Doug Polk

Doug Polk
Born (1988-12-16) December 16, 1988
World Series of Poker
Bracelet(s) 3
Final table(s) 5
Money finish(es) 11
Highest ITM
Main Event finish		 592nd, 2011
European Poker Tour
Money finish(es) 1

Douglas Polk (born December 16, 1988)[1] is a former American professional poker player. Polk played under the alias WCGRider,[2] specializing in heads-up No Limit hold'em. Polk is also involved in the cryptocurrency community, partially owning CoinCentral[3] and hosting a cryptocurrency YouTube channel.[4]

Early life

Polk was born in Pasadena, California, and has loved strategy games ever since he was five, when his father taught him chess. His family moved from California to Raleigh, North Carolina, during his childhood. In 2007, he graduated from Wakefield High School. At the age of 15, Polk was a competitive Warcraft 3 electronic sports player competing at multiple World Cyber Games tournaments under the name T-Rider before transitioning to poker in college.[5]

Poker career

Polk attended the University of North Carolina Wilmington, but dropped out before graduating to pursue poker full-time. He started playing $0.01/$0.02 stakes at PokerStars and ran a $20 deposit into $10,000. During this time, Polk described himself as a "breakeven rakeback pro".[5]

In 2011, Polk was nearly broke and decided to fully focus on the game. By 2013, he was considered one of the best online cash game players in heads-up no limit hold'em. He played fellow professional poker player Ben "Sauce123" Sulsky in a highly publicized match of 15,000 hands. Polk walked away a $740,000 winner and received an additional $100,000 bonus for winning.[6]

Polk was vocal about Daniel Negreanu's challenge of beating the $25/$50 stakes with two weeks of practice, criticizing him for underestimating his opponents.[7] In mid-2015, Doug started the poker training site Upswing Poker with longtime friend and fellow poker professional Ryan Fee.[8] Polk started a YouTube channel, Doug Polk Poker in 2016, and posts frequently to it.

In 2015, Polk was selected to play heads-up no limit hold'em against A.I. poker bot Claudico, along with professional poker players Dong Kim, Jason Les, and Bjorn Li. Each player was set to play 20,000 hands against Claudico for a team total of 80,000 hands. The human players ended up defeating Claudico for 732,713 chips, with Polk beating the bot for 213,000. The team received a total of $100,000 for the victory.[9]

Polk was involved in an argument with fellow poker player Ben Tollerene over a coaching deal.[10][11]

As of September 2017, his total live tournament earnings exceed $9,400,000.[12]

World Series of Poker

World Series of Poker bracelets
Year Event Prize Money
2014 $1,000 Turbo No Limit Hold'em $251,969
2016 $1,000 Tag Team No Limit Hold'em (with Ryan Fee)[13] $153,358
2017 $111,111 High Roller for One Drop No Limit Hold'em $3,686,865

References

  1. ↑ "Doug Polk". Retrieved 2014-12-05.
  2. ↑ Nutblocker (2013-03-10). "Poker Player Snapshot:Douglas "WCGRider" Polk". Nutblocker. Retrieved 2014-12-05.
  3. ↑ "Doug Polk Crypto Lines Up Heavy Hitters for New Podcast Channel". CoinCentral. 2018-02-28. Retrieved 2018-08-07.
  4. ↑ "Doug Polk Crypto". YouTube. Retrieved 2018-08-07.
  5. 1 2 Chad Holloway (2014-03-06). "Joy Ride: Doug "WCGRider" Polk's Road to the Nosebleeds". PokerNews. Retrieved 2014-12-05.
  6. ↑ Chad Holloway (2013-10-25). "Doug "WCGRider" Polk Defeats Ben "Sauce1234" Sulsky in $100K Challenge". PokerNews. Retrieved 2014-12-05.
  7. ↑ Julio Rodriguez (2014-10-20). "Doug Polk Calls Out Daniel Negreanu For Insulting High-Stakes Poker Community". CardPlayer. Retrieved 2014-12-05.
  8. ↑ "Upswing Poker Pros - Meet Us". Up Swing Poker. Retrieved 2016-05-02.
  9. ↑ Jason Glatzer (May 11, 2015). "Man Proves Greater Than Machine: Players Win $732,713 Against Bot "Claudico"". Poker News.
  10. ↑ Frank Op de Woerd (2016-09-09). "The Railbird Report: Doug Polk and Ben Tollerene's Big Online Brawl". PokerNews Global. Retrieved 2017-04-05.
  11. ↑ Teemu (2016-09-04). "Doug "WCGRider" Polk Calls Out Ben "Ben86" Tollerene Over a Coaching Deal". HighstakesDB. Retrieved 2017-04-05.
  12. ↑ "Doug Polk's profile on The Hendon Mob". The Hendon Mob Poker Database.
  13. ↑ Nolan Dalla (July 8, 2016). "Doug Polk and Ryan Fee Win Inaugural Tag Team NLHE Championship". wsop.com.
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