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’.

Read More
6 years ago7,148BDJB,

Published 6 years ago

Mike Dentale Vs Cate Hall GRUDGE MATCH - Part 2

The conflict between Cate Hall and Mike Dentale continues from the SugarHouse Casino as the pair continue to settle their greivanc...

6 years ago16,251BDJB,

Published 6 years ago

Live at the Bike - Poker Players FIGHT Over $100,000!

It's the Live at the Bike live cash game, with one of the biggest pots of the week, and Matt Berkey faces a tough river decision a...

6 years ago2,684BDJB,

Published 6 years ago

Doug Polk - Getting Some Things Off my Chest

Doug Polk lets it all out in this personal and up front podcast, talking about different things that have been on his mind about h...

6 years ago3,646BDJB,

Published 6 years ago

How to Win MILLIONS Playing NLHE

Upswing Poker's newest coach Andres "Educa-Poker" Artinano joins Doug Polk to talk about a number of things in the poker world, in...

6 years ago9,434BDJB,

Published 6 years ago

Who is the BEST Cash Game Player?

Online poker crusher Andres 'educa-p0ker' Artinano joins Doug Polk for a power rankings updates as Andres gives us his thoughts as...

6 years ago4,774BDJB,

Published 6 years ago

Mike Dentale Vs Cate Hall GRUDGE MATCH - Part 1

Part one of the historic grudge battle between Mike Dentale and Cate Hall after their rivalry and hate took over social media! The...

6 years ago6,139BDJB,

Published 6 years ago

Doug Polk - Quitting This Stupid Game Forever!

Sometimes enough is enough, and with lots of interests elsewhere, it's best to move on to bigger and more lucrative things, even i...

6 years ago9,721BDJB,

Published 6 years ago

Doug Polk - "Negreanu Is Being A Little Bitch!"

During a recent podcast between Doug Polk and Joey Ingram, Doug is fired up about Pokerstars and in particular Daniel Negreanu, an...

6 years ago14,945BDJB,

Published 6 years ago

Esfandiari Gets Pocket Kings and an OUTRAGEOUS Deal!

Doug Polk looks at a hand from the new Poker After Dark series, where Antonio Esfandiari lays the trap with his pocket kings again...

6 years ago19,647BDJB,

Published 6 years ago

Esfandiari Is FLOORED by Bill Perkins!

It's the new 'Poker After Dark' big cash game and Big One For One Drop Winner Antonio Esfandiari does battle with billionaire busi...

JNandez Releases a New Vlog…and It’s a Snoozefest

Fernando Habegger has just released the first of his new vlog series

Is the Durrrr Challenge Over?

The hotly-disputed challenge between Dwan and Cates is over if a conversation posted on the 2+2 forum is to be believed

Partypoker’s Anatoly Filatov Flying High After Sochi Main Event Victory

PokerTube caught up with the live and online crusher

Polk’s List of Boxing Challengers Set to Grow

Let’s see who among Polk's enemies would be first in line to take a pop at the divisive YouTube star!

Antonio Esfandiari to Fight Kevin Hart – For Real!

Finally the poker world has found a boxing match worthy of Madison Square Garden.

Daniel Negreanu Jumps to Alec Torelli’s Defence in Cheating Row

Daniel Negreanu took to Twitter to defend serially-accused angleshooter Alec Torelli.

Sodapoppin’s Blackjack Streaming Outguns Poker’s Finest

Enter the virtual blackjack world of Chance ‘sodapoppin’ Morris and prepare to be amazed..!

JNandez Offers Doug Polk $50k Boxing Match

Habegger decided he’d had enough of Doug Polk’s bullying and challenged him to a $50k winner-takes-all boxing match

JNandez Reveals Truth About UpSwing Poker Deal Failure

Fernando ‘JNandez87’ Habegger produced a detailed 1 hour video

JNandez87 in Hand-Knitted Scarf Debt Controversy!

Online PLO crusher Fernando ‘JNandez87’ Habegger was publicly accused of not paying his debts.