The Rise of Doug Polk: Once ‘Stuck in Hopeless Situation’, Now Winning Big
- Winner of over $3.7 million at this year’s One Drop event, Polk was not always a good player
- ”Down to my last $30, and I just don’t even know what to say.”
- Once believed the key to winning was admitting he was a “losing player”
- Today “everyone is somewhere from a bit to a lot worse (of a player) than I am”
Andrew Burnett of PokerTube takes a look at one of the 2017 WSOP biggest early stars, Pasadena, California-born Doug Polk. Now calling Las Vegas home, it wasn’t always wine and roses for Polk, winner of this year’s Big Drop for over $3.7 million. Polk was once a desperate noob.
This was him in 2007:
“I am starting to feel like I am stuck in a hopeless situation. Every time I begin to do well, I have a huge rollercoaster ride and end up broke again… having to reload. Again I am down to my last 30$, and I just don’t even know what to say.”
And here he is again that same year:
“I really love the game of poker; a lot. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t be here today, and I wouldn’t of [sic] tried to play, and lost money along the way,” says Polk - and his next statement is proof that his thought processes and self-analysis were already working well enough to allow him to improve. "Maybe that’s the biggest key, admitting that I am a losing player and need some help. I don’t think I am a very bad player, just very marginally losing. I’ve had a few just wicked beats along the way (as everyone else has as well), and compounded with what I believe is poor play, the results are amplified.”
Now 28, Polk plays under the alias WCGRider where he specializes in heads-up No Limit hold'em.
Today, Polk tells our friends at PokerListings.com, he doesn’t feel any different about entering a tournament offering up several millions to the 1st place finisher as he does any regular tournament.
“I feel the same,” he says. “I sit down. I play my game. I have my rages. I do my thing. And these guys, they just make mistakes and I capitalize.”
Polk also says he is willing to go up against anybody.
“Everyone is somewhere between a bit to a lot worse than I am.”
- Ace King, Gambling911.com
