

Doug Polk and Ben Tollerene recently got into a dispute on the TwoPlusTwo Poker forums over a business/personal relationship gone ...

9 years ago7,398BestPokerVids,

Published 9 years ago

Poker Hands - Could You Fold This Set Against Negreanu?

Poker Hands is a series in which Doug Polk analyzes televised hands and shares his thoughts.Daniel Negreanu, 6-time World Series o...

9 years ago6,493joeingram1,

Published 9 years ago

PokerLife Podcast - With guest Jason Mercier

Jason Mercier joins Joey Ingram for an episode of the PokerLife Podcast. They chat WSOP bracelet bets, Annie Duke, Doug Polks "Bad...

9 years ago1,512joeingram1,

Published 9 years ago

PokerLife Podcast - With Guest Doug Polk

Doug Polk joins Joey Ingram for another episode of his PokerLife Podcast, talking about UpSwing poker, WSOP bracelets, playing hea...

9 years ago2,458joeingram1,

Published 9 years ago

Doug Polk On Tournament Players

Top crusher Doug "WCGRider" Polk, gives his take on tournament poker players during a podcast interview with Joey "ChicagoJoey" In...

9 years ago3,238joeingram1,

Published 9 years ago

PokerLife Podcast - With Guest Doug Polk

High stakes live and online crusher Doug "WCGRider" Polk joins Joey "ChicagoJoey" Ingram for his Pokerlife Podcast. In this interv...

9 years ago51,688BestPokerVids,

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

9 years ago3,003BestPokerVids,

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 ago9,727BestPokerVids,

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...

Hellmuth Pays Campbell’s Main Event Buy-In a Year Early

The expensive, self-imposed punishment by the Poker Brat came about as a result of his horrid speech play.

Hellmuth Admits Mistake And Buys Camby Into 2019 Main Event

Phil Hellmuth turned his Poker Brat nickname on its head last night by admitting his terrible behaviour.

Daniel Negreanu's Vlog Reaches 200,000 Subscribers on YouTube

Poker's all-time money winner in live tournaments has achieved another milestone.

Polk, Mo and Mizzi in Twitter Cheating Spat

Wading into a debate on ‘poker ethics’ with Doug Polk was probably one of the least clever moves Sorel Mizzi has made recently.

The $300Million Woman Taking On The Big Boys

The only female in the SHRB 48-player field took on the best and handed them their asses on a plate.

Live Poker Events, 7 years ago

Hellmuth Turns Up Late And Busts Out Early in $300k SHRB

Phil Hellmuth turned up two hours late for the SHRB last night, burned through half his $300k buy-in within minutes and bust out of the event on the first day.

Doug Polk’s Poker-Playing Pilot Pic Sets Off The Poker Comedians

Doug Polk finding out his flight’s pilot was a member of Upswing Poker lab was a nice coincidence and led to some decent poker funnies on Twitter.

Joe Stapleton is Going from Hosting Sit Down Poker to Stand Up Comedy

Sex, dating, cell phones, the English language, drinking, masturbating, and Shakespeare...

Angle Shooting Argument on Live at the Bike

At what point in a run-it-twice bet can you change your mind?

Polk Pokes Bilzerian and Dan Returns Fire in Twitter Fight

High stakes pro and keyboard warrior Doug Polk and, well, just plain high and newly-confessed drug dealer Dan Bilzerian are trading Twitter insults.