Tag: Doug Polk

“If you spend your days doing what you love, it is impossible to fail. So I go about my days trying to bring something into the world that wasn’t in the world before. And then everyone gets furious about it. And then I sit back and say, ‘I did that!'”

Doug Polk?

Nah, Ricky Gervais, but it’s very Polkesque and very apt.

Polk earned his stripes competing in high stakes online cash games, winning more than $2m competing under the moniker “WCGRider.” Later in his career, Polk made a successful hobbyist transition to the live tournament realm winning close to $10m gross, and three World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelets, including $3.7m for taking down the 2017 $111,111 One Drop High Roller.

Still, it’s Polk’s acerbic YouTube style that elevated his status to a broader audience. ‘Doug Polk Poker’ curried favour with 286k subscribers spitting a myriad of poker their way including poker strategy, ‘Polker News’, and applying a tourniquet to Daniel Negreanu’s throat whenever the opportunity arose. That site is about to become a graveyard after Polk announced plans to shut it down, two-years after retiring from the playing side of the game.

Why turn your back on a channel that not only has a large following but is the main artery to his online training site, Upswing Poker?

Well, Polk isn’t doing it to become a phlebotomist.

He’s fallen out of love with poker.

Worse than that.

He likes cholera more than he likes poker.

During the recording of “This Is My Final Poker Video,” Polk said that during his last WSOP Main Event, he deliberately punted his stack off, because, ‘he wanted to lose so badly, so [he} could leave.’

“You should never play poker like that,” Polk said.

Not one for the Upswing Poker lab, that’s for sure.

Polk told his fans that ‘he is done’ with poker, and is not interested in it in ‘any way,’ pointing to the rise in popularity of solvers as one of the primary reasons he would rather shag a hedgehog than remain in the game that set him up for life. 

“Software has killed the fun and spirit of the game for me.” Said Polk.

Polk, who also has a Cryptocurrency YouTube channel with 178k subscribers, is not getting out of the YouTube content business altogether, in fact, for the moment that’s where his future lies.

Instead of grinding out poker videos purely for the sake of promoting new Upswing Poker courses, Polk is leaving the pursuit of money behind, and instead focusing on what he loves. 

The eponymous ‘Doug Polk’ YouTube channel will focus on current affairs and entertainment. The format remains the same, but conversations on how to play pocket jacks, or Daniel Negreanu’s views on rake are as dead as playing the game of pass the handkerchief.  

If anybody wants to step up and replace Polk in his niche, the master had a word of warning. Polk told his masses that it’s harder than ever to make money producing poker content, poking a finger at YouTube’s crackdown on gambling-related content as one of the primary blockages. 

In a twist of irony, the show built on a solid foundation of the stuff ends with people tuning into Polk’s “This Is My Final Poker Video”, only for YouTube to force you to watch an advert for Daniel Negreanu’s Masterclass. 

“I want to be remembered for my time here,” said Polk. “I always tried to do the right thing, and I wanted to help people.”

And with that, one of the most successful poker YouTube channels turned out the lights for the last time. 

poker-masters-header
A woman is standing by the rail. Six feet plus. Stilettos taller than you and I. The type of heel you dream of in those dreams you never reveal to anyone or else face the look that someone gives when they flush the chain when cleaning the toilet and a piece of shit hits the once stiff upper lip.
She has been there for hours, like one of those people who spray paint themselves gold or silver and stand in the middle of the town centre frightening the shit out of kids.
I want to offer her a chair, but I know some burly bruiser will come along and tell her it’s a fire hazard.
Ludicrous.
Her heels are a fire hazard.
I want to send her to Doug Polk’s lab so he can teach her to play poker instead of watching it. Christ, she can’t see anything. I keep my eye out for her man. I want to match him to her in my mind; in those dreams.
Maybe we could train her to win the Poker Masters?
Would the organisers be like, “Shit! Someone get on the phone to Vivienne, we need a dress as purple as a bell end, and we need it right facking now!”
I blame Vanessa Selbst.
Once my favourite player quit the game,  all the poker rooms have been taking liberties.
A purple jacket.
It’s not very #MeToo is it?
Ah well, I harp on.
Poker Central and ARIA Resort & Casino have announced that between Sep 6 – 13 the PokerGO Studios will be the home of the second edition of The Poker Masters.
In the first one, players were invited to compete in four $50,000 buy-in events, and a $100,000 Championship event of sorts. The player accruing the most money during those events was deemed the Poker Masters Champ and given a Purple Jacket.
That Purple Jacket is in the closet of Steffen Sontheimer after the German high stakes ace earned $2,733,000 a little something like this.
Event #1: $50,000 NLHE, finished 4/51 earning $204,000
Event #2: $50,000 NLHE, beats 50 entrants to earn $900,000
Event #4: $50,000 NLHE finished 5/39 earning $117,000
Event #5: $100,000 NLHE beats 36 entrants earning $1,512,000
Daniel Negreanu would later refer to Sontheimer as the best NLHE player in the world. The Poker Masters organisers didn’t think so. They refused to admit Sontheimer into the 2018 Super High Roller Bowl (SHRB). Only when Andrew Robl bailed out at the last minute did Sontheimer get a seat.
It’s a German thing.
Wait.
Yeah.
It was definitely a German thing.
The New Set Up
There are a few changes to note the second time around.
There are seven events, not five, and the buy-in has come down across the board, only for the organisers to equalise things by making all games bar the $50,000 buy-in a double re-entry.
Here is the lineup.
Sep 6: Event #1: $10,000 NLHE (two-days)
Sep 7: Event #2: $25,000 NLHE (two days)
Sep 8: Event #3: $25,000 NLHE (two days)
Sep 10: Event #4: $25,000 PLO (two days)
Sep 11: Event #5: $25,000 NLHE (two days)
Sep 12: Event #6: $25,000 NLHE (two days)
Sep13: Event #7: $50,000 NLHE (three days)
Did you spot the PLO event?
Players competing in the Poker Masters can earn points towards the ARIA High Roller Player of the Year, and as a part of the triumvirate that makes up the High Roller Triple Crown (alongside the US Poker Open & Super High Roller Bowl) the point values increase.
There will be a 30-second shot clock, and five 30-second time banks, daily.
Players who register before 2 pm (PDT) get the benefits of a rake-free event.
All the action from the featured and final tables is streamed live (with a short delay) on PokerGO with the NBC Sports Network broadcasting original content some months after the event ends.
And all women over six feet tall will be barred from standing on the rail.

With Liv Boeree and Igor Kurganov giving half their $274k WSOP win to the REG poker charity they co-founded, Paul Phua looks at a different kind of raising in poker – raising money for charity 

In Casino Royale, James Bond has to win a game of poker to save the world. In real life, poker players are also playing their part in saving the world – through charity poker tournaments.
At the World Series of Poker 2017, Liv Boeree and Igor Kurganov jointly won the $10,000 Tag Team Championship, taking down $273,964 in prize money. A nice twist to their joint victory is that the two players are partners in life as well as in poker. As they kissed for the cameras, it seemed a heart-warming instance of love conquering all. Even more touching, however, is that the power couple have pledged to donate half their WSOP winnings to charity.
Poker coach Doug Polk has also proven the worth of his own teachings by besting 130 players in the $111,111 buy-in High Roller for One Drop. It gives him his third WSOP bracelet, but it is also a big win for charity.

One Drop poker

One Drop was started in 2007 by Guy Laliberté, the founder of Cirque du Soleil and a keen poker player. The non-profit organisation aims to provide access to safe drinking water for all. When One Drop stages a poker tournament, 11% of the buy-in goes to worthy causes. Since these charity poker tournaments are played for the highest stakes, that can be a lot of money.
The last $1 million buy-in Big One for One Drop was in 2014. It made $4,666,662 for the charity – just from one poker tournament! That was won by my friend Dan Colman, whom I often play against in high-stakes cash games. (Watch the Paul Phua Poker School video profile on Dan Colman here, and his interview about online poker vs live poker here.)
I have played in several One Drop tournaments myself. I even won the Monte Carlo One Drop last year. Despite the €752,700 prize, I am still down overall, since the two times I have entered the Big One for One Drop cost $1 million each! But that is the beautiful thing about charity poker tournaments. Even when you lose, you feel like a winner. You just think of all the good that can be done with the money you have contributed. I donate to several worthy causes, but with charity poker tournaments I can pursue my favourite passion at the same time.

Other charity poker tournaments

Following in the giant footsteps of One Drop, a number of poker charities have sprung up. PokerStars has done its bit in the past, helping to raise half a million dollars for Hurricane Haiyan relief, amongst other causes. The World Poker Tour (WPT) has held numerous charity events, pulling in celebrity hosts such as Tiger Woods and Mel Gibson. The Charity Series of Poker raises money for a variety of good causes, and is backed by pros such as Mike Matusow, Greg Merson and Mike Mizrachi. The Triton Series, of which I have been a strong supporter since its inception, gives 100% of its profits to charity.
Returning to the WSOP’s tag team couple, Liv Boeree and Igor Kurganov, the $136,982 they are giving away will go to REG (Raising for Effective Giving). This is an organisation they co-founded which encourages poker players to donate 2% of everything they earn to charity. Ambassadors include John Juanda, Cate Hall and Erik Seidel.
Liv Boeree put it well at REG’s launch in 2014: “I’ve been playing poker for a long time and thankfully, I’ve been reasonably successful doing so. With that came a wealth of amazing opportunities the game has given me, from travel to experiences to meeting heroes from many industries. But at the same time I’ve become increasingly aware of a growing emptiness I’ve been feeling, and it’s one I’m not alone with – it’s the question of what we, as poker players, are actually contributing long-term to society.”

Fundraising through poker

Many professional poker players struggle: they overplay, they burn out. Sometimes they take a sabbatical from the game, go travelling, and return refreshed. But perhaps what some need instead is the sense of a noble purpose beyond their own self-interest.
So if you ever start to feel hollow inside as you sit at the poker table or computer screen, consider playing for some higher goal such as a charity. It might just save your game – and the world.
[dt_sc_callout_box type=’type1′]
[dt_sc_h2 class=’aligncenter’]Charity poker tournament organisers[/dt_sc_h2]
One Drop. One Drop poker tournaments donate 11% of the buy-in to the charity, and all players at the WSOP are encouraged to give 1% of earnings.
The Charity Series of Poker. Stages tournaments in aid of charities such as Three Square Food Bank and Habitat for Humanity.
World Poker Tour (WPT) Foundation. Hosts a series of ongoing philanthropic poker events under the title WPT Playing for a Better World.
Triton Series. Donates 100% of profits to charities including The Red Cross and Project Pink.
[/dt_sc_callout_box]