Doug Polk is one of the most revered names in the Poker circle. Even though he might not seem like it because he is quiet in person, but he has been a nightmare for his competitions for as long as he has been playing. Under the alias ‘WGCRider’, Polk has made quite a name and fortune for himself all thanks to his massively successful poker career. But how did it all began?
Where it all began
The 33-year-old was born in Pasadena, California on 16th December 1988. He was your average boy next door growing up. He learned chess from his father when he was only five years old. The strategic nature of the game attracted Polk very much. He also started playing Warcraft 3 when he was in college, which was another dive into the strategic gameplay genre. His alias WGCRider also comes from this game as he used this name while playing the tournament World Cyber Games (WGC).
Polk went to college at the University of North Carolina and during this time he created an online poker account where he used to play low-stakes games. At first, he only deposited a mere $20 and pretty much only played at the 1 cent or 2 cents tables. But his long-standing love for real-time strategy games came in handy as he discovered his obvious talent in poker and decided to take a risk.
Rise to Fame
Doug Polk finally gathered the courage and played at a high-stakes table to test out his skills. To his surprise, he cashed out $10,000. He never looked back again. He dropped out of college to play poker full time and it only took about a year or two for him to rise to fame as a gifted poker player. His decision to chase the ultimate poker dream was right as he won hundreds of thousands of dollars in the high-stakes poker games and everyone took notice. He became a high roller very quickly as he is almost single-handedly dominated the niche of online heads up. He actually became so good at online heads up that people did not want to go up against him anymore.
Notable Career Moments
In 2013, Doug Polk found a worthy opponent called Ben Sulsky who goes by the moniker ‘Sauce123’. They played an exhausting and highly popular game that went on for 15,000 hands. Polk won this game and cashed in a prize of a whopping $740,000 and also another additional $100,000. This huge cash prize put him right up there with other sensational poker players of all time. But Polk is not just a great online poker player. He has also played countless live poker games and won a tremendous amount of money. His total prize pool is close to $10 million.
But Polk is not only known for winning money, but people also respect him as a poker player as well. He is known for playing the game No Limit Hol’em and has won countless tournaments through this game. He has also won 3 WSOP bracelets which are one of the most sacred prizes for a professional poker player.
Polk is a sensation to this day even though he has announced his retirement from the professional poker scene in 2018 through a YouTube video. His reason for retirement was his growing weariness of the poker circle and the fact that most of his poker friends have already retired from the professional scene.
Where is he now
Even though Polk has retired from the professional poker circle, he has not retired from Poker. He and his poker friend Ryan Fee started a poker training website called Upswing Poker. This website helps people learn and play poker through a lot of strategies and courses. Not only this, but he is also a popular internet personality. He has a famous youtube account and several dedicated followers who love him. This revered player, even retired continues to inspire his fans and young poker players to follow their dreams.
Conclusion
Poker is a game of nerves and strategies. Being able to master this game in itself is a big feat. For someone like Polk, with no prior training or experience, it was hard to leave behind his life to pursue a full-time poker career. The talented player is an inspiration for every young poker player out there. And he is respected amongst the best of the best players of all time.
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