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Revision as of 00:49, 1 May 2017

Doug Polk
Nickname(s)WCGRider, Dan Polk, Pigeon,
Born (1988-12-16) December 16, 1988 (age 36)
World Series of Poker
Bracelet(s)2
Final table(s)4
Money finish(es)10
Highest ITM
Main Event finish
592nd, 2011
European Poker Tour
Money finish(es)1
Information last updated on 26 June 2015.

Douglas Polk (born December 16, 1988)[1] is an American professional poker player. Polk plays under the alias WCGRider,[2] specializing in heads-up No Limit hold'em.

Early life

Polk was born in Pasadena, California, and has loved strategy games ever since he was five, when his father taught him chess. At the age of 15, Polk was a competitive electronic sports player before transitioning to poker in college.[3]

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".[3]

In 2011, he 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 a very small subset of just one type of poker, heads-up no limit. 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.[4]

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.[5] In mid-2015, Doug started the poker training site Upswing Poker with longtime friend and fellow poker professional Ryan Fee.[6]

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.[7]

Polk was involved in an argument with fellow poker player Ben Tollerene over a coaching deal.[8][9]

As of October 2016, his total live tournament earnings exceed $5,000,000.[10]

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)[11] $153,358

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. ^ a b Chad Holloway (2014-03-06). "Joy Ride: Doug "WCGRider" Polk's Road to the Nosebleeds". PokerNews. Retrieved 2014-12-05.
  4. ^ Chad Holloway (2013-10-25). "Doug "WCGRider" Polk Defeats Ben "Sauce1234" Sulsky in $100K Challenge". PokerNews. Retrieved 2014-12-05.
  5. ^ Julio Rodriguez (2014-10-20). "Doug Polk Calls Out Daniel Negreanu For Insulting High-Stakes Poker Community". CardPlayer. Retrieved 2014-12-05.
  6. ^ "Upswing Poker Pros - Meet Us". Up Swing Poker. Retrieved 2016-05-02.
  7. ^ Jason Glatzer (May 11, 2015). "Man Proves Greater Than Machine: Players Win $732,713 Against Bot "Claudico"". Poker News.
  8. ^ 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.
  9. ^ Teemu (2016-09-04). "Doug "WCGRider" Polk Calls Out Ben "Ben86" Tollerene Over a Coaching Deal". HighstakesDB. Retrieved 2017-04-05.
  10. ^ Doug Polk Hendon Mob Database
  11. ^ Nolan Dalla (July 8, 2016). "Doug Polk and Ryan Fee Win Inaugural Tag Team NLHE Championship". wsop.com.